Creativity Quote by James De La Vega

De La Vega isn’t pitching Spanish Harlem as a brand; he’s defending it as a lived inheritance. “I want people to take pride” lands less like a motivational poster and more like a corrective to a long history of being spoken about from the outside - by tabloids, politicians, real estate brochures, and “revitalization” plans that treat El Barrio as a problem to be solved. Pride here isn’t abstract self-esteem. It’s cultural self-defense.

The pivot is in the plainspoken “These are people that everyone in the community could relate to.” He’s describing an artistic choice: centering recognizable neighbors, local legends, everyday strivers. Not celebrities imported for clout, but figures whose stories circulate on stoops, in bodegas, in school hallways. That relatability is the point. It builds a shared vocabulary of belonging, a mirror large enough for a community that’s often flattened into stereotypes.

“People who mean something special to us” does quiet but potent boundary work. The “us” draws a line against voyeuristic consumption of the neighborhood - the kind that loves the aesthetics of Puerto Rican and Dominican New York while pricing out the people who made it. De La Vega’s intent reads as preservation through representation: if you can see your people celebrated, you’re less likely to accept narratives that erase them.

As an artist, he’s also signaling responsibility. Public-facing images don’t just decorate a place; they decide who counts there. His subtext: Spanish Harlem’s most valuable landmark is its people, and art should treat them like it.