What hood you from yo?
One of the things that make NYC so great is the diversity of its neighborhoods. Also how diverse neighborhoods are right next door to each other.
Growing up in Sunset Park, Brooklyn (Which was/is mostly Puerto Rican, Dominican) I could walk up 3 blocks or so and be in a Chinese neighborhood (which to the Puerto Rican and spanish speakers who lived there, was still called Sunset Park, so god knows what the Chinese called it).
If you walked another block over you would be in a Palestinian neighborhood, which was still called Sunset Park. But if you traveled another block over you would enter the biggest Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in America, Boro Park.
Believe me nobody would mistake Boro Park for Sunset Park, even though now there are more Mexicans and Polish moving in. I just finished living in Boro Park for the better part of 10 years and hopefully now they will have halfway decent restuarants and some hot ass Polish woman walking around (They should be happy I left).
There aren't too many places in the world you can do this and thinking about that always puts a smile on my face. But what brought this up in my brain today was nothing to smile about.
I read this article about Fallujah and was expecting the usual: some people being let back in, a couple of hundred at a time. Being retina scanned, and ID'ed (which now have to have afixed to their clothing at all times, I guess the Army ran out of star of davids)and the ex-residents complaining that their city was destroyed.
But as soon as I started reading the article, something struck me. The 'hood they were being let into was called Al-Andalus. To the regular american joe schmoe that means absolute dick. To me it struck a chord. Al-Andalus was what the moors/arabs called their kingdom when they ruled Spain for hundreds of years. Being partly of Spainish and Moorish descent that meant alot.
Think about the history of these people that long ago, what they accomplished and where they are at now. Cordova back in the 10th century in southern Spain was a cultural center for Iberian, Arab and African cultures. A melting pot if you will. There is alot written on this in Tariq Ali's book Clash Of Fundamentalisms.
Oh and by the way Al-Andalus is in shambles and "unfit for animals".
Growing up in Sunset Park, Brooklyn (Which was/is mostly Puerto Rican, Dominican) I could walk up 3 blocks or so and be in a Chinese neighborhood (which to the Puerto Rican and spanish speakers who lived there, was still called Sunset Park, so god knows what the Chinese called it).
If you walked another block over you would be in a Palestinian neighborhood, which was still called Sunset Park. But if you traveled another block over you would enter the biggest Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in America, Boro Park.
Believe me nobody would mistake Boro Park for Sunset Park, even though now there are more Mexicans and Polish moving in. I just finished living in Boro Park for the better part of 10 years and hopefully now they will have halfway decent restuarants and some hot ass Polish woman walking around (They should be happy I left).
There aren't too many places in the world you can do this and thinking about that always puts a smile on my face. But what brought this up in my brain today was nothing to smile about.
I read this article about Fallujah and was expecting the usual: some people being let back in, a couple of hundred at a time. Being retina scanned, and ID'ed (which now have to have afixed to their clothing at all times, I guess the Army ran out of star of davids)and the ex-residents complaining that their city was destroyed.
But as soon as I started reading the article, something struck me. The 'hood they were being let into was called Al-Andalus. To the regular american joe schmoe that means absolute dick. To me it struck a chord. Al-Andalus was what the moors/arabs called their kingdom when they ruled Spain for hundreds of years. Being partly of Spainish and Moorish descent that meant alot.
Think about the history of these people that long ago, what they accomplished and where they are at now. Cordova back in the 10th century in southern Spain was a cultural center for Iberian, Arab and African cultures. A melting pot if you will. There is alot written on this in Tariq Ali's book Clash Of Fundamentalisms.
Oh and by the way Al-Andalus is in shambles and "unfit for animals".
posted by djshoghi at 21:17
1 Comments:
Shoghi -
The Chinese, especially the newer immigrants, refer to Sunset Park as Sunshine Park because that stop is where the train comes out from underground, becomes elevated and one can see the sun shine.
I don't think that Al-Andalus was ever a melting pot. It was more of a mosaic of different cultures as one can tell from the differences in language and the fact that the Jews that remained behind had to hide their religion and the fact that in the 1950s historians of the region were still referring to the Muslims as "the infidel" in scholarly works. Also, Moors were only a small part of the Muslims that were in Al-Andalus. There were different waves of Islamic influence and control in southern Spain and Moors comprised roughly 25% of the Islamic population. Most of the existing Christians in Al-Andalus became mozarabs - modified practising Christians influenced by Islamic culture and art. The Muslims did more for Spain than them Cathanegenians and even the Romans.
x/Rebecca
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