Tag Archives: Hispanic Heritage Month

Art, history, State History

Recording Latin Music History in New York City 

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Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001, Casa Amadeo, antigua Casa Hernández is best known as the Bronx’s longest continually run music establishment and the oldest Latin music store in New York City. The store’s founder, Victoria Hernández, is one of the earliest female Puerto Rican entrepreneurs in the city. The National Register listing highlights her story and the lasting impact she had on the city’s Latin music scene.  

This history is just part of the story! Read the complete nomination for Casa Amadeo. 

Looming on a corner along Prospect Avenue in the Bronx, this 1905 Neo-Renaissance style apartment building is home to a cornerstone of New York City’s Latin music history.  

Historical black and white photograph of the Manhanset Building in the Bronx, featuring the storefront of Casa Amadeo on the ground floor, showcasing Neo-Renaissance architectural style with decorative cornices and windows.
The Manhanset, home to Casa Amadeo, antigua Casa Hernández, in operation since 1941. Casa Amadeo National Register nomination | Photographer: Martha Cooper (September 2000)
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Family Fun, Flora & Fauna, Stewardship

Sunken Meadow and Audubon NY Celebrate Latino Conservation Week

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On Sunday afternoon, September 15, New York State Parks partnered with Audubon New York to host the second annual Latino Conservation Week event at Sunken Meadow State Park attended by hundreds of patrons. The goal of the event was to increase accessibility of coastal education and outreach messaging, including Audubon New York’s shorebird conservation outreach to the Latine community on Long Island. Towards this goal, four Spanish language interpreters lent their services to make this a bilingual event.

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Park History, Park Personnel

Hispanic / Latinx Staff Reflect on Roberto Clemente During Hispanic Heritage Month

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Hispanic Heritage Month, spanning mid-September to mid-October, is a time for Latinx people in the U.S. to celebrate their roots. Through the vantage of Hispanic / Latinx staff, we reflect on the namesake for Roberto Clemente State Park — the sole park in our system named in honor of a Hispanic icon.

Roberto Clemente State Park first opened in 1973 as the Harlem River Bronx State Park. In that same year, the New York State Commission met to rename the park after the famous Puerto Rican Hall of Fame Baseball player, Roberto Clemente, who tragically died in a plane crash off the coast of Puerto Rico taking aid to Nicaragua. 

The decision to rename the park after Clemente was not because he was a famous baseball player, but because he believed in helping people and doing good. He was truly a humanitarian. “Anytime you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on Earth,” he once said.

I am joyful to be a Latina “Boricua” and oversee the first State Park built in New York City, and especially proud that it holds the name of Roberto Clemente. When I was a young child, I remember my mother speaking about how, although we came from a town next to his, our cousins lived in the town Roberto Clemente came from. I often remember him and think of my baseball card collection.

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