Download Free Spanish Harlem Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Spanish Harlem and write the review.

Spanish Harlems musical development thrived between the 1930s and 1980s in New York City. This area was called El Barrio by its inhabitants and Spanish Harlem by all others. It was a neighborhood where musicians from the Caribbean or their descendants organized musical groups, thereby adding to the diaspora that began in Africa and Spain. The music now called salsa had its roots in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo, and it continued developing on another island: Manhattan.
Each year, former residents of Spanish Harlem return for "Old Timer's Day," a celebration of the flamboyance and the gritty self-reliance of the neighborhood.".
A death bed request, hauntings and murder lead Maria into a journey of self discovery. To please Adrianna, her dying mother, Maria promises to seek her father, whom she believes long dead. But she never intends to keep this promise. Until her mother starts haunting her dreams. Dreams, memories and visions entice her. Night after night, Adrianna visits Maria's dreams and nags her into fulfilling the deathbed request. Nightmares and visions force her on a quest to Spanish Harlem. She delves into her family history, only to find herself embroiled in a series of mysteries. Among the prostitutes and the crooked police, her family and the street people, she discovers her father was a terrible man: a pimp, thief and drug dealer. Until he is murdered. And more, there is some dark family secret no one discusses. Memories mingle with dreams and visions as she discovers her own past. Failure after failure meets each attempt she makes at solving the mysterious death of her father, who died when she was only nine. With each new discovery, things look worse. She discovers he was murdered by an unknown assailant, his throat cut from ear to ear. The family's dark secret: he was a an incestuous child molester. She learns her father was murdered by a sexual abuse victim. When things become as bad as they can be, Mare discovers that she herself was molested and may even be her father's killer. Dreams tell her she killed him because he was raping her at the age of nine. For comfort, Maria falls back on her childhood religion, Catholicism. At the Feast of Saint Anthony, she goes to Saint Anthony's, the local church, and confesses to the murder. But to her amazement, an old priest tells her that she did not commit the murder. She learns her father is not her father, but a stepfather, who married her mother in a business deal. Adrianna was an unwed girl, pregnant by a handsome young priest. She needed a "father" for the unborn Maria; he needed to marry a US citizen to remain in America. So he married his brother's pregnant girlfriend. He was killed by her biological father, the priest, who caught his brother sexually abusing her. Maria unable to believe this story, wonders who is her real father, and demands to know why she should believe him. The old priest confesses that he is her biological father and cut his own brother's throat in a fit of rage.
Overshadowed by the fame of Harlem and the wealth of the Upper East Side, East Harlem is rarely noted as a historical enclave. However, from the early 1800s through today, East Harlem has welcomed wave after wave of immigrants struggling for a place in the nation's most famous city. African Americans, Irish, Germans, European Jews, Italians, Scandinavians, Puerto Ricans, and Latinos are among the ethnic groups who have shaped this neighborhood, bringing with them their religious, social, and culinary traditions. East Harlem is the first volume to tell this neighborhood's history through images. Photographs of the iron, stone, and rubber factories, the tenements, the 100th Street community, famous politicians such as Fiorella LaGuardia, the Second and Third Avenue elevated subways, St. Cecilia's, and many other subjects capture East Harlem's past in one memorable collection.
Publisher Description
In this "thriller with literary merit" (Time Out New York), a stunning narrative combines the gritty rhythms of Junot Diaz with the noir genius of Walter Mosley. Bodega Dreams pulls us into Spanish Harlem, where the word is out: Willie Bodega is king. Need college tuition for your daughter? Start-up funds for your fruit stand? Bodega can help. He gives everyone a leg up, in exchange only for loyalty—and a steady income from the drugs he pushes. Lyrical, inspired, and darkly funny, this powerful debut novel brilliantly evokes the trial of Chino, a smart, promising young man to whom Bodega turns for a favor. Chino is drawn to Bodega's street-smart idealism, but soon finds himself over his head, navigating an underworld of switchblade tempers, turncoat morality, and murder. "Bodega is a fascinating character. . . . The story [Quiñonez] tells has energy and verve." —The New York Times Book Review
The community of East Harlem in New York City lays claim to a rich and culturally diverse history. Once home to 35 ethnicities and 27 languages, the neighborhood attracted Irish, Jewish, and Italian immigrants in the early 20th century and later saw an influx of Puerto Rican immigrants and African Americans. In this oral history, former and current residents recount the early days, the post-World War II rise of public housing, the departure of Eastern European inhabitants, the growth of Latino and African American populations, the spirited 1960s, the urban blight of the 1980s, and the more recent resurgence and gentrification. This story of strength and struggle provides a vivid portrait of a fascinating community and the many resilient people who have called it home.
Ren?, all of seventeen and streetwise, is about to give up on the ñAmerican Dream.î Petty crimes, drug running and ghetto adventures bring him and his gang closer to an illusory Eldorado. But soon, his daydreams of limousines, fine clothes and finer women turn into a living nightmare that threatens to end his life and the lives of those he loves.