East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem and El Barrio, is a section of Harlem in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Harlem is one of the largest predominantly Latino communities in New York City. It includes the area formerly known as Italian Harlem, in which the remnants of a once-large Italian community remain. However, since the 1950s it has been dominated by residents of Puerto Rican descent, sometimes called Nuyoricans, as well as large populations of other Latin Americans and African-Americans.

The neighborhood boundaries are Harlem River to the north, the East River to the east, East 96th Street to the south, and Fifth Avenue to the west. The neighborhood is part of Manhattan Community Board 11. East 116th Street from 5th Avenue east to its termination at the FDR Drive is the most notable business hub of East Harlem along with a minor business hub along Third Avenue between E 103rd Street and E 110th Streets. The area is patrolled by both the 23rd Precinct located at 162 East 102nd Street and the 25th Precinct located at 120 East 119th Street.[1]

Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlem was annexed to New York City in 1873.

Harlem has been defined by a series of boom-and-bust cycles, with significant ethnic shifts accompanying each cycle. Black residents began to arrive en masse in 1904, with numbers fed by the Great Migration. In the 1920s and 1930s, the neighborhood was the focus of the "Harlem Renaissance", an outpouring of artistic and professional works without precedent in the American black community. However, with job losses in the time of the Great Depression and the deindustrialization of New York City after World War II, rates of crime and poverty increased significantly.

New York's revival in the late 20th century has led to renewal in Harlem as well. By 1995, Harlem was experiencing social and economic gentrification. Though the percentage of residents who are black peaked in 1950, the area remains predominantly black.