El Grito de Sunset Park facts for kids
El Grito de Sunset Park gathering in 2016
|
|
| Formation | c. 2002 |
|---|---|
| Type | 501(c)(3) organization |
| Location | |
El Grito de Sunset Park is a group started by Puerto Ricans in Brooklyn, New York. This organization works to help its community and is known for watching how the police act.
History of El Grito
One of the people who helped start El Grito de Sunset Park is Dennis Flores. He began watching and recording what the New York City Police Department did way back in 1995. He was very dedicated to this work.
Dennis Flores and others created El Grito de Sunset Park in 2002. This was before it was common for people to film police activities. Flores shared that the group started with money he received after a difficult experience with the police in 2002. In 2015, the group officially became a 501(c)(3) organization, which means it's a non-profit group that does good work for the public.
The organization grew from the Sunset Park neighborhood in Brooklyn, where many Puerto Rican families live. The name "El Grito" means "the cry" or "the call" in Spanish. It reminds people of important independence movements like El Grito de Lares in Puerto Rico and El Grito de Dolores in Mexico. El Grito de Sunset Park also has connections to the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican group that worked for social change.
The people who started El Grito were inspired by social movements in Latin America. For example, Dennis Flores saw how people organized in the Mexican city of Oaxaca in 2006 and 2007. Another co-founder, Jason Del Aguila, worked in Guatemala and El Salvador, learning about community efforts there.
What El Grito Does
El Grito de Sunset Park does many things to help its community. They organize art festivals, speak out against gentrification, and continue to photograph police activities. Gentrification is when a neighborhood changes, often becoming more expensive, which can make it hard for long-time residents to afford to live there.
When the group first started, they would film how police responded to the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Sometimes, these responses were not peaceful. Over time, the group began filming police actions all year round.
In 2012, El Grito supported a rent strike in Sunset Park. A rent strike is when tenants (people who rent homes) refuse to pay rent to protest unfair conditions or rent increases. The group also creates videos that celebrate Hispanic music and spoken word poetry.
Since 2015, El Grito de Sunset Park has organized its own Puerto Rican Day Parade and Festival. This event helps celebrate Puerto Rican culture in Brooklyn. After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, the group worked hard to collect and send important supplies to the island to help those affected.
El Grito's videos have also made a difference. In 2014, one of their videos helped a teenager in Sunset Park avoid charges. In 2015, another video helped a Mexican street vendor who was accused of attacking a police officer. These videos showed what really happened and helped people get fair treatment.
