LI Culture Post

Centuries of Latino Roots Chronicled in NYC Art Exhibition

Posted October 19, 2010 by Angel Canales

With Columbus Day recently passed and Thanksgiving on the way, this is a time of year when people often talk about the interactions between arriving Europeans and Native Americans that took place centuries ago. The history of the first Latino settlers in New York, however, is less often told.

Some of those stories come to life in “Nueva York (1613-1945),” an art exhibition showing at El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan’s Spanish Harlem, in collaboration with the New York Historical Society. The exhibition chronicles 300 years of Spanish and Latin-American migration and the subsequent contributions of those immigrants to New York City.

In “Nueva York,” museum goers will experience how New York City went from being a decidedly hostile environment for Spanish-speaking people in the 17th century to being a principal meeting ground and home for Latinos from every corner of the world – “an evolution that has been critical to the growth of the city’s prosperity and its cultural richness,” according to Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New York Historical Society.

This is the first exhibition to explore New York’s involvement with Spain and Latin America, and how that has shaped every aspect of the development of the city, from commerce, manufacturing, and transportation to communications, entertainment, and the arts. 

Among the work on display at the exhibition is that of 71-year-old Puerto Rican artist Antonio Martorell, who lives and works in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and New York City.

Martorell’s gallery features art works, hands-on interactive displays, documents, printed books, and artifacts related to commerce between New York and Latin America. The common thread among the items in the galleries is that they serve as a testament that Latinos have been present in the city since its creation.

“[Latinos] came to New York looking for jobs,” said Martorell, who believes that his work contradicts “the common negative vision of immigrants.”

As part of the exhibit, Martorell also recreates the short story, “La guagua aérea” by Puerto Rican playwright Luis Rafael Sánchez, which focuses on the transit of Puerto Ricans between the islands of Puerto Rico and Manhattan during the great migration (see an image of the exhibit below). The piece features chairs decorated with clothing, and the collection of belts, necklaces, watches, ties, and scarves represent the men and women on that journey.

“Every time I do something like this is a nurturing experience, and I’m very happy to have participated in such an enthusiastic exhibit,” Martorell said.

The exhibition also offers some interesting trivia about the history of Latinos in New York City. For instance, Juan Rodríguez, a Spanish speaker born to a Portuguese father and an African mother on La Hispaniola—modern-day Dominican Republic—became the first immigrant resident of Manhattan in 1613.

“Nueva York” will be presented at El Museo del Barrio through January 2011. For more information, go to the museum’s website.

In the meantime, here’s a slideshow featuring some of the artworks in the exhibition:

Tags : art, el museo del barrio, latino, manhattan, puerto rican, spanish harlem

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