West Farms

It is the bedrock of community continuity.

It dictates whether our churches have congregations, whether our merchants have patrons, whether our elders remain anchored near their doctors and grandchildren, whether our youth inherit living institutions, and whether the vision of Garifuna Town becomes a durable engine of community wealth or a fading memory of what once stood in West Farms.

[upbeat music] Mabuhay.

Welcome back to the Garifuna Experience Podcast.

Our culture does not live in museum display cases.

It lives in geographic concentration.

It breathes through shared spaces, our living rooms in Morrisania and Mud Haven, our fraternal mutual aid societies, our faith congregations, and the storefronts of West Farms.

This is why housing justice and cultural preservation are inseparable.

Yet, for decades, city institutions and public data sets flatten our complex heritage into a single generic checkbox, erasing our distinct voice before our people could even be counted.

Our deepest historic roots run through the South Bronx in West Farms, Crotona Park East, Claremont, Morrisania, and along East Tremont Avenue.

Today, Garifuna life pulses across Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens, Westchester, and Long Island.

But make no mistake, the Bronx remains our civic archive.

Yet, for decades, city institutions and public data sets flatten our complex heritage into a single generic checkbox, erasing our distinct voice before our people could even be counted.

[upbeat music] Our deepest historic roots run through the South Bronx.

In West Farms, Crotona Park East, Claremont, Morrisania, and along East Tremont Avenue.

Today, Garifuna life pulses across Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens, Westchester, and Long Island.