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East Harlem, Manhattan

East Harlem encompasses a large section of northeastern Manhattan bounded by 96th Street, 142nd Street, Fifth Avenue and the Harlem River. Also known as El Barrio, the area is famous as one of the largest predominantly Latino neighborhoods in the city.

Echoing development patterns across the city, the neighborhood was largely built in response to the availability of transportation. In the 1830s, tracks were laid along Park Avenue for horse-drawn streetcars and later, the tracks became the New York and Harlem Railroad line, with train stops in East Harlem Development was relatively slow until the construction of the Second and Third Avenue elevated rail lines to 125th Street in 1879-80, followed by a second wave of development with the arrival of the subway in 1919. Rowhouses, tenements and flats buildings housed the area’s largely working class population, while Third Avenue became the area’s first commercial thoroughfare.

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Murals – Crack Is Wack

Murals of East Harlem|

East Harlem/El Barrio is home to a great number of murals that build on a long tradition in Latin American art, wherein residents may express themselves and tell their stories. Protecting these significant cultural symbols has become a great challenge, but an important endeavor, in a rapidly changing neighborhood.


East 128th Street and Harlem River Drive Handball Court;
Keith Haring;
1986|

Famed graffiti artist Keith Haring (1958-90) painted two colorful murals on both sides of a concrete handball court in 1986. The design is composed of Haring’s signature kinetic figures and abstract forms in bold outlines, cautioning youth against crack, an addictive and dangerous form of cocaine whose use had reached epidemic proportions. The Crack is Wack mural is a lasting reminder of Keith Haring’s talent and legacy.  A foundation in his memory was established, which continues to support the preservation of the mural.

*Photo courtesy Marina Ortiz, East Harlem Preservation, Inc.

Mural- Mexican Diaspora (“Zapatista”)

Murals of East Harlem|

East Harlem/El Barrio is home to a great number of murals that build on a long tradition in Latin American art, wherein residents may express themselves and tell their stories. Protecting these significant cultural symbols has become a great challenge, but an important endeavor, in a rapidly changing neighborhood.


northeast corner of East 117th Street and Second Avenue;
Ricardo France;
2001|


Ricardo France (“Guerro”), Mexican truck driver turned tattoo artist and muralist, painted this grand salute to the Zapatista movement of southern Mexico along the wall of a former Mexican restaurant and dance club. One of the first murals painted by a Mexican artist in East Harlem, the work is in the great tradition of Mexican political muralists like Diego Rivera. At the center of the mural is the sun and to the left is the Virgin of Guadalupe, the face of Subcomandante Marcos, the Zapatista ship and Don Durito of the Lacandona. The masked Zapatista and revolutionary slogans are iconic references to a struggle familiar to Mexicans and a reification of Mexican identity, “Todos somos Marcos.” In 2009, volunteers restored the mural’s fading paint, but it was defaced with graffiti in 2015. The property was sold in 2016, and it is likely that the building – and the mural – will be demolished.

Mural- Honoring Oscar López Rivera

Murals of East Harlem|

East Harlem/El Barrio is home to a great number of murals that build on a long tradition in Latin American art, wherein residents may express themselves and tell their stories. Protecting these significant cultural symbols has become a great challenge, but an important endeavor, in a rapidly changing neighborhood.


East 107th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues;
Natalie del Villar, Marthalicia Matarrita and Xen Medina;
2015|


The original mural on this site paid tribute to two Puerto Rican political prisoners, Oscar López Rivera and Avelino Gonzalez Claudio. The project was conceived in 2010 by members of the National Boricua Human Rights Network along with local residents. The badly weathered and vandalized mural was re-imagined in 2015 by local artists commissioned by East Harlem Preservation, Inc., with support from the Historic Districts Council. Since Avelino Gonzalez Claudio was released in February 2013, the artists re-focused the mural on Oscar López Rivera, the last Puerto Rican political prisoner in the U.S. who is now 73 years old and has spent 35 years in prison. Because he often speaks about his desire to return to his homeland to walk along the seashore, the artists incorporated his wish into the design.

Watch East Harlem Preservation’s video on the creation of the mural https://youtu.be/-rLXFY_dhRk

*image Photo courtesy Marina Ortiz, East Harlem Preservation, Inc.

Mural- Graffiti Hall of Fame

Murals of East Harlem|

East Harlem/El Barrio is home to a great number of murals that build on a long tradition in Latin American art, wherein residents may express themselves and tell their stories. Protecting these significant cultural symbols has become a great challenge, but an important endeavor, in a rapidly changing neighborhood.


East 106th Street between Madison and Park Avenues;
and Park Avenue between East 106th and 107th Streets;
established 1980|


The Graffiti Hall of Fame encompasses two walls: one in the playground of the Jackie Robinson Educational Complex and one on Park Avenue facing the Park Avenue viaduct. The Hall was established by community activist Ray Rodriguez (“Sting Ray”) as both a place for graffiti artists to display their skills and to provide neighborhood youth with a constructive medium to showcase their talent. Due to space constraints, a loosely knit group of painters has annually competed for a place on the walls since the 1990s. The walls are currently maintained by TATS CRU, a group of Bronx-based artists turned professional muralists.

