LeAna López’s hips cue the musician, who, in a direct and improvised exchange, mirrors her movements on the primo, the lead drum of Puerto Rican bomba. The rhythm — born on Puerto Rico’s slave plantations in the 17th century — reverberates on this occasion inside a church in East Harlem, the Manhattan neighborhood known as El Barrio. The roar of the barrel drums builds, and, as the music reaches its peak, the scene seems to shift to the northeastern coast of the Caribbean island, to Loíza, the cradle of Afro–Puerto Rican culture. But in an instant, the traffic on Lexington Avenue breaks the spell, serving as a reminder: this is New York.
Ángel Jiménez’s La Lechonera La Piraña is one of the few places outside of Puerto Rico where you can eat an authentic plate of lechón boricua. For the last 20 years in a trailer in the Bronx, Jiménez begins cooking pork before dawn and opens at midday on Saturdays and Sundays for those who snag a place in line before he sells out. He runs the business on his own, cooking, serving and chatting with clientele, always with a beer in hand.
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