Dear Anthony Bourdain,
I want to thank you for shining light on the positive parts of The Bronx. This episode of Parts Unknown has shown people all over the world that The Bronx is more than its reputation.
As a New Yorker, I would say that I have traveled around the city and into other boroughs, but one borough I haven’t explored as much is The Bronx. The reason I have stayed away from it is because of the reputation that it holds. It has been talked about in such a negative way and been portrayed as this crime-filled, dirty, scary place, but in reality, every place in New York has the potential to be like that, no matter where you are.
People from all over have their own ideas of The Bronx, but I have to say New Yorkers themselves always have the worst ideas of The Bronx. After looking through Twitter, I found these tweets, and I was shocked because it truly is something felt and thought among many New Yorkers. I feel like it has become more common to hear other New Yorkers say things like, “The Bronx mad dirty. Nobody go up there.” I think this idea is fed by New Yorkers themselves, which doesn’t help change the reputation of The Bronx.
This episode brought to light new ideas of The Bronx for me. It showed me the positive side and the community that resides there. I also thought that you did a phenomenal job of explaining and giving recognition to all the different cultures that are in The Bronx. But one thing that stuck with me was how I related to you when you said: “How ludicrously shameful is it that I can literally see my house from here and I basically have no f**king idea where I am.” Because while I was watching that scene of you in the park I was about 90% sure I could see my house, but I had no clue where you were. It is so weird how you are still in New York City but feel so far away from home and like you are somewhere completely new. I can’t help but agree with being ashamed that I had no clue where you were. But I think you bringing attention to that brought the viewers attention to that too, which created an interesting narrative while watching.
As one of your Bronx tour guides was talking about, “It is like traveling the world in your backyard.” That idea used to be part of the usual New York experience, but due to gentrification, you can see how that has changed in the past and continues to change now. When watching this episode, I was able to see how many different cultures are part of the thriving Bronx community and make it what it is. And when you were trying all the different foods, you were traveling the world and learning about all the different kinds of cuisine that exist and come from different cultures.
In the episode, you talked about the Garifuna people and their cuisine. I thought this was such an interesting portion of the episode because I had only heard about the Garifuna through maybe reading a paragraph on them in high school. I was born in Guatemala and had no clue that there was an Afro-Latinx community in Guatemala or that it connected with other Afro-Indigenous Latinx communities. After watching that section of the episode, I went on to do some research, and it led me to learn more about my home country and part of the culture there. It was fascinating, and I am so thankful you talked about it because I had no idea that that community existed in Guatemala, let alone as a larger ethnic group in The Bronx.
This episode was beyond impressive to me, and I found that your use of emotions and connection to The Bronx and your experience really opened the viewers’ eyes up. I found that I think your personal lens and terministic screen to view The Bronx was fascinating in the fact that you are a New Yorker, and this is technically part of your home area, but this specific place wasn’t. Seeing how your experiences and thoughts of New York contradicted The Bronx or agreed with it was really interesting.
I also found that the way you showed both the positive and somewhat negative sides of The Bronx was cool. You used rhetoric in the sense of choosing words that one could relate to but also one that showed the raw truth. For example, when you were talking about the crackheads, you didn’t refer to them as “drug addicts,” you referred to them as “crackheads.” That kind of lingo I feel is shared among all but especially New Yorkers; because we understand what a New York crackhead is. (Weird but it makes sense to us) Your use of information and language was interesting and made it feel like this episode was somewhat geared towards New Yorkers. I don’t know if that is true, but while I was watching it, that is kind of what I felt. I also found that throughout the episode the conversation between you, your guides, and the viewer was interesting and enhanced by the chosen music, sounds, and shots of buses and subways going by. The entire episode felt very “New York” but not in the horrible stereotypical way. I think those choices of music and certain scenic shots really added to the episode and enhanced the messages trying to be shown.
This episode of Part Unknown was eye-opening and made it possible for me to see The Bronx for more than its reputation. I am not from The Bronx, so I can’t say whether you did a good legitimate job of representing The Bronx, but from an outsider’s perspective, I have to say, it was well done and captivating. It left me wanting to learn more after watching it. But the only thing that I wish you had spent more time on was the art and graffiti sense of The Bronx. In NYMAG, they talked about how graffiti is such a large part of the history of The Bronx, and I think it is so interesting. I wish that aspect has been talked about more because I find that the history of art can really tell someone a lot about a place beyond what food can sometimes. But at the end of the day, this episode was well done and left me wanting to explore my city even more.
Thank you, and sincerely,
Kellin Hostler-Burrows
Travel Blog 