Mott Haven, The Bronx is a place where legends are made.
The neighborhood is one of the forges of Latin jazz, salsa, and rap. Reggaeton passed through from Panama on its way to Puerto Rico and Colombia. Fandango is one of Mott Haven’s latest trends.
Latin jazz and salsa legend Eddie Palmieri is from Mott Haven.
Mott Haven’s boundaries are roughly:
149th St
Harlem River | Mott Haven | Hwy 278
Harlem River | Bronx Kill
Yes, this is the old South Bronx, but the bad old days of the 1970s are long gone. That’s old news. Get over it. Today The Bronx is beautiful! For better or worse, Mott Haven is gentrifying like everywhere else in New York City. The location is excellent. It’s just across the Harlem River from “El Barrio” East Harlem. Developers now call Mott Haven “SoBro.”
Mott Haven Features
Papo Vázquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours Play a Puerto Rican Holiday Jazz Parranda at Hostos Center
HOSTOS CENTER, Mott Haven, The Bronx ~ The NEA Latino Master and Grammy nominee leads a jazz version of the Puerto Rican holiday parranda tradition. 🇵🇷
Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra Salute 40 Years of Los Pleneros de la 21 at Hostos
HOSTOS CENTER, Mott Haven, The Bronx 🇨🇺 🇵🇷 🎄
BIRDLAND, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan 🇨🇺
Los Pleneros de la 21 Celebrate 40 Years with Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra “Una Navidad Nuyorkina” at Hostos
HOSTOS CENTER, Mott Haven, The Bronx 🇵🇷
Mott Haven Culture
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Latin Music
- Jarana Beat produces New York Fandangos that mix Indigenous, European and African traditions into a community celebration. 🇲🇽
Parks
- St Mary’s Park
Performing Arts
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Mott Haven News
January 2023
The Winter Show 2023, one of America’s leading antiques fairs, is a benefit for East Side House, a community services organization in Mott Haven, The Bronx. The antiques fair is at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan’s Upper East Side; for ten days, from Friday-Sunday, January 20-29, 2023. $30. 🇦🇷🇺🇸 | 🇫🇷🇮🇹🇵🇹🇪🇸
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company celebrates Lunar New Year 2023 Year of the Water Rabbit; with dancers, acrobats, and musicians at Hostos Center Main Theater in Mott Haven, The Bronx; on Saturday, January 28, 2023 at 3pm. $12.
December 2022
“Los Niños Perdidos” (The Lost Children) starring Spanish actress Sandra Gumuzzio, is a monologue about a social worker’s experience working with children who migrate alone. Wow! It’s adapted from Valeria Luiselli’s “Tell Me How It Ends: an Essay in Forty Questions,” a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. It’s at ID Studio Theater in Mott Haven, The Bronx, December 3, 10 & 16, 2022 at 7:30pm. Free with registration. 🇨🇴
Papo Vázquez and the Mighty Pirates Troubadours play a Puerto Rican holiday parranda concert, featuring American jazz vocalist Camille Thurman and Puerto Rican cuatro player Héctor Cordero; in the Hostos Center Repertory Theater at Hostos College in Mott Haven, The Bronx; on Saturday, December 10, 2022 at 8pm. TICKETS $15. ($5 students/children) hostos.cuny.org 🇵🇷
“Navidad: A Mexican-American Christmas,” by Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, connects Indigenous Mexican, Hispanic, and American holiday traditions in a mariachi nutcracker folkloric ballet at Hostos Center in Mott Haven, The Bronx on Sunday, December 18, 2022 at 3pm. FREE. cuny.edu 🇲🇽
October 2022
Calpulli “Día de los Muertos,” dance theatre about the Day of the Dead, the Mexican family celebration of life, is at Hostos Center in Mott Haven, The Bronx on Saturday-Sunday, October 29-30, 2022 (Sat 8pm, Sun 3pm). $25. Hurry, we expect a sell-out! hostos.cuny.edu 🇲🇽
Mott Haven NYC
Mott Haven is the old South Bronx, but don’t get caught up in what it was in the 1970s. Before the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway (1948-1963), The Bronx was a place that middle-class New Yorkers aspired to.
This is the Bertine Block Historic District. It’s just across the end of First Ave at the Willis Avenue Bridge, the first bridge directly between Manhattan and The Bronx.
The old Irish neighborhood became a Puerto Rican neighborhood by the 1940s. It received much of the “Great Migration” of the 1950s from Puerto Rico’s mountain farms.
Back in the day, the drum never stopped. Latin jazz legend Eddie Palmieri grew up in the neighborhood. His father’s bodega, El Mambo, was on the corner of Longwood Ave and Kelly St. Eddie ran the jukebox. The older kids hung out with Eddie’s older brother Charlie Palmieri. Eddie learned his craft from them.
Eddie and Charlie’s classic album “Harlem River Drive” (1971) is named after the FDR highway across the river which hurt local businesses by bypassing Harlem. The Palmieri’s saw this as an example of the injustice that Latins and Blacks had to put up with every day and in every way. So they made an album that combined R&B and Latin. This funky record is now an underground classic.
Members of Aretha Franklin’s band, and Flaco Navaja and the Curtis Brothers play on the album. They must have been kids. Luques Curtis still plays bass for Eddie.
The legendary Teatro Puerto Rico was in Mott Haven. The lines used to stretch around the block. José Feliciano (“Feliz Navidad”) debuted there when he was nine. Its contemporary successor, Pregones/PRTT community theater, is just one block north of the neighborhood.
Government
Mott Haven is New York City Council District 8.
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