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At almost any hour of the day, El Building was like a monstrous jukebox, blasting out salsas from open windows as the residents, mostly new immigrants just up from the island, tried to drown out whatever they were currently enduring with loud music.

At the beginning of the story, Elena describes El Building, the large tenement she calls home. Most of the residents of El Building are newcomers from Puerto Rico who struggle to build a life in Paterson. El Building, like the people who live inside, doesn’t fit in Paterson. Large and shabby, El Building blocks the sunlight from the small house next door. Loud Caribbean music emanates from its windows. Ortíz Cofer describes the building as “monstrous,” suggesting that the music is disruptive and out of place in Paterson, an unwanted intrusion on a quiet city. At the same time, Elena alludes to the difficulty of the residents’ lives. The music that disrupts the peace of Paterson is loud in order to mask the suffering of those playing it. El Building is more than just Elena’s home. It’s characterization as an unwelcome and awkward part of the neighborhood reflects Elena’s sense of herself and the other immigrants as unwanted and unable to fit in with the native citizens of Paterson.

The chill was doing to me what it always did; entering my bones, making me cry, humiliating me. I hated the city, especially in winter. I hated Public School Number 13. I hated my skinny flat-chested body, and I envied the black girls who could jump rope so fast that their legs became a blur. They always seemed to be warm while I froze.

This passage at the beginning of the story shows how Elena’s discomfort in Paterson contributes to her negative self-image. Elena hates the cold weather mostly because her inability to keep warm demonstrates another way she is different from the other girls in Paterson. The Black girls in her class jump rope easily even on a cold winter day. Elena’s sense of alienation from the place she lives translates to her disliking her own body for seemingly betraying her by not being able to withstand the cold. Elsewhere in the story, Ortíz Cofer describes immigrants as invading the city, but in this scene, Paterson’s cold weather invades Elena’s bones, showing how Elena and Paterson are in constant opposition to one another. 

Small, neat, single residences like this one could be found right next to huge, dilapidated apartment buildings like El Building. My guess was that the little houses had been there first, then the immigrants had come in droves, and the monstrosities had been raised for them—the Italians, the Irish, the Jews, and now us, the Puerto Ricans and the blacks.

Toward the end of the story, Elena contrasts her home and Eugene’s as she walks to his house to study. El Building symbolizes Elena’s status as a Puerto Rican immigrant, while Eugene’s house next door represents his position as a white, native-born American. El Building, Elena’s home, is loud, shabby, undesirable, and out of place in Paterson. In contrast, Eugene’s house represents Paterson before the waves of immigrants whose arrival required the construction of more dense housing. Although he and his family are newcomers to the city, as white mainlanders, they are not seen as invaders like the Puerto Ricans. Although the residents of El Building work in the factories of Paterson and send their children to its schools, many residents view them as intruders whose presence has a negative effect on the town.

Next section The Tension Between the Desires of Children and Parents

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