Loisaida as Urban Laboratory: Puerto Rican Community Activism in New York

Loisaida as an Urban Laboratory is the first in-depth study of Puerto Rican community activism in New York City's Lower East Side from 1964 to 2001. It combines social history, cultural history, Latino studies, ethnic studies, social movement studies, and urban studies to uncover the radical history of the area. The term "Loisaida" was coined by activist and poet Bittman Bimbo Rivas in 1974 to refer to a part of the Lower East Side. The study reflects the pre–World War II idea of neighborhoods as community-driven and ecologically conscious entities and tells a vivid story of the Puerto Rican community's struggles for the right to stay and live with dignity in their home neighborhood.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 204 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2020
Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Loisaida, as an urban laboratory, offers a comprehensive examination of the network of Puerto Rican community activism in New York City's Lower East Side from 1964 to 2001. This groundbreaking study by Timo Schrader combines social history, cultural history, Latino studies, ethnic studies, social movement studies, and urban studies to uncover the radical history of the Lower East Side.

Given the limited scholarship on the roles of institutions and groups in twentieth and twenty-first-century Puerto Rican community activism, Schrader's work contributes to a growing discussion around alternative urbanisms.

Loisaida emerged as one of a growing number of neighborhoods that pioneered a new form of urban living. The term "Loisaida" was coined and widely adopted by activist and poet Bittman Bimbo Rivas in an unpublished 1974 poem called "Loisaida." This Spanglish version was chosen to honor the name that the residents chose for themselves, in contrast to the real estate developers who referred to the area as East Village or Alphabet City in an attempt to attract more artists and ultimately gentrify the neighborhood.

Since the 1980s, urban planners and scholars have discussed strategies of urban development that revisit the pre-World War II idea of neighborhoods as community-driven and ecologically conscious entities. These new urbanist ideals are reflected in Schrader's rich historical and ethnographic study of activism in Loisaida, telling a vivid story of the Puerto Rican community's struggles for the right to stay and live with dignity in its home neighborhood.

Weight: 326g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780820357973