East/Spanish Harlem: No Apollo theatre

Old Timers Day  http://ordervision.blogspot.com/2010/09/east-harlem-old-timers-day.html

When telling people from upstate New York that I am from East Harlem, I always get the funniest responses. Responses like "Oh, where the Harlem Renaissance was?" or "Where the Apollo theatre is?" I always just smile and say yes. No need to give people a history lesson on a place that has been forgotten since the Puerto Ricans moved in, during the 1950's up until the recent gentrification period of the later 2000's. Where I am from, there are no Apollo theaters. There aren't many brownstones either unlike that other side of Harlem. There isn't a Magic Johnson movie theatre. No cotton club on this side of Harlem. Where I grew up, there wasn't any jazz playing on the street corners. There were older Puerto Ricans on the corner where the bodega was, hitting their bongo drums as everybody greeted them and gave them their 5 seconds of salsa movement. I am from where Boys Harbor on 104th and 5th avenue, kept children like me off the streets for years. I am from where P.S 108 on 108th and Madison ave. brought in young Mexican and Puerto Rican children that couldn't speak english well and changed their lives. I am from the home of Casa Blanca meat market (make sure you get their early, lines get crazy). There was a different frio frio man on every other block during the summer. The Puerto Rican guy riding around in his pimped out bike blasting salsa music early in the morning. That is where I'm from.