South Bronx History Keepers Spotlight: How a Memory Becomes a Window Into the Past

A Bronx elder’s story helps show why preserving community memories matters.

Note: This is a photorealistic A.I. reimagining of Westchester Avenue and Tiffany Street in the 1960s South Bronx, reflecting how the area may have looked during the years Ms. Wilma’s family ran J and S Trimmings. Created for editorial use only and not an exact likeness of the business or historic corner.

In the 1960s, families across the country gathered around their televisions to see The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show, find enlightenment in Rod Serling’s storytelling on The Twilight Zone, or watch Nichelle Nichols break new ground on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.

While moments like these shaped the national conversation, another kind of story was quietly forming in the South Bronx, inside a small shop called J and S Trimmings, a store on the corner of Westchester and Tiffany. A young girl named Wilma grew up there surrounded by the everyday rhythm of her family’s buttonhole business. A young Ms. Wilma did not know it then, but the memories she carried would one day become a window into the South Bronx’s past.

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A guided tour invites Bronx residents and visitors to explore the murals, artists, and community history behind the Boone Avenue Walls movement.

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Ms. Wilma shares photographs and a piece of blue sequin trim from her family’s 1960s shop, J and S Trimmings, during a South Bronx History Keepers session. Image Courtesy of Sonyi Lopez/South Bronx History Keepers

Those memories surfaced decades later at a South Bronx History Keepers show and tell session, where she arrived with black and white photographs from her youth and a sparkly blue sequin trim from the shop. Coordinator Sonyi Lopez recalls how the room shifted when Ms. Wilma began speaking.

She brightened as she talked about growing up in the South Bronx, remembering how a buttonhole cost just twenty-five cents back then. One quote stayed with the group. She told the room, “I am from the Bronx, born in the Bronx. Here I was bred, and when I am gone, I will be a Bronxite dead.” Those in attendance wished there had been more time to listen, and her daughter later said the space felt especially meaningful for her mother.

Moments like this show why the program matters, Lopez noted. She hopes the oral histories being gathered will help young people learn parts of Mott Haven’s story they may not find in textbooks.

Lopez explained that she wishes she had known more of this history when she was younger and hopes the stories being preserved now will guide others who want to understand where they come from. She also shared a dream for the future. “A dream I have is for the history of each Bronx neighborhood to be etched into the curriculum at public schools.”

Coordinator Sonyi Lopez of the South Bronx History Keepers, seen in the image announcing 2024 History Keeper Members: Courtesy of The Bronx County Historical Society

For Lopez, being a South Bronx History Keeper is not about holding every detail. It is about listening to the people who were here before and making sure their stories continue forward. She says the role comes with a deep sense of responsibility to community, and that it is not reserved for a select few. It belongs to anyone who feels proud of where they are from or is curious about the history around them. Sonyi Lopez's message is simple. “You, too, are a history keeper.”

The South Bronx History Keepers program builds on the Mott Haven Oral History Project's success by gathering firsthand stories from the South Bronx. It connects residents who collect memories with institutions like the Bronx County Historical Society for training and archiving.

The next South Bronx History Keepers session, Oral History Night, will take place on Tuesday, December 9, from 5 to 630 p.m. at the Mott Haven Library. The session will feature clips from recorded interviews about Mott Haven and introduce newcomers to the basics of oral history methods.

From a childhood memory inside a modest trimming shop to a modern gathering of neighbors and storytellers, Ms. Wilma’s contribution shows how personal history can help preserve the identity of an entire community. Her voice, along with the work of those helping record these stories, reminds us that the Bronx lives on through what people carry and choose to share.

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