Centro Journal ISSN: 1538-6279 [email protected] The City University of Estados Unidos

Santiago, Victoria Reseña de "The Tenants of " de Russell Leigh Sharman Centro Journal, vol. XXII, núm. 1, 2010, pp. 314-316 The City University of New York New York, Estados Unidos

Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=37721077016

How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative The Tenants of East Harlem By Russell Leigh Sharman Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006 258 pages; $21.95 [paper] r e v i e w e r : Victoria Santiago, City University of New York—Hunter College

The book The Tenants of East Harlem has two major themes. The first is to introduce various ethnic communities and their migratory experiences to East Harlem. East Harlem, located in the northeast part of , has overtime been home to several ethnic groups with complex histories. For the author’s analysis the individuals are catalysts through which he examines the historical factors—including economic, social and immigration policies—of the community’s different ethnic settlements. The book’s second theme is a historical review of ethnic experiences with housing policy. There is an allusion to questions of equity and accessibility for tenants, but these concerns seem to fade by the final chapter, with the author appearing to accept neoliberal policies and rampant real estate growth as inevitable. Sharman structures the chapters both geographically and chronologically to underscore each ethnic community’s settlement. He begins his ethnic reviews (chapter 2) by focusing on Pleasant Avenue, home of the Italian community. In the chapter he reviews the history of the Italian community in East Harlem through the life of an informant named Pete. The author uses facts from Pete’s life to discuss key immigration and housing laws. Sharman highlights how legislation in the early 20th century imposed numerical limits on European immigrants, strengthening the Italian community in East Harlem. The story also emphasizes the housing stock available to the Italian immigrants—the majority lived in tenements without running water. But big changes came into the neighborhood when federal legislation was passed to create federal legislation to create public housing projects. Peter recollects when his family received a “letter from the New York Housing Authority that condemned their tenement on 114 st in the late 1940’s” (p. 35). He shared the effect on his family and neighbors, “by the time Jefferson Houses was completed in 1952, 114th street between Second and First Avenues was gone, replaced by a superblock of high-rise towers. We were all lost” (p. 36). The arrival of public housing accelerated the departure of members of the Italian community during the late 1950s and 1960s. Pete ends the section recalling, “a lot of people left …there were no apartments. Many of the Italians of East Harlem followed the same route of Irish and German settlers of previous generations to the outer boroughs, Long Island, or New Jersey” (p. 36). In chapter 3 Sharman uses the story of José to trace the settlement experience for the Puerto Ricans on 106th Street. José, born in 1955, first resided in the tenements, then moved with his family to public housing: “in 1957 my family moved to Jefferson projects on First Avenue and 112th street” (p. 56). In his narrative he recalls the segregation and interethnic problems (often aggravated by misinformation) within the buildings that led to the family’s move to the DeWitt Clinton Houses at 108th Street and Lexington. José remembers his new home at DeWitt Clinton Houses: “it was brand spanking new ... I loved it” (p. 59). While many people moved to the new units, there were still not enough apartments. A theme throughout José’s story is his political activism. José grows up during the disappearance of manufacturing in , with globalization of production and outsourcing during the 1960s through the 1980s dealing “the deathblow to the industrial economy, the mainstay

