The Puerto Rican Lower East Side
In “Bacalaitos & Fireworks,” Arlene Gottfried chronicles the Lower East Side’s once-vibrant Puerto Rican community, rendering it with love, humor and warmth.
When I first came across Arlene Gottfried’s vintage pictures of Puerto Rican New York, “Bacalaitos & Fireworks,” I chuckled. Her reference to the siren call of a Lower East Side street vendor hawking codfish fritters and firecrackers struck me as having all the ingredients for a Fourth of July party (just add Bacardi). My second reaction was nervousness — given the area’s devastation from poverty and drugs during the 1970s and 1980s, how would the photographer portray this world?
With love and humor, it turns out.