Mexican immigration revitalizes E. Harlem
The Mexican influx has revitalized neighborhoods such as El Barrio in Harlem, where the Mexican presence is vivid even as the one-time Puerto Rican stronghold remains that community’s symbolic heart.
Nilda Perez, a Puerto Rican, is married to a Mexican and has Mexican colleagues at 116 Flowers Shop in El Barrio. She feels a great kinship with Mexicans, and the well-trod immigrant footsteps they are following.
“They came to do what they really wanted to do. It was to work hard, to get money to send to their families.” said Perez, who remembers when the shop’s block between Second and Third avenues was barren — until the Mexican influx began. “Little by little, you would see taquerias, floristerias, restaurants … they brought their culture and food.”
Indeed, the Mexican presence in New York before 1990 was far from palpable. Back then, New York was hardly renowned for its authentic Mexican cuisine and Cinco de Mayo was no household word.
“You’d see a Mexican and you’d think they were your brother,” said Guadalupe Aguirri, 50, speaking of the old El Barrio. Her shop, Little Mexico Meat Grocery on Third Avenue, began as a Dominican bodega before its Mexican metamorphosis.
Source: amNY
Stumble It!
This brings me great joy!