Straight Out of Brooklyn

Studying the transnational migration of Puerto Ricans back and forth from P.R. to Chicago in my Urban Cultural Diversity class has got me thinking about my own mini migrations from borough to borough in New York City. I was born in Brooklyn which I love with all my heart and then when I was about eight, we moved to the Bronx to live in a house for the first time because my parents wanted my brother and I to have space to run around and play and have our own rooms and things like that, While all that was wonderful, I never liked the Bronx. I hesitate to say I hated it but I never really liked it. I went to High School in Manhattan and spent at least 65 percent of my time there when I wasn't in the house in the Bronx. Brooklyn had my library, Prospect Park, the museum, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens (I lived for that Garden) and the Bronx had...bodegas, elevated trains, bodegas, late night gunfire...lemme see, hmmmm, I guess I liked the quiet semi-suburban area I lived in. The Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center was right across the street from my house. I took art and drama classes there and also attended went to day camp there one summer. I also worked there as the assistant to the director for one of the cultural youth programs. But always, I was looking down my nose at the Bronx. It wasn't me. Now I live in Harlem. I never wanted to but circumstances have seen fit to place me there in the same way that many circumstances force Puerto Ricans to move back and forth from the mainland to Chicago. Some love P.R. and remain closely tied to it even as they live in their own cultural enclaves in Chicago. Eventually, when they earn enough money they return to P.R. to retire in an environment which many claim to be more nurturing of child rearing and more safe to live. Others have a different experience, and prefer the isolation and privacy that Chicago city life provides to the claustrophobic closeness of family networks in Puerto Rico or the lack of mobility and nearby resources.

I'm not going to say that I love Harlem just yet. But I do love my neighborhood. I love living right across the street from a large park, adjacent to a small library, five minutes away from my gym and no more than a half hour on the train to my job or any other place I need to go in Manhattan. Once in awhile I miss the long rides commuting to Manhattan from the Bronx is because I got a lot of reading done in those days. Nowadays I have to do a lot of my reading during lunch or whenever I find the time.

I don't get down to Brooklyn very often unless I happen to be visiting a friend who lives there like I did last week. And then I remember how I much I love it all over again, how it feels like I never left, how all my favorite areas, Bergen Street, Flatbush, Park Slope, Grand Army Plaza and Eastern Parkway are like extensions of myself. No matter where I live in the world I will always consider myself a Brooklynite.