Why do ethnic neighborhoods change?

[citychik]

Originally Posted by Bronxguyanese

East Harlem during the late 19th century was mostly Cuban area. Jose Marti spent most of his time in east Harlem. By the 1930s waves of puerto ricans migrated to East Harlem, and later on East Harlem became a mostly Puerto Rican area of Manhattan with the traces of Cuban identity vanished. Today in East Harlem lots of Mexicans are moving in and the Puerto Ricans are moving out. Good example of Mexican American culture in East Harlem are the Mexican Restaurents which I love and the Cinco De Mayo Festival.

I'm not sure that calling East Harlem "mostly Cuban" back then would be correct. Perhaps "mostly Caribbean" would be more accurate.

I've done a fair amount of genealogical research of the area (my gggparents and collateral lines immigrated to East Harlem in the 1870's and 80's). It seems to have long been a pretty ethnically mixed neighborhood, and I learned from ship manifests and census reports that in the late 19th C. to at least the 1920's/30's, East Harlem was home to LOTS of Virgin Islanders (from both British and Danish West Indies). Prominent Virgin Islanders did play a large part in the Harlem Renaissance a little further west. My ancestors were from St. Croix and St. Thomas, which became the USVI in 1917.

Anyway, in East Harlem, the Caribbean presence was strong, but in addition to the Danish and English surnames (usually Virgin Islanders), we also see many Irish, Italian, German, Hungarian, and other eastern European names. I've been told East Harlem was a very vibrant community with lots of opportunities, businesses, libraries, banks, hospitals, movie theaters, etc. Regarding the Italian community, it was much larger than just Pleasant Ave.; it was called Little Italy.

My family moved around to different apartments in East Harlem, mostly around 122nd and 124th and 2nd and 3rd Ave's, and also some addresses in Yorkville, during the late 1800's and early 1900's; Every building they lived in had a very diverse mix of ethnicities and nationalities. My ggfather married a woman whose family was mixed-race Danish West Indian like himself, but one of his siblings married an Italian-American, another married a Mexican-American, and another married someone of Irish-English descent. They all left the area in the mid-20's and 30's.

Also, I always thought the big wave of Puerto Ricans moved there in the late 1940s-50s. I know that when they started arriving in large numbers, most of those of European descent coincidentally were moving away. When they built the projects up there, they tore down a huge number of businesses, which didn't return, and so the new East Harlem residents had it much harder than previous generations. The protests that happened in the 70's were spurred on by a lack of garbage collection in what had now become known as Spanish Harlem. I mention that because I think that may be one of the problems in Chinatown (that, and not enough building and health inspections). It's so easy to say that a neighborhood is dirty, and wonder why people will live that way, but then you have to look at how well the community is served by the city.

Funny, how the term "East Harlem" has again become popular -- now that the neighborhood is being (slowly) gentrified. When I moved to NYC in 1983, it was the Barrio or Spanish Harlem and we were cautioned never to venture above 96th Street.

[Fred314X]

Now that we've come as far as eight pages and more than 70 postings, perhaps it is finally time to ask some questions: what, exactly, is an "ethnic neighborhood?" Are there any neighborhoods in the city that aren't "ethnic?" If so, which subset of human beings doesn't qualify as ethnic?