Dominoes | Historical Context

Dominoes Historical Context

The Puerto Rican Community in East Harlem

The New York Puerto Rican culture in which "Dominoes" takes place is the same culture in which Agüeros was born and raised. The area known as East Harlem or Spanish Harlem stretches from Central Park on the west to Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive on the east and between East 97th Street in the south and East 118th Street in the north. It includes the part of Lexington Avenue mentioned in the story, where Alma hopes to go to the movie theater. (Lexington Avenue is also where the Agüeros family moved in 1941.) And Alma's boyfriend Pee Wee lives in the heart of Spanish Harlem, on 112th Street, near Third Avenue.

During the middle of the twentieth century, large numbers of Puerto Ricans, as well as African Americans, began to move into East Harlem. In 1930, there were 45,000 Puerto Ricans living in New York City; by 1950, this number...
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