TThe store’s appearance is simple, and the windows are uncovered, so you can see the store from the street. Upon entering the open layout, visitors are immediately given an idea of the space’s intent by photographs placed in white frames on the wall facing the entrance. This is an image by Maris Momber, a German photographer who documented the Loisaida community in the 1970s and his 1980s. “Loisaida” is Spanglish for the Lower East Side, a nod to the area’s Puerto Rican and Latino heritage. The image is from the 1970s. There is graffiti in the background, a Puerto Rican woman stands on the street with her hands on her hips, and two children behind her, all staring at the camera. On the right, Hector Laveau-esque in a collared shirt, sleeves rolled up, one hand in his pocket, smooth brown hair, all white, dressed in all the swag in the world. There are men.
La Sala de Pepe, a photo frame shop owned by Angel Ortiz, one of Keith Haring’s collaborators, is now photo espacio A social club located on Avenue C in the heart of Alphabet City. It’s run by Jose “Pepe” Flores, a local Puerto Rican, and Lynn Pentecost, an anthropologist from the Lower East Side. In Pepe and Lin’s words, “its immediate purpose is to stem the tide of cultural amnesia in the neighborhood.”
They describe it as “a new kind of social club and art space where past and future literally meet.” “We want to create a place where people can meet and talk and preserve the spirit of Loisaida,” Pepe says. “A way to combat historical forgetfulness: Neighborhood social spaces where people of all ages can talk and listen to music.”Alphabet City is home to many long-standing Latino communities, including the Nuyorican Poets Café and the Loisida Center, an interdisciplinary community development organization. Although the group has a rich history of existence, the continuing effects of gentrification threaten not only the places people frequent, but also the people themselves, with ethnic erasure.
fight against gentrification
IIn late 2021, Casa Adela, a popular Puerto Rican restaurant that has been open for nearly 50 years and located across the street from La Sala de Pepe, received a massive 400 percent rent increase from its landlord. This was around the same time Pepe and Lin opened their new space. How can you open a Latino social club in gentrified Alphabet City, where rent can be as much as $7,000 a month?
The idea for “La Sala de Pepe” came from Pepe’s 10,000 music collection, which has been stored for decades in his apartment above the current social club. Over the years, scholars, students, and community members have contacted him to visit the archives. This led Pepe to think about how to make the collection more accessible. When the commercial space below the apartment became available, he called his friend of 40 years, Lynn, and Las Salla de His Pepe was born.
Pepe’s building is actually that of the Housing Development Fund Corporation, or HDFC Co-op. HDFC is an affordable homeownership option in New York City, created in 1966 when the city requisitioned thousands of abandoned buildings. Some buildings in poor neighborhoods like the Bronx and Alphabet City were sold to tenants with the goal of stabilizing rents for long-term, low-income residents.
While the residential units in these buildings are regulated, commercial space in New York City is not. But in a sort of universal adjustment, Pepe’s building management, a neighborhood housing activist, wanted the space to be put to good use and to make possible the construction of La Sala de Pepe. offered a decent monthly rent.
The commercial space occupied by Casa Adela is also part of HDFC’s buildings, but the flip side is that many of HDFC’s have maintenance and cash flow issues. The board sought to increase the rent from $1,350 to $6,750 for several reasons, including the lack of rent increases over time and maintenance needs. After uproar from the local community and back-and-forth negotiations, the board and Casa Adela reached a mutual agreement. Unfortunately, other Latino organizations in New York City, particularly social clubs, have not been as successful in fighting forced displacement over the decades.
Latin Social Clubs: A Rich Cultural History
Latino Social Club has a long history as a cultural hub and community development center, helping generations of immigrants integrate into New York City life. La Nacional Spanish Benevolent Society is the city’s oldest immigrant club and is considered the beginning of a thriving culture of social institutions for Latinos in New York.
Now located on West 14th Street but originally opened on the Lower East Side in 1868, La Nacional was founded by a small group of Spaniards who wanted to create a social space for newcomers to the city. I did. Given Spain’s direct links with Latin America and the Caribbean, La Nacional has also become a safe haven for Latin American immigrants and, since the club’s founding, has fostered solidarity between Spanish and Latin American residents. .
