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Bronx is New York City’s Latin Borough

New York Latin Culture Magazine
The Bronx is a cultural forge. (Ivan Santiago/Dreamstime)

The Bronx is a cultural forge. (Ivan Santiago/Dreamstime)

The Bronx is a cultural forge, a place where legends are made. 

The South Bronx was burning in the 1970s, but that was a long time ago, and it wasn’t our fault.

It’s fine now and The Bronx continues its role as one of New York City’s most creative boroughs.

Hip hop and New York salsa on2 are from here. We grew up together in the 1970s. 

Latin jazz and reggaeton passed through.

Latin culture in the Bronx is anchored by:

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Latin Culture in The Bronx

More BRONX

Bronx Cultural Venues

Bronx Neighborhoods

The borough has more space and diverse communities. There is a Garifuna community in Crotona. The Little Italy on Arthur Avenue in Belmont is popular. Fordham has a university. Concourse, the “Champs-Élysées of The Bronx” is busy. Kingsbridge is cool. Riverdale is upscale. Pelham Bay has green space. Mott Haven is gentrifying rapidly because it’s so close to Manhattan.

The Bronx is Latin

The Bronx is majority Latin at 55% in 2020.

Latin Art

  • 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

Latin Dance

  • Nieves Latin Dance Studio is a famous salsa and Latin dance school.
  • Yamulee Dance School is a famous salsa and Latin dance school.

Latin Food

  • 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

Latin Sports

  • 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

  • ID Studio Theater is a Colombian performing arts studio. 🇨🇴
  • Pregones PRTT is a Puerto Rican theater. 🇵🇷

We Love 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. It 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
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