Fig. 7 – Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal, also across from Holy Cross Church.
In the musical, In the Heights, the song Paciencia Y Fe is performed by Abuela Claudia, the heart of the community, and also its adopted grandmother. It is a touching account of her life story, and that of many other residents in Washington Heights. She sings of:
“Sharing double beds, trying to catch a break, struggling with English / Listening to friends, finally got a job working as a maid / So we cleaned some homes, polishing with pride, / Scrubbing the whole of the Upper East Side / The days into weeks, the weeks into years, and here I stayed.”
Act One of the tale of 187th Street follows Abuela Claudia as she strikes out from her home town of Havana, Cuba to seek opportunity in Nueva York. What she finds instead, is a largely working and lower-middle class community in a depressed but colourful environment.
Patience is what she needs, since getting out of this community takes grit, determination and a spot of luck. The obstacles are many, symbolised allegorically by the undulating topography in these parts. Thankfully, patience is what she has, in droves.
Faith is also something she espouses, and something which is in great supply here, alongside a surprising degree of tolerance and ethnic harmony. Here, Jewish, Armenian, Greek, Catholic and Pentecostal places of worship literally (well almost) stand side by side, providing solace and comfort for residents, and looking, not unlike a Nuevo Mundo version of the Holy Land.
And so she struggles to move on up.
* * * * *
Fig. 1 – Apartments on Laurel Hill Terrace.
Fig. 2 – The Golan Heights, on Amsterdam Ave.
Fig. 3 – Historic apartment buildings across from Yeshiva University
Fig. 4 – Yeshiva University, Wilf Campus. Built in a Moorish Revival Style, and looking like a castle in mediaeval Andalusia.
Fig. 5– Tenements across from Holy Cross Church, just before Audubon Ave.
Fig. 6 – Holy Cross Church of Armenia.
Fig. 8 – Junction of St Nicholas Ave, with the Greek Orthodox Church of St Anargyri.
Fig. 9 – Terraced houses, just before Wadsworth Ave.
Fig. 10 – St Elizabeth’s Church, looking like a mediaeval Crusader Fortress in the Holy Land.
Fig. 11 – Schoolyard at the foot of the hill on Broadway.
Fig. 12 – Mt Sinai Jewish Center, with a distinctly modernist façade.
A) Act I – Paciencia y Fe
Dream Of A City 