Mural- Remembering Julia

Murals of East Harlem|

East Harlem/El Barrio is home to a great number of murals that build on a long tradition in Latin American art, wherein residents may express themselves and tell their stories. Protecting these significant cultural symbols has become a great challenge, but an important endeavor, in a rapidly changing neighborhood.


East 106th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues;
Manny Vega;
2006|


This mosaic homage to Julia de Burgos was created in connection with the naming of East 106th Street, Fifth Avenue to First Avenue, in her honor. The project, which adorns the walls of a Hope Community building, was envisioned by local activists Marina Ortiz and Deborah Quiñones. De Burgos, an advocate for Puerto Rican independence from the U.S., was working as a journalist in East Harlem when she collapsed on Fifth Avenue and 106th Street in 1953. She later died in Harlem Hospital and was eventually buried in Puerto Rico, where she was named poet laureate. The mosaic has sustained some water damage, which East Harlem Preservation, Inc. hopes to repair as part of its mural and mosaic restoration initiative.

Mural- Dos Alas

Murals of East Harlem|

East Harlem/El Barrio is home to a great number of murals that build on a long tradition in Latin American art, wherein residents may express themselves and tell their stories. Protecting these significant cultural symbols has become a great challenge, but an important endeavor, in a rapidly changing neighborhood.


East 105th Street between Second and Third Avenues;
Ricanstruction Netwerks and Puerto Rico Collective;
1999|

Dos Alas, or “two wings,” was intentionally created without permission to honor Cuban independence fighter Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Puerto Rican nationalist Don Pedro Albizu Campos. The “Dos Alas” stanza, which appears on the mural, is from a poem by “Lola” Rodriguez de Tio. The painting is the only remaining piece in a series of ten radical al fresco artworks that celebrated Puerto Rican/Nuyorican and Latin American political identity and served as statements against gentrification. The others have fallen victim to new development. Due to weathering and vandalism, the mural was restored in 2011 with the property owner’s permission as part of a community-based effort that drew well-known Puerto Rican artists from all over the city. The mural has become iconic due to its heavily trafficked location.

Mural- Soldaderas

Murals of East Harlem|

East Harlem/El Barrio is home to a great number of murals that build on a long tradition in Latin American art, wherein residents may express themselves and tell their stories. Protecting these significant cultural symbols has become a great challenge, but an important endeavor, in a rapidly changing neighborhood.


Modesto Flores Community Garden,;
Lexington Avenue between East 104th and 105th Streets;
Yasmin Hernandez;
2011|


Commissioned by Art for Change, an organization that encourages progressive social change through the arts, this mural, in the artist’s words, “pays tribute to the common histories and struggles of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans and is a call for continued and increased political solidarity between the two communities.” Hernandez was inspired by Frida Kahlo’s painting, Las dos Fridas, and substituted the Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos for the second Frida. She also took elements from photographs of the soldaderas (women soldiers) who fought in the Mexican Revolution. The words in the mural are from a poem by de Burgos, “El regalo de los Reyes”.

Murals- The Spirit of East Harlem

Murals of East Harlem|

East Harlem/El Barrio is home to a great number of murals that build on a long tradition in Latin American art, wherein residents may express themselves and tell their stories. Protecting these significant cultural symbols has become a great challenge, but an important endeavor, in a rapidly changing neighborhood.


southeast corner of Lexington Avenue and East 104th Street;
Hank Prussing/Manny Vega;
1973-78|


One of El Barrio’s most famous murals, The Spirit of East Harlem was commissioned by Hope Community. The four-story painting, featuring characters from the neighborhood, has significant historical roots in El Barrio and serves as a local cultural attraction. Manny Vega, who had served as Prussing’s apprentice, restored the badly weathered painting in the mid-1990s, making minor changes, including the “El Barrio Tours” advertisement and the inclusion of an indigenous Taíno figure on the bottom right. Hope Community works continuously to raise funds to repair damage from such issues as vandalism and brick repointing.

Mural- Pedro Pietri, Homage to Picasso

East Harlem/El Barrio is home to a great number of murals that build on a long tradition in Latin American art, wherein residents may express themselves and tell their stories. Protecting these significant cultural symbols has become a great challenge, but an important endeavor, in a rapidly changing neighborhood.


northeast corner of Lexington Avenue and East 104th Street;
James De La Vega, 2004;

southeast corner of Lexington Avenue and East 111th Street;
James de la Vega, 1996|

An East Harlem native, James de la Vega has painted a number of murals in the neighborhood and is known throughout the city for his simple chalk cartoons with aphorisms, such as “Become Your Dream.” The Pedro Pietri mural depicts Puerto Rican poet and playwright Pedro Pietri (1944-2004), who moved to New York City as a child. Pietri, whose poetry focused on the struggles of Puerto Ricans in the U.S., helped to found the Nuyorican Poets Café and led cultural collectives such as the Latin Insomniacs, the Puerto Rican Embassy and the Church of the Mother of Tomatoes. Calling himself “The Reverend,” Pietri often dressed in black and carried a collapsible cross. Homage to Picasso is an adaptation of Picasso’s Guernica, reinterpreted with imagery relevant to El Barrio: rather than bombs, the figures are oppressed by violence, crime and poverty, set against the red backdrop of the neighborhood’s brick-clad environment. The mural was commissioned by Hope Community, Inc., a community-based not-for-profit affordable housing organization that also works to enrich the lives of East Harlem residents through the arts, economic development and social service alliances.