Introduction

Mr. Garcia Conde's tattoos are an homage to his roots in Puerto Rico. The one on the left is a Coqui frog symbol. The frog is native to Puerto Rico and symbolizes anything Puerto Rican. The one on the right is a Taino symbol of the sun. The Puerto Ricans believed that when the sun rose, it came from the cave Cacique Mautiatibuel, who is the Lord of the Dawn.

The 1970s Bronx was burning, but the world still thinks it's in flames — blogger Ed Garcia Conde wants to change that perception. He grew up in the South Bronx and saw the life that flourished during the crack epidemic and in between the rubble, but outside media never showed those narratives. So as Garcia Conde grew older, experienced the negative perceptions toward the South Bronx, and subsequently toward him, all he wanted was to leave the Bronx.

But life wasn't rosier after leaving his hometown. Garcia Conde detested living in New Jersey and felt lonely in his high-rise Manhattan apartment, so he decided to search for a new home. As Garcia Conde explored the different neighborhoods to find that sense of community he kept gravitating back toward Melrose, so he packed his belongings and returned to his hometown.

During his search, all the pictures of Melrose and of the South Bronx were familiar to him — they all showed the neighborhood still burning. So once he moved back, Garcia Conde sought to redirect the image by blogging about Melrose while living there, and he expanded to writing about the entire borough a few years later. He continues blogging to this day and is the authority of telling stories from within the Bronx — although not the only person reporting on daily life there, Garcia Conde was one fo the first to tell stories of the Bronx from within and continues to document all the life around him.