Paterson, New Jersey, 1980s

The primary setting for "Wildwood" and the American locus of Junot Díaz's fictional universe, Paterson is a former manufacturing hub on the famous falls of Northern New Jersey's Passaic river. One of the largest cities in the state, and once a booming, beautifully-set metaphor for American modernity and might, Paterson for several decades has been known for its urban blight in the wake of an eroding economic base and is consistently ranked one of the worst places to live in the U.S. In the latter decades of the 20th century, Paterson, like most of the New York metropolitan area, became a center of immigration from Latin America among other regions, and author Diaz himself moved there from the Dominican Republic with his family around the same time as his creations Lola and Oscar would have been born there.

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