Añoranzas de los Barrios

COLLECTIVE STATEMENT

Photographers David González and Edwin Pagán share images from their archives of an increasingly-vanishing Latino New York, whose cultural idiosyncrasies are being homogenized-and its people displaced —by rapid and unrestrained development.

From El Barrio to all our other barrios in New York, the images on display reflect on community as experience and metaphor in Latino America. Añoranzas de los Barrios considers empire, colonialism, race, and social inequality, and how language, religion and politics invite us to imagine and question lo común, as in ‘comunidad,’ an integral part of the Latino diaspora in the Americas.

The images on exhibit – by photographers who came of age in the South Bronx during the 1960s – reflect an insider’s perspective, one that departs from the narrative of dysfunction long imposed on our barrios. David Gonzalez’ images of religion and ritual show the deep wellsprings of faith that have sustained generations of immigrants, while Edwin Pagan’s photos chronicle activism in politics and culture that are a reminder, too, of the powerful legacy of struggle right here in East Harlem. Given the threats of dispossession and displacement posed by hyper-development and gentrification, the themes raised by these images remain vital and urgent.