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Puerto Rican afternoon on East 10th street

I met Christian Lehner, the Austrian correspondent for FM4 (Austrian broadcast) this afternoon. We hang out in Tomkins Square Park talking about a lot of things. It was a quite nice and interesting meeting with him.
Afterwards I went on walking on 10th street until I met Evelyn Rodriguez. A in New York born Puerto Rican woman who was selling Puerto Rican flags, shirts and accessories. She was sitting with Puerto Rican friends on some folding chairs in the shadow of a tree on the street. Spanish music came out of a Radio, people stopped by, started to dance or just exchanged the latest gossip.
Mrs. Rodriguez told me that she did the painting (she is posing next to it in the first picture) herself about two years ago. They always use it when they do their block parties. The area around East 10th street is a rather Puerto Rican dominated area. A lot of Puerto Rican flags can be seen in windows, shops, on bicycles or flying on cars. People talk spanish everywhere and everyone seems to come together on the street on a sunny day. People take their music with them everywhere. Music comes out of shops, of cars and a lot of bicycles I saw had their own ghetto blaster fastend on them. Music is very important for Evelyn Rodriguez and her friends. It brings you in a good mood and problems become minor matters.
Next Sunday will be the Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhatten. I'll definetly go there. It is promised to be one huge party with spanish music, food and dances.

Posted by Martin Fuchs on June 4, 2005 11:59 PM