Tonita's Club Fights Erasure
When you enter the Caribbean Social Club, or To\xf1ita\u2019s, it feels like you could be in your grandmother\u2019s living room. And that\u2019s exactly what its owner, Maria Antonia Cay \u2014better known as To\xf1ita\u2014 was aiming for when she opened the club in the 1970s as a gathering place for the local baseball team. 50 years later, To\xf1ita\u2019s is still standing in Los Sures, the south side of Williamsburg\u2014the most gentrified neighborhood in New York City. Yet over the years, To\xf1ita has faced ever greater challenges to keep her club open. In this episode of Latino USA, we follow To\xf1ita through her latest hurdle, a court battle, and we learn about how the Puerto Rican community in Los Sures has kept culture alive.