Nigel Spence

Moving to the Bronx from sunny and tropical Kingston, Jamaica in the late 70s was quite a departure from all that I was used to as a kid. At eleven-years-old, heading out to school for my first winter semester in a Bronx Public Junior High School was brutal.

Unlike now, Jamaica was not exactly on the minds of Bronx residents as a highly desired Caribbean vacation destination, hence most kids had never heard of it. The student body was comprised primarily of second and third generation Albanians and Italians, sprinkled with a few Puerto Ricans and African Americans, and a minute number of other ethnicities.