Seth Kugel - Nueva York: The Complete Guide to Latino Life in the Five Boroughs

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C ONTENTS

A CKNOWLEDGMENTS

The vast amount of information needed for a project of this size cannot possibly be contained in one or even two brains. When we needed a Honduran restaurant, valiant beer tasters, company for dinner in Brooklyn or a club in the Bronx, or tips on the best tacos, our friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and plenty of random and perplexed strangers were eager to help (and argue). To all those who led or followed us down the Latin path, thank you.

Seth: Carolina M., Carolina B., Carolina P., Carolina S. and (the other) Caroline G., Csar, Eze, Zack, Natlia Rapha, Alejandra, Andria, Eva, Timbo, Karina, Angie, Heidi, Bryant, Julio, Lorena, Gilda, Angel at the Point, Manny P. At the Times, Frank, Stuart, Dana, Mike, C.J., Tina, Vicki, Lynda, and especially Connie for getting this project off the ground. The Ramos family, the Escoto family, and the third-graders at P.S. 156 who taught me, dique, Spanish and were my first Latino sources. Finally, Sue Shapiro for launching Chapter 1 of my writing career, and my parents for writing the introduction and still editing (with a light touch) to this day.

Carolina: My family, first and always. Henry M., Henry S. & Sondra, Lilliam, Raquel, Julissa, Greg Caz, Juleyka, Jane Delgado, Maite and Albor at the Daily News , Roberto L. & Michelle G., Daisy Cocco de Filippis, Daisy D., Marco M., Michele Wucker, Ilana Miller, Gloria M., Neyda M., Sandra Garca, Jorge C., Carmelita Tropicana, Mark Schwartz, la tocaya Miranda, Carmen Ramos, and Mary Gatereaux.

Carolina and Seth: Our editor, Tom Mercer. Our photographers, game for anything: Betty, Mariela, Mike, and Rebeca. Our lawyer and consiglieri, Fernando Ramrez. Pinch-hitting researcher Nuria Net. And, last but not least, image wranglers and cheerleaders Neil and Johnny at Parlante Productions.

I NTRODUCTION: L ATINS IN M ANHATTAN (AND Q UEENS, AND THE B RONX )

The clock radio alarm goes off to the intimate, comforting baritone of Seor Bolero, a DJ introducing a melancholy Mexican love song from the 1950s. You pad over to the shower and lather up with Lafier almond milk shampoo from the Dominican Republic. After putting on Leonisa brand Colombian underwear, you slip into Yes Brazil jeans and Mexican cowboy boots and head out for a caf con leche . Its Sunday, and youre meeting an out-of-town friend who has asked you to show him a different side of the city. Since youve been exploring Latin culture with this trusty guidebook, its settled. Destination: Nueva York.

You start at El Malecn on the Upper West Side for the Dominican breakfast of champions, fried eggs and mang , a hearty plantain mash topped with sauted onions. Then its over to El Taller Latinoamericano, where you take Spanish classes during the week, to show him the colorful Mexican- and Brazilian-inspired sculpture of resident artist Angelo Romano. Next, you head to Brooklyn to the ball fields in Red Hook Park, where you spend the afternoon watching soccer and noshing on Ecuadorian ceviche and other goodies.

You call a livery cab and head to Jackson Heights, Queens, to shop the citys two most diverse shopping strips, only one block apart: Roosevelt and Thirty-seventh avenues. Later, toting soccer shirts and alfajores , the caramel-filled Argentine cookie sandwiches, its on to the 7 train, for the trip to East Harlem, aka El Barrio.

El Museo del Barrio is already closed for the day, so you admire the street murals by James de la Vega and other Puerto Rican artists, and visit Justo Botnica to pick up some candles. After a quick drink at Camaradas, its on to the M3 bus to Washington Heights to join the sidewalk audience gathered to hear the Soneros de la 171 play old-fashioned son music. You consider your choices for dinner. Pupusas at one of the local Salvadoran restaurants? A crispy Cuban sandwich at El Mamb? Instead, you head across the river to the Bronx for Honduran baleadas , a mess of beans and cream and meat in a thick tortilla, at La Orquidea restaurant.

The plan for later was to go dancing at Ibiza, a Dominican lounge in the Bronx, but by now youre exhausted. So its back home to watch Raising Victor Vargas , a touching teen romance set on the Lower East Side. You break out the Mexican chile-covered potato chips with two bottles of Club-brand Ecuadorian pilsner and relax. The nightlife will still be there next weekend.

W HY D O Y OU N EED A G UIDE TO L ATINO N EW Y ORK ?

As our hypothetical friend just proved, you can lead an amazingly Latin existence in New York City. Okay, not everyone has her stamina, but whether youre a regular visitor to the city or a Latino raised here, were betting you had never heard of many of the activities she packed into the day. And were betting at least some of them piqued your interest.

Thats where Nueva York comes in. Although individual New Yorkers and visitors, Latino and non, are familiar with some aspects of Latino life here, no one has combed the city and put all the findings together in a guidebook, until now.

Theres no better city for it, either. People of Hispanic descent in New York City make up one-quarter of the citys population. Another half-million live in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tristate area. And in contrast to many other U.S. cities, Latinos here are amazingly diverse and growing more so, as Mexicans and Ecuadorians stream in to add to the strong Caribbean base of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, as well as a thriving Colombian community. There are, arguably, more variations on the Latin theme here than in any other city in the world (and that includes Latin America).

There is another reason we wanted to do this. Although Latin American immigrants and their descendants have made La Gran Manzana their home in appreciable numbers since the nineteenth century, their history and culture is often relegated to a footnote in New Yorks tales of the city. Consider this guide a 228-page correction.

W HAT I S T HERE TO S EE AND D O IN L ATINO N EW Y ORK ?

We cover restaurants, of course, from Roosevelt Avenue, one of the seven culinary wonders of the world, to downtown Manhattan, where the foods not so bad either. We take you to street vendors, explain what theyre selling, and convince you its okay to eat it; take you shopping; and give you some basics on Latin cooking. Theres music: not just where to dance but where you can build a CD collection and where to get a shekere and a gira to play along with it.

Then theres the vibrant Latin arts scene, from museums to theaters to cultural centers to public walls. Theres a wonderful body of literature, both fiction and nonfiction, about Latino life in New York. There are movies to fill out your Netflix queue and books to put on your library card. And sports, language classes, domino tables, live goats, community organizations, soccer jerseys, bookstores, and Guatemalan religious festivals (yes, festivals, plural).

H OW D O Y OU K NOW IF Y OU N EED A G UIDE TO L ATINO N EW Y ORK ?

Youll find Nueva York useful if you are: