Alianza Islámica opens in East Harlem

Puerto Rican converts found the nation's first Latino Muslim organization, with a storefront mosque on Lexington Avenue, La Mezquita del Barrio, alongside GED and ESL classes, health programs, and drug counseling.

The thread continues: Houston's IslamInSpanish opened Centro Islámico, the country's first Spanish-speaking Islamic center, in 2016. It echoes an older weave: Bengali Muslim sailors who settled in Harlem a century ago often married into Puerto Rican families (see An American Geography below).