The decades from the 1950s to the 1970s, known as the Golden Age of Latino immigration to New York City, saw the emergence of numerous Latino social clubs throughout the city. Waves of artists, poets, musicians, intellectuals, workers, and families filled the streets of Spanish Harlem, the Lower East Side, and parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn. Although the city is diverse, it is not entirely enthusiastic about foreigners, and Latino immigrants experienced widespread systemic racism, discrimination, and violence. As with La Nacional, self-preservation was essential to the formation of social clubs.
At a time when cities were abandoning, defunding, or refusing to invest in these communities, Latinos invested in building and developing their own communities. Many large and small establishments were built in response to social and economic instability, such as El Caribe CC and Tonitaz in Brooklyn (1973) and El Morel Campos Social Club and Club Social Salinas in Manhattan. A Latin social club has opened. Spanish Harlem gave rise to the Devils (1940s), the Old San Juan Social Club, the civic association La Reña (1940-1990s), and Washington Heights founded El Club Deportivo Dominicano (1966). The Bronx was home to Tu Casa Social Club, Happy Land (1958-1990), El Club Cubano Inter Americano (1945-2006), and El Habana Social Club.
Social clubs were more than just spaces to socialize, play dominoes, host dance contests, and teach salsa. They also helped communities raise money for their members, fight on the political front, and gain access to housing, jobs, and food. For example, Toñita’s, known as Williamsburg’s last Caribbean social club, still provides free hot meals to the community every night. These clubs provided a way for Latin Americans to protect themselves from xenophobia, maintain dignity, and celebrate their culture and traditions with their communities.
But while the Latino community was building reinforcements, a bigger monster was taking shape: the commodification of housing. The golden age of Latino immigration was limited by a period of severe economic crisis that gripped the country from the early 1970s to the early 1980s. Inflation reached an all-time high, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to nearly 20 percent, the stock market lost nearly half its value in less than two years, economic growth slowed, and unemployment exceeded 10 percent. The products that once made money on the stock market have plummeted in value, forcing vulture capitalists to find new investment vehicles. One of those means was housing.
In the late 1970s, housing development proliferated across the country as local governments made concessions and partnerships with real estate. New York City was no exception. A period of aggressive gentrification was underway, with real estate investor speculation creeping into historically underfunded areas like the Lower East Side, combined with public policy to drive up land prices. Over time, rents rose for tenants, including commercial space occupied by Latino social clubs, and those who did not have stable rents were displaced.
Most of the once-thriving social clubs now no longer exist, along with their rich cultural history, memories and important mechanisms of community support. La Sala de Pepe is now part of this heritage of social club and art venue, creating an important space in which Latinidad can be celebrated, already after successive waves of gentrification. A way for people of color to gather in areas that have become largely inaccessible, while also being a safe haven for those left behind.
La Sala de Pepe
TThe new social club opened in December 2021 and has since welcomed not only community members to sit and chat, but also university students and academics to explore the recording archives. The venue also features exhibitions such as “Charlie Rosario: A Tribute to the Drums,” about the Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican artist and musician. Films such as “Last One Standing,” the story of Adela, the founder of Casa Adela, will be screened. It also hosted cultural events such as “Women in Bomba: Bomba and Beyond,” adding an element of public education.
La Sala is home to many existing and new Latino cultural institutions in Alphabet City. These are a vibrant collection of cultural centers, nonprofit arts organizations, community gardens, and small businesses such as the Nuyorican Poets Café, Loisaida Center, Casa Adela, and Piragua Art Space. , La Plaza Cultural Garden, and people like Pepe and Lin are all working to combat the wave of cultural amnesia in their communities.
“Despite the heavy influx of real estate capital, Loisaida remains a vibrant community,” says Lin. “Art is a form of empowerment and a source of great resilience that has been passed down through generations.”
Damari Gonzalez She is of Puerto Rican descent from Brooklyn and Williamsburg and goes by she/her/her. She is an identity and culture writer who writes her opinions, analysis, and ideas through stories about everyday life experiences to spark deep conversations and raise awareness. She has been published in her The Latinx Project at New York University, NBC Latino, and others. Damalee holds a master’s degree in history and urban sociology from the New York State Graduate Center. Follow her on Instagram @damalyscorner.