Spanish Harlem in the 1980s – in pictures

Growing up in New York, photographer Joseph Rodriguez would take the subway from Brooklyn to east Harlem, where his uncle had a sweet shop, to spend time with the local Latino community (Rodriguez is of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan descent). He spent five years “sitting down at kitchen tables and listening to people’s stories”; the photographs he took are collected in Spanish Harlem: El Barrio in the 80s, published on 21 November by PowerHouse Books. “The only time local newspapers mentioned El Barrio was when crimes were committed,” says Rodriguez. “I knew I had to spend time to try and break these stereotypes. It’s important to show how that era was for people, to show their grit and resilience against social injustice.”

Polly Rodin

Main image: “Cindy”, a local teenager captured by photographer Joseph Rodriguez. Photograph: Joseph Rodriguez / PowerHouse books

  • ‘This image ran on the cover of National Geographic. While walking around a housing project, I saw this young girl stood in the hallway protecting her puppy. I liked it because it showed a sense of warmth and sweetness in a neighbourhood that was very tough and rough.’
    Young girl with a puppy

  • ‘This was a very hard, very poor, very tough block at the time, but what’s important to me is the sense of dignity that these boys have by putting on a suit. The boy on the left can’t even afford a tie but he still wears a suit. This is where I started to understand what the word “respect” means to people.’
    Four young boys wearing suits and ties

  • ‘I chose this image as the cover of the book because it brings you close to the Rodriguez family [no relation] in this small space. Here they are playing games, doing homework, reading – it’s a loving family. I recently refound the Rodriguez family after 20 years.’
    The Rodriguez family in their living room

  • ‘Activists Key Martin and Estela Vasquez, pictured here with a family friend, worked tirelessly for five years at evenings and weekends to secure several buildings from the gentrifiers. They would bring families together, buy these burned-out buildings, renovate them and eventually own them.’
    Activists Key Martin and Estela Vasquez with a friend by a 'STOP GENTRIFICATION' banner

  • ‘This is a classic stop-and-frisk. This was back in the 1980s, but still there are a lot of Black Lives Matter conversations around this issue. This young man is emblematic for the many black and brown men that get arrested every day.’
    A young black man being stopped by the police

  • ‘This is a portrait of Monique in her bedroom. She was angry because her mum would not let her go to play outside due to the drug dealing that was happening in hallways of their building.’
    A young girl in her bedroom

  • ‘This is four African American boys together playing in Jefferson Pool, where many families from Spanish Harlem visit in the summer. There are a lot of dark sides in the book, but this image shows four boys together with a little bit of hope.’
    Four boys on the poolside at Jefferson Pool

  • ‘This was the sort of image that I knew I wanted to capture from very early on, because I knew the importance of the single mum and women looking after children in this community.’
    Gathering of mothers and children on a stoop

  • ‘This image shows classic community culture. We play dominoes everywhere; it’s the national pastime for many Puerto Ricans. The only drug on the table is Budweiser. People on the block would come by to play dominoes, drink beer and talk about baseball while listening to the music of Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Willie Colón.’
    Men playing dominoes

  • ‘This is at Johnny Colón’s music school in Spanish Harlem, where kids from all over the borough would go. Watching a young man getting excited about music is what I love most about this image.’
    Young boy playing a saxophone in a window

  • ‘Cindy was about 18 and doing a lot of drugs at the time. But she was also one of the loudest mouths on the block. She had that big laugh and I had to capture that.’
    Local teenager Cindy

  • ‘This was a Bible class on Easter Sunday – passing by I saw the word ‘abomination’ on the board. In this photograph I wanted to reference the classroom experience, as well as the abominations that happened in the community – poverty, crime, drug addiction, Aids, gentrification.’
    Girls at a Bible class in front of a blackboard

  • ‘Here, friends are kicking back on a stoop with their boom box. After I took this picture they started standing on their heads and spinning. This was a normal scene. You could walk around Spanish Harlem and hear music everywhere.’
    Five men with a ghetto blaster on a stoop

  • ‘Often I would get up to Spanish Harlem very early while all the criminals were sleeping. This was early Sunday morning and, while I was photographing the Puerto Rican flag, this girl walked out in her meditative state into the photo. I didn’t speak to her and continued walking.’
    Girl on a doorstep next to an image of the Puerto Rican flag on a wall

  • ‘This is a lookout for police as drug dealing is happening in the building. The man in the forefront said to me “I can make more money out here than working at McDonald’s.” This is the same building where Monique and the Rodriguez family lived.’
    A man acting as a drug lookout outside a building
Topics