Entry from August 09, 2004
Loisaida
"Loisaida" is Spanish for "Lower East Side." Some claim that "Lower East Side" is below Houston Street, and "Loisaida" is above Houston Street. Puerto Rican immigrants came to the area in the 1960s and 1970s, and the Spanish name was applied.
Bittman John "Bimbo" Rivas (1939-1992) wrote the poem "Loisaida" in 1974. In 1992, Avenue C was re-named "Loisaida Avenue."
7 January 1977, New York Times/i>, pg. 25:
The Magi, or Three Wise Men, visited a Puerto Rican community on the Lower East Side yesterday afternoon.
Their parade route led them through Loisada (the neighborhood south of 14th Street, east of Avenue A) where they viewed abandoned buildings now being renovated by residents on East 11th Street.
27 May 1981, New York Times, letters, pg. C8:
Loisada, actually, is the area between 14th and Houston Streets, from Avenue A east. This sunny, flowery, Spanish-flavored name for the Lower East Side was conferred on an unpromising piece of real estate by our Puerto Rican fellow residents to cheer things up a bit. The title, pronounced lo-ee-SIDE-ah. was in use before 1977, when I moved here to start the magazine The Quality of Life in Loisada. Bimbo Rivas, poet and playwright, is credited with first applying the namke and using it in a poem.
Bittman John "Bimbo" Rivas (1939-1992) wrote the poem "Loisaida" in 1974. In 1992, Avenue C was re-named "Loisaida Avenue."
7 January 1977, New York Times/i>, pg. 25:
The Magi, or Three Wise Men, visited a Puerto Rican community on the Lower East Side yesterday afternoon.
Their parade route led them through Loisada (the neighborhood south of 14th Street, east of Avenue A) where they viewed abandoned buildings now being renovated by residents on East 11th Street.
27 May 1981, New York Times, letters, pg. C8:
Loisada, actually, is the area between 14th and Houston Streets, from Avenue A east. This sunny, flowery, Spanish-flavored name for the Lower East Side was conferred on an unpromising piece of real estate by our Puerto Rican fellow residents to cheer things up a bit. The title, pronounced lo-ee-SIDE-ah. was in use before 1977, when I moved here to start the magazine The Quality of Life in Loisada. Bimbo Rivas, poet and playwright, is credited with first applying the namke and using it in a poem.
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