Travels in the 2nd half

Rincon Criollo - photo by Molly Garfinkel -www.culturework.uoregon.edu The Casita has been a cultural icon among Puerto Ricans living in NYC going back to the 1970's. Casita - which literally means little house has been a place where people from the island have created cultural homes and social centers. During the 1970's and 80's large parts of the Bronx were abandoned and buildings burned down leaving empty lots. Groups of people, often from the same town in Puerto Rico reclaimed some of these lots. They cleaned them and built gardens. At the center of the garden they would construct a one or two room casita with a veranda.  These gardens and houses became centers of social life. People would come in the evenings and on the weekends. They would grow crops from the island that were hard to find in NY's supermarkets. People would bring instruments and spend time playing bomba and son and salsa. One of the best known was the Casita Rincon Criollo als...