(Washington Insider Magazine) Community members and activists are not convinced by the city Department of Transportation’s argument that it was a mistake and believe that the authorities want to erase the history of Puerto Ricans in that Brooklyn neighborhood, so they They called a press conference for tomorrow Saturday at 12 p.m.
With the warning that they will not silence the Puerto Rican community, activists and leaders called a demonstration-style press conference this Saturday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to officially summon Mayor Eric Adams and the commissioner of the city’s Department of Transportation, Ydanys Rodríguez, to explain why agency personnel removed the sign that identified part of Graham Avenue as Puerto Rico.
The meeting, scheduled to start at 12 noon, will take place at Avenida Puerto Rico and Moore St., where about a week ago DOT personnel removed the identification before the recriminating gaze of several residents, most of them of Puerto Rican origin.
Latino to Join The Community Press Conference
“This Saturday at 12 p.m. We ask each Latino to join the community press conference to demand answers from Mayor Eric Adams and DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodríguez”, they state in the statement shared on network pages such as the Brooklyn Three Kings Day Parade and Latinos ‘Board.
“Why was the Avenida Puerto Rico sign removed? Who ordered it removed? Who in DOT is against Puerto Ricans? Racism? The Latino and Puerto Rican community have many questions that need to be answered!”, the subscribers state.
Join us this Saturday! Our community is not going to be silenced!” add the organizers.
“Wake up Puerto Rican!” and “Defend what is yours!” are some of the phrases included in the call on networks. The call asks people to bring flags, tambourines and other instruments to the event.
Several neighborhood areas such as Williamsburg in Brooklyn have historically been known for their Puerto Rican presence for decades.
Since before the 1940s, dozens of Puerto Ricans have arrived in that and other counties by boat and plane in search of employment and a better quality of life. In the process, they contributed to the cultural and economic development of the city.
It was in cyberspace where photos and videos of the moment in which DOT employees removed the name of Avenida Puerto Rico parallel to Graham Ave.
Controversy started by videos and photos on social networks
Posts from Instagram pages like “Nuevayorkinos”, which highlights historical content about Latino and Caribbean families in the city, alerted with images and videos of what they consider a reflection of a deeper problem: “gentrification” in the neighborhood.
“Gentrification is cultural annihilation. Gentrification is the desolation that comes from seeing the lusciousness of Graham Avenue, Avenida de Puerto Rico, repealed. (Via Vespucci and the long-standing Italian heritage in the neighborhood will also be deleted) ”, question the administrators of the page.
“Gentrification is not feeling comfortable with our languages because it makes newcomers feel uncomfortable. Gentrification is the absence of cultural parades and celebrations that once lined all our streets in our neighborhoods. Gentrification is a 50-year-old mother and store closures to make way for ‘pop ups’ of handmade soaps and ridiculously expensive coffee,” they state.
Following the controversy, the DOT indicated through its Twitter account that the removal had been a mistake and that personnel replaced the sign.
In a subsequent message, the agency stated: “Generally, overhead signage does not reflect street co-naming – which is usually placed on poles. However, the Graham Avenue / Avenue of Puerto Rico sign was an important exception to that practice and has been successfully relocated.”
Developers want to erase Puerto Ricans from Brooklyn history?
Since at least 2013, the Puerto Rican community in the area has warned of alleged attempts by developers to erase the history of Puerto Ricans in the neighborhood.
In a Gothamist article titled, “Who Is Trying to Erase East Williamsburg Avenida Puerto Rico?”, mention is made of figures like Michael Schlegel, who is allegedly seeking to rename neighborhoods like this to make them more attractive to those who want to move. and benefit the commercial interests of investors.
“It’s becoming a very new area, and the people of Williamsburg are moving further away, and they don’t want it to be known more as a Hispanic or Puerto Rican area… I think it could help the area’s image,” Gothamist quotes. to Schlegel, president of Gemmos LLC.
According to the New Yorkers publication, in the case of the Avenida Puerto Rico sign, which has been in place since 1982, the renaming of the street would have to have the approval of the Community Board 1 and the DOT.
For more than a century, Boricuas began to form part of the demography of New York.
A Medium report, citing history teacher and author of “A Brief History of the Puerto Ricans in Greenpoint,” Geoff Cobb, explains that in the case of that neighborhood, many of these US citizens arrived in the 1920s as a result of the strict immigration laws that governed the US and that forced dozens of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe to return to their countries.
As a measure to fill the worker gap, the American Rope Manufacturing Company sent a ship to the island and returned with 130 Puerto Ricans ready to work in that factory creating fiber and wire ropes.
Subsequently, many more Puerto Ricans entered other manufacturing companies and the textile industry as a way of earning a living.
Little by little, the Puerto Rican community took shape to the point that, by the 1950s, northern Brooklyn had become home to thousands of Puerto Ricans. The migration spread to other neighborhoods such as the southern area of Williamsburg (Los Sures) which also hosted a thriving group of Puerto Ricans.
This article is written by Marielis Acevedo.