The Puerto Rican Lower East Side – The New York Times

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Trent
in

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.

via Lens Blog: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/arlene-gottfried-puerto-rican-lower-east-side-new-york-photos/?&_r=0&module=Slide&region=SlideShowTopBar&version=SlideCard-6&action=Escape&contentCollection=Blogs&slideshowTitle=The%20Puerto%20Rican%20Lower%20East%

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.