Harlem Review – Andres Camacho

Andres Camacho

A place I always found deeply interesting and highly value adding to the Harlem

neighborhood is the Mirabal Sisters Cultural and Community Center. It is named after the

courageous Mirabal Sisters from the Dominican Republic. They were political activists sisters

who strongly opposed the tyranny of dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo who governed the country

in a hateful and oppressive manner from 1930 to 1961 (his death). He ran the country as his

own business and even managed to privatize it as his own. Due to this, he was the 6th richest

man in the world. They participated in clandestine acts rebelling the oppressive government. On

November 25th, 1960 after visiting their husbands who were jailed for also being against the

dictator, the sisters were abused, beaten and brutally assasinated by Trujillo’s henchmen. Due

to their bravery and courage to speak up against injustice, the United Nations declared that

every 25th of November to be observed in honor of them.

The Mirabal Sisters Cultural and Community Center was founded in 1990 when a group

of Dominican immigrants wanted to create a place that can help people. The group has devoted

itself to helping people in the Harlem community which is comprised mostly of people of colour

and working class families. One of the things I really liked about the Center is the willingness

they have to help the youth. For example, the partnership with public schools to create more

after-school activities in order to keep kids busy and the cultural program that focuses on the

arts and crafts in the Harlem area.

One of the heads of the institution commented that gentrification is one thing that greatly

concerns them because thousands of lower and middle class families are affected daily as

rental prices have skyrocketed to an alarming level, especially after the pandemic in 2021. One

of the things the center does is fight for these families, either seeking financial assistance or

helping to negotiate a more economical rent for those families who do not have many

resources.

According to the internet, the center is a sacred and joyful place for Luis, the founder,

since it is one of his deep passions, helping others. Something that has caused their impact to

not be amplified as much is that they are self-financing since they are a small organization and

this causes them to get little support from the larger community and the government. A phrase

that I really liked that the founder says a lot is “Work like this can only be done from the heart.”

Since it’s nothing you are going to get rich on. It is something you do because you are genuinely

interested in helping others.

Simply put, the integral work of the Mirabal Sisters Cultural and Community Center is to

inform working class families of their rights as tenants or renters and involve themselves in the

community like high school activities. This organization is extremely important to the community

because many people are not aware of their rights, and other people try to take advantage of
their lack of education, so the Center helps them in that sense

Harlem Review

Celia Rosario

Hall Of Fame-Harlem 

The Hall of Fame is a very famous place in Harlem because there are a lot of graffiti murals that express love, different cultures, and styles. This is a place where the people of Harlem and tourists go to see the newest art (graffiti). This place is located at E 106th, Ave park. The hall of Fame is also named as “El Museo del Barrio” which is the museum of the neighborhood, this is because of its arts that it contains. The Hall of Fame is also for the famous people that the graffiti art contains. 

The main purpose of the arts in the Hall of Fame is to connect the community and every different culture. Also, street graffiti is a way of making Harlem a better place, and it makes it seem as a place where you feel loved. This means that people that come from another country feel safer and attached to this place because they see that people are counting their culture, making people not feel alone in their process, in this new country. 

In this image that shows one of the murals from Harlem around the Hall of Fame is based on a famous music artist named Tito Puente , he is very important for the Latin community, he was born in Harlem but his parents were Puerto Rican. The song name “Oye Como Va” was a hit in Harlem and most of the country in North and South America. This graffiti was made to make the Latinos feel like they have a place and are being loved. 

This graffiti has meaningful details like the yellow (a primary color)  in the background which represents energy, happiness and joyfulness. The yellow color was a perfect match for Tito Puente since he was a person that spread so much joy. 

This street art is also located around the Hall of Fame in Harlem, but this art has a different meaning, a stronger meaning. This graffiti is one of the most loved ones because of what has happened in the world with people of colors. This graffiti has so many details that says a lot, as it’s shown in the image these people are saying “Black Lives Matter’ which was the protest that happened almost 4 years ago, this issue stated with the death of George Floyd, a black men who was murdered by a police officer but also because of Breonna Taylor and this issue was spread around the world, it was one of the biggest events. Since there’s a big community of people of color in Harlem, this graffiti was used as a way to be heard. The issue of grafting matters because street graffiti is a way of communicating what one itself is feeling or it can be a voice for the entire community, but also a way of making the community feel supported and loved. The author of this graffiti is Yuri Kochiyama. Yuri made this mural to identify Harlem as a black community. Also as it shows in the image we can see two bridges connecting into a world, which means that we are all from the same world, all of our lives matter because at the end of the day we are all human.