Hispanic Heritage Month Brings New Sports Energy to LES

The Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations that kicked off around the city in October had a renewed sense of political urgency on the Lower East Side where locals say they are trying to fill a void created when the local Boys Club of New York sold its building and closed four years ago.

“What I did have [growing up] is what we don’t have now,” said Francisco “Frankie” Alameda, president and founder of LES Sports Academy. Before he left to play basketball with some of the kids at the festival, he said, “I was in a ping-pong, pool team, checkers, chess, basketball, and swimming team. I was fortunate to have the Boys Club of New York in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. I am now filling that void for the community.”

The festival was set to begin on October 7th, but due to the weather the event was postponed to the following day minus the youth basketball tournament, which was held indoors.

The morning of the festival, the day was clear with the progressively kicking-up, but so did the festivities. George Rosado, a 38 year old resident in the Lower East Side and former member of LES Sports Academy showed up to lend a hand. “I want to open a boys club for LES. I’d love for my kids to experience what I had growing up. Now the city’s taken that away. They [kids of the LES] deserve that.”

After 121 years of business, in 2019, The Boy’s Club of New York (BCNY) on avenue A and 10th St. was closed and the building was bought for $31.7 million by the Founder of the Investment Fund A.R.T. Advisors LLC, Aaron Sosnick–a pivotal turning point for the youth in the LES.

There was more than sports in the air. The festival was well underway with a line for empanadas, domino games up and running, and kids of all ages showing up at the basketball court. There was live music, entertainment, Hispanic food, local vendors, art and crafts, open domino tables, as well as community resources.

Executive and Artistic Director of Loisaida Center, Alejandro Epifanio Torres was assisting at the DJ booth when he spoke about the organization’s mission in an interview with Straus News.

“Loisaida is a multidisciplinary arts and culture organization founded in 1979 by community organizers, activists and artists with the mission to empower Latinos and immigrant communities in the Lower East Side, especially Puerto Ricans and Caribbean descendants to celebrate our heritage and develop community programming around the arts, culture, media and technology,” Torres said.

Torres said the Boys Club shutting down was “a story that touches my heart.”

“The program shutting down had youth worried about what would the state of youth sports in the neighborhood become? That prompted us to join forces with LES Sports Academy and create the first ever basketball tournament at Dry Dock Park where over 300 families were in attendance,” said Torres.

COVID-19 struck shortly after and since then, the organizers have been unable to host an event of that magnitude. With the HHM Festival, they are slowly changing that while simultaneously bringing their culture to the forefront, despite social and political limitations.

“We have NYPD in the house!” said president and founder of LES Sports Academy, Alameda at one point, in an attempt to good naturedly hype up the crowd as he included their mention with other organizers, vendors, and live music bands present as well.

The LES Sports Academy began in 1993 with a vision of recreational sports for kids offering soccer, baseball, football, and basketball.

Rosado said, “My kids are able to do it because of Frankie. I look up to him as a Dad. [The academy] taught me how to be more active and have patience, especially with my own kids,” said Rosado. As more kids show up to play before the basketball championship began, the DJ turns up the music and cooks, vendors, organizers, and onlookers start to dance. One of the individuals dancing is Lilah Mejia, a community organizer for El Grito-a Lower East Side group that partnered with LES Sports Academy and Loisaida Inc. Center.

To Straus News, Mejia spoke about the importance of the festival. Despite the Latino population growing, she said, “Latinos still have a very long way to go” when it comes to being recognized in the US. “You see that even in our census, it’s either Black or white.”

“The LES is gentrified and continues to get gentrified and it’s really important to have events like this reserved about our culture to celebrate all Latinos.”

Both Mejia and Alameda grew up in the neighborhood and the area still holds a special place for them.

“Growing up as a little girl in the neighborhood, first of all, there weren’t all these ‘blancitos’ (white americans) here. We always had music every Sunday, seeing the guys playing the congas, there was more community. I’ve noticed that the older you get the more it’s being lost.”

Mejia attributes the loss of cultural expression in the LES to new communities having a “colonistic mentality where they don’t have to assimilate to the culture, but like if you come into a culture that’s all Puerto Rican and you’re going to yell that there’s Spanish music, then why did you come?”

According to Niche, 33 percent of residents in the LES identify as Hispanic–the largest demographic group in the area.

“We are the blueprint of community: Black, Brown, and Indigenous. It’s celebrating what’s already in our DNA...We could be going through everything in the world, but there will still be a doña (elder) that will open their door and give you some cafecito (coffee)... this neighborhood is the shit.”