The 1950s were the most important, productive, and vital years in American history. Many fundamental social and technological changes revolutionized American society during the Golden Age. World War II was over. The American economy exploded. Industrialization reached its peak. There was an expansion of higher education, suburbanization, and government assistance to veterans in the years after World War II. These conditions provided favorable factors for economic advances. Aimed at the urban working class, who generally wanted a better lifestyle for themselves, the intensive construction of thousands of residential houses began. These suburban homes reflected the new domestic life of postwar prosperity. Not only was it a boom year of bountiful rewards, it was also a decade that gave birth to rock and roll, a decade in which young actors like James Dean, Marlon Brando, Sal Mineo, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis became the big favorites and roles. models among the youth. American icons.
So, as significant changes and economic improvements were taking place across America, what was happening in the East Harlem, New York area? During the 1940s and 1950s, the East Harlem area was a mix of Irish, Italians, Puerto Ricans, and a small percentage of people from the Jewish community. There were also some African American families and some other ethnic groups as well, but the population was minimal. However, it was enough to create an atmosphere of tension, especially after the Great Depression and World War II years. This tension progressively intensified within the mixed ethnic groups. East Harlem contained the largest established Italian community, a community that grew substantially during the 1920s through the 1930s and 1940s.
As a result of commercial air travel taking off in 1945, a one-way ticket from San Juan to New York suddenly cost less than $ 50, so the steady stream of Puerto Rican migration that had begun during World War I reached a level. vast population; Around 70,000 to 250,000 people in the years 1940-1950. As Puerto Ricans continued to move to East Harlem, they invaded already established communities and began to form their own distinctive neighborhoods, establishing their own values, traditions, and cuisine. By the 1950s, Italians and Puerto Ricans were numerically dominating the East Harlem area. Puerto Ricans became such a significant and visible presence in East Harlem during the 1950s that the area earned the well-known name “Spanish Harlem.” At the same time, the Puerto Rican people began to saturate the East Harlem district. Both Italians and Puerto Ricans found themselves in a constant battle, competing for housing, as well as educational and employment resources.
Young Puerto Ricans were reluctant to enter the workforce, not only after seeing their parents discriminated against, but also after witnessing their parents’ disappointment. Applicants were required to have some knowledge of the English language, even for unskilled work. Unemployed parents, in turn, would pressure their teenage son to help. These young men knew from experience that if they followed in their father’s footsteps, it would only encourage more of the same consequences to occur in their own lives. They would end up working unskilled and poorly paid jobs with no possibility of promotion.
“Hell no man that’s not for me!” they would say.
It was easier to join or organize a gang, which gave them a sense of worth, belonging and respect, something that most of them could not achieve at home. Gang life meant solidarity and toughness in a tough and discriminatory neighborhood.
Gang violence was a terrifying reality during the 1940s and 1950s. East Harlem’s atmosphere turned explosive. Rumors among black dragons, Italian dukes, Puerto Rican viceroys, and Italian red wings broke out daily. Extensive and endless battles were fought to establish and maintain dominance and honor among Puerto Ricans and Italian teenagers. They dominated the already tense area of East Harlem. These rumors were started by any group that was calling for a fight, whether it was over the limits of their territory, making claims on streets, parks, proving their manhood or, as usual, petty things like roaring over their ladies.
The girls had the support of the gang, and if any of them were insulted, which in many cases the stories were fabricated only to provoke a war, their honor would be defended. Even if the gang knew she was a whore. The Greasers, between the ages of fourteen and nine, strutted chest out, carrying firearms, ready to shoot just in case, baseball bats and knives at the ready. It made them feel really macho, smart and tough, flaunting their readiness for a good fight, knowing that no matter how scared they were, they wouldn’t admit it. Racial insults were thrown back and forth starting fights, often resulting in death or hospitalization, with heads smashed and severe, crippling injuries. Young men cut by knives, hit by tire chains or shot by bullets. Some gang members hoarded piles of milk bottles filled with gravel, bricks, cinder blocks, scrap iron, and whatever else they could use as missiles and hid them on rooftops before a fight. Everything was fair without rules.
The familiar sound of rhythmic Latin music blasting through open windows and apartment doors in Spanish Harlem would penetrate the ears of reluctant residents and passersby. Puerto Ricans have always loved their music. For many of the Puerto Ricans in “El Barrio,” dancing was a distraction from the frustrations of their daily life. No matter how tired they felt or how miserable their lives were, as soon as their bodies reacted to the frenetic rhythm, they rejuvenated themselves, literally dancing until they fell.
Weekends were his time to hit the local discos. While the musicians played their instruments to the best melodies of Latin music, the partners, their skin flushed with sweat, spun around the dance floor, spinning around each other. Her hips and shoulders swayed as her feet beat the rhythm of the music. Young busty Latinas warmed up the atmosphere as they moved seductively, swinging their curvy hips to the beat of the drums. Every now and then, a flirtatious comment from a drunk dancer triggered a verbal confrontation between the two men. This would lead to an absolute street fight full of knives and broken bottles, while others would rush to defend them.
Those who didn’t go to the nightclubs stayed home and had their own wild and noisy parties. These parties would continue until the wee hours of the morning, much to the annoyance of the neighbors who wanted to sleep.
It was becoming increasingly difficult for Jewish and Italian vendors as Puerto Rican grocery stores, barber shops, religious stores, and restaurants began to proliferate throughout East Harlem. Tensions accelerated as frustrated Jewish and Italian merchants witnessed the change of their customers, who now turned to their competitors. After several verbal and physical confrontations, including a riot, many of the Jewish merchants decided to keep their stores, but they adapted to the new inhabitants, willingly accepting Puerto Rican businessmen, even learning Spanish. As a result of the projects, East Harlem changed, with a greater presence of African American and Latino populations. To some extent, the elimination of 1,500 retail stores left 4,500 people unemployed. Thus, a steady migration of Italian-Americans began to move away from East Harlem, to private property in the suburban areas of New York City.
Despite their fierce antagonisms, and in defense of ethnic identity during those volatile years from the 1920s to the 1950s, these two distinct groups, Italians and Puerto Ricans, remained mixed, but in different ways, in East’s texture. Harlem.
By comparison, East Harlem is now a mere shadow of what it was in the 1950s. With the arrival of a large number of new and diverse immigrants who have made East Harlem their home, can we safely assume that this territory, a Once turbulent, has it finally reached a plateau of normalcy and peaceful coexistence? Or will more prejudices replace the old ones? What is your opinion?
