The Bronx is New York City’s Latin borough. It is a cultural forge, a place where legends are made. The 1970s were hard because developers wanted to clear the people out for redevelopment, but that is ancient history and The Bronx is beautiful now. The best thing about The Bronx is the people. Hip hop and New York salsa on2 are from here. Latin jazz passed through.
NYC Restaurant Week is a Great Time to Try Latin Restaurants with Family and Friends
Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island
Pregones/PRTT is Two Puerto Rican Community Theaters Together as One
Nuyorican Poets Cafe Final Friday Slam, spoken word open mic 🇵🇷
PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATER, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan
“Baya con Dios” Nigerian Puerto Rican family drama with dance 🇳🇬 🇵🇷
PREGONES THEATER, Concourse, The Bronx
Albita Celebrates the Evolution of Cuban Music From Rumba and Música Guajira, to Son Cubano and Salsa
HOSTOS CENTER, Mott Haven, The Bronx 🇨🇺
South Bronx Cultural Festival Celebrates Casita Maria’s 91st Anniversary with an Eddie Palmieri Tribute, Nelson González All Star Band, Bronx Banda featuring Arturo O’Farrill and Lots More
FATHER GIGANTE PLAZA, Longwood, The Bronx 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇨🇺 🇲🇽 🇵🇷
Salsa Sundays at Orchard Beach is a Hot Summer Salsa Dance Party
ORCHARD BEACH, Pelham Bay Park, The Bronx 🇵🇷
152nd Street Cultural Festival 2025 Kicks Off the National Puerto Rican Day Parade
LONGWOOD, The Bronx 🇵🇷
Bronx Culture Venues
Bronx Museum of the Arts
Bronx Music Hall
Hostos Center
Lehman Center
Salsa Con Fuego is a Latin restaurant and lounge in Fordham Manor, the West Bronx; where top Dominican merengueros and bachateros play. 🇩🇴
Yankee Stadium is the home of the New York Yankees and the New York City Football Club (NYCFC).
Bronx Neighborhoods
The borough has more space and diverse communities.
Belmont has a wonderful Little Italy on Arthur Avenue.
Concourse is the home of Yankee Stadium, Pregones/PRTT Puerto Rican theater, and the Bronx County Courthouse civic center. It’s named after Grand Concourse, the “Champs-Élysées of The Bronx.”
Concourse Village is the home of the Bronx Museum of the Arts.
Crotona Park East or East Morrisania is a residential neighborhood with a vibrant Garífuna community. Back in the day, it was a cultural center like Harlem or Greenwich Village.
Fordham is a college town.
Hunts Point is an industrial neighborhood with East River waterfront that hosts one of the world’s largest food distribution complexes.
Jerome Park is the home of the Lehman College, Lehman Center, and the Jerome Park, Reservoir.
Kingsbridge is cool.
Longwood is a Puerto Rican and Hispanic neighborhood. It’s the home of the 152nd Street Cultural Festival which kicks off the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.
Melrose is the downtown of The Bronx. The Hub or La Tercera is New York City’s busiest intersection after Times Square. It’s the home of the Bronx Documentary Center, Bronx Music Hall, and the Old Bronx Courthouse.
Mott Haven is the old South Bronx. The old Puerto Rican neighborhood is gentrifying rapidly because it’s so close to Manhattan. It’s the home of Hostos Center at Hostos College, and the iD Studio Theater of Colombian teaching artists.
Pelham Bay has green space.
Riverdale is upscale.
The Bronx is Latin
The Bronx is majority Latin at 55% in 2020.
Latin Art in The Bronx
- Bronx Documentary Center is a non-profit gallery and educational space that uses documentary photography to build lives and promote social change. bronxdoc.org
- Bronx Museum of the Arts is a crossroads of Bronx culture.
Latin Dance in The Bronx
- Nieves Latin Dance Studio is a famous salsa and Latin dance school.
- Yamulee Dance School is a famous salsa and Latin dance school.
Latin Festivals in The Bronx
152 Street Cultural Festival is a Puerto Rican street fair; in Longwood, The Bronx; that kicks off the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. It’s in late May or early June. 🇵🇷
Bronx Week is a two-week festival of the best of Bronx culture in May.
Latin Food in The Bronx
- Arthur Avenue is one of New York City’s Little Italys.
- Bronx Night Market is first Saturday’s from April to October. maschospitalitygroup.com
- Hunts Point is the home of New York City’s food distribution complex.
Latin Music in The Bronx
- Bronx Music Hall
- Bronx Music Heritage Center
- Hostos Center
- Lehman Center
- Salsa Con Fuego is a restaurant and lounge where the best merengue and bachata artists from La República Dominicana play. 🇩🇴
- Universal Hip Hop Museum uhhm.org
Latin Parades in The Bronx
- The Bronx Dominican Parade es el Gran Parada Dominicana de el Bronx in Concourse, The Bronx, in July. 🇩🇴
Latin Sports in The Bronx
- El Maestro cultural center is a boxing gym and Puerto Rican community center. Facebook @elmaestrobx
- New York City Football Club (NYCFC)
- New York Yankees
- Yankee Stadium
Latin Theatre in The Bronx
- ID Studio Theater is a Colombian performing arts studio. 🇨🇴
- Pregones PRTT is a Puerto Rican community theater. 🇵🇷
We ❤️ The Bronx
The Bronx has a reputation from the 1970s, but it’s not like that any more. Now the problem is gentrification.
For the record, we got the blame, but it wasn’t our fault. The Bronx was a place you moved to when your family become middle class. It was moving on up.
The problems started when New York City Commissioner Robert Moses destroyed healthy neighborhoods to build the Cross-Bronx Expressway. The construction divided communities and led to abandonment. The New York City government shut down services to try and get everyone to leave so it could redevelop the land. It allowed property owners to burn their own buildings for the insurance money.
The 1970s were fifty years ago. The Bronx is beautiful now, and is still a cultural forge.
What Happened
The Old South Bronx used to be like Harlem or Greenwich Village, a vibrant center of culture. It was a fully integrated place. That’s cool now, but back in the day, some of the powers that be didn’t like that.
Because of its perfect location next to Manhattan, generations ago New York politicians decided they wanted to redevelop the area. But they had one problem ~ the people who live here.
They decided to purposefully make life very hard so we would leave and they could take the land. They cut off city services and prevented landlords from fixing their properties. Landlords ended up burning the whole thing down. It was all blamed on us, of course. That media circus put a stain on the South Bronx, but it is a false characterization. The Bronx is beautiful.
Anyway, the people didn’t leave. We stayed. This is home. And now The Bronx is rising again. And ironically, it’s rising, not because of the politicians, The Bronx is rising because of the people who live here.
We ❤️ The Bronx!
Bronx Demographics
The Bronx is over 54% Latin (“Redistricting NYC: Demographic Change and the Hispanic Community” (2022) by Carlos Vargas-Ramos and Jorge R. Soldevila Irizzary of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. centropr.hunter.edu).
We are mostly Dominican (41%), Puerto Rican (33%), Mexican (10%), Ecuadorian (4%) and Honduran (3%).
Three generations after the “Great Migration” of the 1950s, Puerto Ricans are moving out. Dominicans and Central Americans are moving in.
That’s the immigrant experience. The first generation knows the heritage language and culture. The second knows both. The third generation is fully American.
Bronx Parks
- Bronx Park is the home of the New York Botanical Garden and The Bronx Zoo.
- Crotona Park is the home of a vibrant Garifuna community.
- Pelham Bay Park is the home of Orchard Beach, and Salsa Sundays at Orchard Beach.
- Soundview Park
- Van Cortlandt Park