named after them. but what about us latinos? we ve been here in this city, and we ve got every kind of latino. you want your puerto ricans? wepa. you want your cubans? dale! dominicans? que lo que tigre. colombianos? todo bien, todo bien. mexicanos? no manches, guey. and this is where i grew up, too. and when i was a kid, i don t know what the streets were paved with, but it damn sure as hell was not gold. but that didn t stop latinx new yorkers from making big contributions. basquiat, rita moreno puerto rican. cardi b dominican. supreme court justice sotomayor, nuyorican from the bx. even the very first non-indigenous person to live and work in the island of manhattan in the 1600s was juan rodriguez, a dominicano. mira eso, right from the start, we ve been here making this city great. now, i don t know what new york would be without latinos, but it sure as hell wouldn t smell as good, it wouldn t taste as good, and it definitely wouldn t sound as good. that s right, cause
- you know how they used to say the streets of new york were paved with gold? and then wave after wave of immigrants came here to make their lives better for themselves. the irish, the italians, the jews, the chinese they all got whole neighborhoods named after them. but what about us latinos? we ve been here in this city, and we ve got every kind of latino. you want your puerto ricans? wepa. you want your cubans? dale! dominicans? que lo que tigre. colombianos? todo bien, todo bien. mexicanos? no manches, guey. and this is where i grew up, too. and when i was a kid, i don t know what the streets were paved with, but it damn sure as hell was not gold. but that didn t stop latinx new yorkers from making big contributions. basquiat, rita moreno puerto rican. cardi b dominican. supreme court justice sotomayor, nuyorican from the bx. even the very first non-indigenous person to live and work in the island of manhattan in the 1600s was juan rodriguez, a dominicano. mira eso, rig
but what about us latinos? we ve been here in this city, and we ve got every kind of latino. you want your puerto ricans? wepa. you want your cubans? dale! dominicans? que lo que tigre. colombianos? todo bien, todo bien. mexicanos? no manches, guey. and this is where i grew up, too. and when i was a kid, i don t know what the streets were paved with, but it damn sure as hell was not gold. but that didn t stop latinx new yorkers from making big contributions. basquiat, rita moreno puerto rican. cardi b dominican. supreme court justice sotomayor, nuyorican from the bx. even the very first non-indigenous person to live and work in the island of manhattan in the 1600s was juan rodriguez, a dominicano. mira eso, right from the start, we ve been here making this city great. now, i don t know what new york would be without latinos, but it sure as hell wouldn t smell as good, it wouldn t taste as good, and it definitely wouldn t sound as good. that s right, cause salsa music was in
basquiat, rita moreno puerto rican. cardi b dominican. supreme court justice sotomayor, nuyorican from the bx. even the very first non-indigenous person to live and work in the island of manhattan in the 1600s was juan rodriguez, a dominicano. mira eso, right from the start, we ve been here making this city great. now, i don t know what new york would be without latinos, but it sure as hell wouldn t smell as good, it wouldn t taste as good, and it definitely wouldn t sound as good. that s right, cause salsa music was invented here in new york, that s right. [vocalizing along to salsa music] you re welcome. i wanna retrace my steps from queens, where i grew up, all the way to the bright lights of broadway and show you how latinos have contributed to the culture of the greatest city on earf. that s right, i said earf. and you can t tell latino stories without plenty of good food, music, and dancing. so come on, let s go, let s go. come on. [upbeat music] welcome to jackso
Welcome to jackson heights. that s right, this is the place where i grew up, where i was formed, where i was shaped, where i was tested. i got beat up. this is where it all started to happen, and it s the most diverse place in america. if you don t believe me, googlealo. [upbeat music] jackson heights is in queens, the largest borough in new york city. it s currently made up of asian, black, and white communities, but latinos reign supreme, at nearly 65% of that population. hello, hello. - como estas? - now that, of course, included my family, who moved here from colombia with big dreams when i was just three years old. but the more that people that looked like us came here, the faster the white people took a look around