Terms of Use
Oral histories are intimate conversations between and among people who have generously agreed to share these recordings with BHS’s archives and researchers. Please listen in the spirit with which these were shared. BHS abides by the General Principles & Best Practices for Oral History as agreed upon by the Oral History Association and expects that use of this material will be done with respect for these professional ethics.
Every oral history relies on the memories, views, and opinions of the narrator. Because of the personal nature of oral history, listeners may find some viewpoints or language of the recorded participants to be objectionable. In keeping with its mission of preservation and unfettered access whenever possible, BHS presents these views as recorded.
The audio recording should be considered the primary source for each interview. Where provided, transcripts created prior to 2008 or commissioned by a third party other than BHS, serve as a guide to the interview and are not considered verbatim. More recent transcripts commissioned by BHS are nearly verbatim copies of the recorded interview, and as such may contain the natural false starts, verbal stumbles, misspeaks, and repetitions that are common in conversation. The decision for their inclusion was made because BHS gives primacy to the audible voice and also because some researchers do find useful information in these verbal patterns. Unless these verbal patterns are germane to your scholarly work, when quoting from this material researchers are encouraged to correct the grammar and make other modifications maintaining the flavor of the narrator’s speech while editing the material for the standards of print.
All citations must be attributed to Brooklyn Historical Society:
[Last name, First name], Oral history interview conducted by [Interviewer’s First name Last name], [Month DD, YYYY], [Title of Collection], [Call #]; Brooklyn Historical Society.
These interviews are made available for research purposes only. For more information about other kinds of usage and permissions, see BHS’s rights and reproductions policy.
Luis Gonzalez
Oral history interview conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel
October 23, 2014
Call number: 2015.011.09
0:00 - Introduction and moving from Puerto Rico to New York
1:31 - Leaving Puerto Rico for economic reasons
4:48 - East New York and surrounding neighborhoods in the late 1950s
6:52 - Relationship with Jewish neighbors
8:38 - Businesses change over from White ownership to Puerto Ricans
11:40 - Race relations and bullies at PS 87
14:31 - Friends and working in the neighborhood
16:57 - Jewish businesses and work at Belmont Avenue market
20:56 - Raised by single working mother
25:38 - White flight from the neighborhood
29:39 - Hispanic party and dance culture
32:24 - Neighborhood gangs
34:18 - Racial tensions in his apartment building
35:54 - Puerto Ricans become majority in the neighborhood
37:39 - Race relations and racism in the neighborhood
42:59 - East New York Vocational High School and race relations
45:46 - Puerto Rican view of Black Southerners
51:12 - Interracial friendships
52:08 - Puerto Ricans and class discrimination
54:23 - Decline of the neighborhood by late 1960s
59:20 - Work as a NYC Housing Authority Police officer and detective
67:14 - Discrimination contributing to poverty, welfare, and perspective of Whites
78:19 - Puerto Ricans return home in the late 1960s
79:44 - Drugs, organized crime, and decline of the neighborhood
85:36 - Conclusion
Interview Description
Oral History Interview with Luis Gonzalez
Luis Gonzalez was born in 1946 in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. His family moved to the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn in 1953, before settling in the Ocean Hill section of the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn (which he refers to as East New York) in 1955. He attended PS 87 and East New York Vocational High School, where he specialized in aviation. Gonzalez resided in the area until 1964, when he left to serve in the U.S. Air Force. He returned to New York in 1968 and later worked as a New York City Housing Police Department officer and detective. He moved back to Puerto Rico in 2001.
In the interview, Luis Gonzalez describes moving from Puerto Rico to Brooklyn, living in the Ocean Hill section of the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn (which he refers to as East New York), relationships with Jewish neighbors, working as a youth, race relations and bullying at school, White flight from the neighborhood, the rise of drugs and crime, and his work as a New York City Housing Police Department officer and detective. The interview was conducted remotely by Sarita Daftary-Steel in Brooklyn, New York and Gonzalez in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.
The collection consists of twenty oral history interviews (with nineteen narrators) conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel with residents (past and present) of the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. The interviews were conducted between January 2014 and February 2015. The project was designed to capture the experiences of East New York residents who lived in the neighborhood during the period when families of color (African American, West Indian, and Puerto Rican) moved in and White families moved out, and the resulting decline of services and quality of life that followed. This process began as early as the 1950s and continued through the rest of the twentieth century. Sarita Daftary-Steel is a community organizer who worked for United Community Centers from 2003 to 2013, most of those years as the East New York Farms! Project Director.
Citation
Gonzalez, Luis, Oral history interview conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel, October 23, 2014, Sarita Daftary-Steel collection of East New York oral histories, 2015.011.09; Brooklyn Historical Society.People
- East New York Vocational High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Gonzalez, Luis
- New York City Housing Authority. Police Department
- P.S. 87 (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
Topics
- Business enterprises
- Crime
- Drug traffic
- Housing
- Jews
- Public schools
- Puerto Ricans
- Race relations
Places
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Brownsville (New York, N.Y.)
- East New York (New York, N.Y.)
- Ocean Hill (New York, N.Y.)
Finding Aid
Sarita Daftary-Steel collection of East New York oral histories