Growing up in New York, photographer Joseph Rodriguez would take the subway from Brooklyn to east Harlem, where his uncle had a sweet shop, to spend time with the local Latino community (Rodriguez is of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan descent). He spent five years “sitting down at kitchen tables and listening to people’s stories”; the photographs he took are collected in Spanish Harlem: El Barrio in the 80s, published on 21 November by PowerHouse Books. “The only time local newspapers mentioned El Barrio was when crimes were committed,” says Rodriguez. “I knew I had to spend time to try and break these stereotypes. It’s important to show how that era was for people, to show their grit and resilience against social injustice.”

Joseph Rodriguez is represented by the Bene Taschen Gallery in Cologne, Germany