[ 314 ] b o o k r e v i e w s [ 315 ] Sharman highlights the West African experience in chapter 6—“Third Avenue”— Chapter five reviews the arrival of the Mexican community to New York City. Sharman’s fourth chapter “125 Street: The African Americans” concentrates on the British colony, but this historical relationship did not confer any citizenship benefits. Sharman illustrates how citizenship is a concept arbitrarily constructed by shifting political leadership and economic power. Attempting to escape political instability, Mohamed applied for a business visa for the U.S. and eventually overstays his visa. The housing alternatives for West African immigrants included renting space in housing projects and rundown hotels in Harlem. Yet with his business acumen by focusing on Mohamed, who is “born in Guinea in 1964 but grows up in Sierra Leone” (p. 137). Mohamed initially went to England, since Sierra Leone was a former of employment in the North often influenced life decisions for the whole family. Her experiences with housing typify the decline in affordable housing for working and low-income people in El Barrio. She lives in an “a three room apartment on the second floor of an overcrowded and rapidly deteriorating tenement building” (p. 110) with four family members. The chapter ends with Maria’s ideas about her conflicted future, since living in New York has created a dual identity. Her marriage and thoughts of children have generated further complications. As the author comments, “Maria is torn between two homes, neither entirely her own.... Life …in East Harlem has …blurred boundaries” (p. 134). she comments, “My father died when I was seven years old … my mother and I went to work” (p. 107). Sharman also underscores the strong connections between family members in Mexico and the and how the financial benefits her beliefs: “We try to make a difference, I can’t say… it’s all going to work out, but [with] just a little strength, something will come from it” (p. 104). The Mexican population grew from under “50,000 inhabitants in 1980 to… more than a quarter million (in) 2000” (p. 121). María, born in 1975 in Cuautla, narrates the migration story of the Mexican community. Her story counters traditional gender roles by working at and later owning a part of a barbershop. Sharman deftly weaves the transnational politics, economic and immigration policies that shape María’s everyday choices. Maria personifies the choices that motivate people to migrate; tools for community betterment. Lucille expresses this poignantly: “They use the word word the use “They poignantly: this expresses Lucille betterment. community for tools sharing by project, and I say, excuse section me, I am the not an experiment, and ends I am a person…. I voice do not live Lucille’s 102). (p. development” a in live I project. a in life of an African-American female. Lucille was born in 1948 and lived in a tenement building on 117th Street where, she “would eventually share the four-room railroad apartment with seven family members” (p. 81). Lucille is also an organizer in one of the housing projects sponsored by the Upper Community Association (UPACA). UPACA originated from the efforts of women in East Harlem; Sharman comments that “their vision was … effective [in] providing comfortable housing for their neighbors and avoiding the typical association of urban renewal and ‘black removal’” (p. 93). Her story represents a generation of community residents, often of mixed ethnicities, that altered their housing situations. Affordable quality housing policies were second-generation second-generation Puerto Ricans: “Now I want my own place, (preferably) in East Harlem, but I don’t think that will happen” (p. 78). of Puerto Rican employment” (p. 66). By the 1990s we find José living in private housing and noting the irony that his rent is more than triple what his parents pay in their housing authority apartment just a few blocks away. The chapter concludes with José’s thoughts about the seemingly unattainable goal of home ownership for Mohamed becomes a success; his 99-cent store on Third Avenue is one of “the first owned and operated by an African” (p. 149). Eventually Mohamed gains citizenship through marriage and buys a house in Queens. He ends the section listing the reasons people remain in New York: “expanding your goals…, political and economic problems (back home) and ... meeting someone you love” (p. 159). Sharman chooses his landlord, Si Zhi, as the Chinese representative for Chapter 7— “Second Avenue: The Chinese.” Si Zhi was born in 1956 in Shanghai, was part of the political elite until the Cultural Revolution took place (p. 163); he migrated to United States in 1989 because of political persecution. In East Harlem Si Zhi lived with his in-laws in Franklin Plaza at 106th Street and Second Avenue—“the biggest single program of middle-income housing ever advanced at once in the city” (p. 172). Sharman chronicled the difficulties encountered by Si Zhi and his family—loss of his professional status in China, manual labor in the U.S., ethnic slurs and violent acts. Hostilities continue until they are able to buy a “a three family home on 111th and 112th streets [in a complex] built by the New York City Housing Partnership and a private real estate company” (p. 182). Si Zhi ends the section by revealing wisdom gotten from surviving many harrowing transnational experience and believes that if you can get through them, “those experiences can help your life” (p. 170). The major strength of the The Tenants of East Harlem is the author’s ability to provide a wide breadth of historical information of the area’s many ethnic groups. Sharman uses life history as an entry point to explore economic trends, immigration legislation, and housing policy. He also shows how neighborhoods change through time. Capital does not stay still; communities are transformed, assisted, and/or displaced by government policies. Sharman’s life stories highlight the major reasons people migrate, including political instability and limited economic opportunity. But the book also has several related weaknesses. First, Sharman’s methodology and research design are unclear. A second concern is, How did the author test and validate his own bias and pre conceived notions? Sharman’s dual role as author and subject further complicate matters of objectivity. It was surprising that Sharman’s life history avoids any historical facts about his origins. Finally, what criteria did the author use to select his ethnic representatives and organize their life histories? In particular, Sharman’s use of Philippe Bourgois’ book In Search of Respect (1995) as a main source of information for Puerto Ricans is problematic. In his book Bourgois conflates one small part of the population involved in the informal drug economy with the entire East Harlem Puerto Rican community. The Tenants of East Harlem reproduces a set of images that contain coded shorthand (replete with stereotypes) for discussing the experience of all Puerto Ricans in New York. None of the other chapters relies so heavily on one text for primary information about a group. The issues of the informal drug economy and gangs are universal for all the ethnicities. I do not understand the rationale for excluding this topic from the other ethnic histories. Finally, Sharman’s discussion of increased crime does not provide much information on other factors. Other urban factors, such as municipal decisions of planned shrinkage, political gerrymandering, and the increased surveillance and criminalization of everyday activities in public spaces, are relevant. All these issues are essential for a comprehensive discussion about the rise in incarceration rates of urban minority youth and the disappearance of financial resources for youth development.

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