coming to you this morning with 50,000 watts of scorn, “admin” hands the WWIB reins over to the Music Director, furious over the distortions of history at the fingers of uncountable white boy/girl journalists and bloggers. it’s difficult to believe today but oh, for a hundred years or so, Spanish speaking peoples lived throughout South Brooklyn. at first they were Cuban, and from Spain, and then, through the 1960s, largely Puerto Rican– it’s a series of long, interlocking stories for another time and WWIB ain’t pretending to know most of ‘em except to note… they are out there, they happened. in the last couple years, in the gold rush to make everything possible appeal to the refined upscale mall sensibilities of the SUV-stroller and chain store “hipster” sets, even the vestiges of the vestiges have mostly been scraped clean of formerly polyglot Smith Street (which began with a scuba store across Atlantic Ave from the Brooklyn House of Detention: can you dig it?). has any newspaper or magazine written of this? did anyone “blog”? (if so, please let us know, we’ll happily link up.) it’s a simple matter of taxonomy. that most of the knuckleheads taking of photos of wow! street art! or noting oooh, a new bistro! (has anyone tried brunch there yet?) haven’t lived here very long is no excuse as even the most recent changes have gone unremarked. the carniceria? gone. the panderia? gone. the social club, the toy store, the dominos games? all gone gone gone but to read most accounts it’s like these things never existed.
Note to Admin:
what the fuck gives? maybe Los Jardineros, who recorded “Café Colao” (Strained Coffee) for OKeh records in Manhattan on the date above, will help.
xoxo,
The Music Director (mp3 below)
you mean to to tell me that that wasn’t always a “Brooklyn Industries”?! At least the St. Clair diner is still there, but for how long?
Well. Well. Well.
Look forward to seeing what you have to say in your own blog.
Seriously.
Your voice is SERIOUSLY needed.
Peace,
Amelia
hah– i’m almost tempted to do that blog thing of crossing out those EVIL words. i don’t know how they play off being some sort of “alternative” to anything. they have what, five-six-sven fucking stores now?! oh but wait, i forgot, Brooklyn was so scary & confusing when almost all of the ‘hoods were different. not anymore, thanks to Brooklyn Industries, just as much as any bank, coffee or crappy donuts chain. then there are the absurdly overpriced, obnoxious boutiques with both Park Slope and “Cobble Hill” or “Boerum Hill” locations. maybe Flight 101 (cross that out too, bring back Valencia Bakery) will crash on takeoff someday & take out some shoddy “luxury” condos with it? it’d save the Department of Buildings some work they’d rather not do anyway.
thanks Emilio– i’ll pass the word on to The Publisher.
best,
Bunny Fuckin’ Profane
WWIB weekend City Editor & country music columnist
if you had graduated from GSLIS for morons, you would know what a taxonomy is…
For evidence of spanish speaking in neighborhood, I have photo of a ‘Bodega’ on Baltic/Smith corner from I think 1930’s (maybe 1920’s).
pete– thanks; where did you get the photo if i may ask? (you can contact WWIB privately too.) i know of South Brooklyn’s Hispanic settlement from the late 19th c but except for factory pictures, haven’t seen many early 20th c. images. the whitewashing of local history in these boom times is really something; WWIB will have a lot more to say, & more importantly, ask, about Latino South Brooklyn in the months ahead. we are definitely not experts but since nobody else is coming forward with more… if people think the vestigal Spanish things in South Brooklyn merely date from the 1960s or even the post-war Great Migration… that’s not even close to being true.