NEW YORK AP – Over the past 20 years, Jorge Ayala has seen the transformation here in “El Barrio”: abandoned storefronts turned into chain stores, public schools became bilingual, Mexicans moved in next to Puerto Ricans, and Spanish Harlem changed from ghetto into destination.
The change in Ayala’s neighborhood reflects the growth of Latinos in America, who celebrated a huge milestone Tuesday when Sonia Sotomayor, the New York City-born daughter of Puerto Rican parents, was nominated to be the first Hispanic justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
