Clemente Soto Vélez played an incredible role in the Lower East Side (Loisaida) of New York. He arrived in New York with the urge to provide a voice for Latinx artists because resources were limited and it was difficult finding literary works from authors of specifically Puerto Rican descent. Vélez himself started Puerto Rican Merchants Association, Inc., Club Cultural del Bronx, Casa Borinquen, and the magazine La Voz de Puerto Rico en Estados Unidos (The voice of Puerto Rico in New York). He also was president of Círculo de Escritores y Poetas Iberoamericanos (Circle of Ibero American Poets and Writers) while participating in Instituto de Puerto Rico en Nueva York (Institute of Puerto Rico in New York). In commemoration of his diligence and passion, The Clemente was founded in 1993 by Ed Vega Yunqué (Puerto Rican poet), Nelson Landrieu (Uruguayan actor and director), and Mateo Gómez (Dominican actor).
Loisaida is home to many working-class immigrants and became a center for activism from the 1940s to the 1990s. Activists were motivated to improve the quality of living for residents utilizing methods like squatting and mass protests. Spaces for communal artistry, gardens, and restaurants bore out of this political action. Together the Latinx community and working-class communities unified and established sites like the Tenement Museum and the Nuyorican Poets Café. These areas fostered cultural pride while creating new identities like ‘Nuyorican’ that describes Puerto Ricans that are also from New York. At this moment Loisaida is undergoing intense gentrification, “condo prices have skyrocketed” (thelodownny.com) and the same Latinx and working-class community that built the neighborhood are now being forced out of their homes. The National Low Income Housing Coalition outlines Rent Control and Community Land Trusts as viable ways to combat the displacement that is caused by exclusionary gentrification. The appropriate measures in place may be able to keep residents in their neighborhoods while they participate in the augmenting resources.
That’s great that you’ve learned a bit Clemente Soto Vélez. Have you had the opportunity to read any of his work?
I am not familiar with the work myself, but in terms of the history of the activism in Loisaida, Lau found what looks like a great resource you might want to check out: https://ugapress.org/book/9780820357973/loisaida-as-urban-laboratory/