Photographer: H Fruchtman for the Health of Philadelphia Photo-Documentation Project.
About The Photograph
Parts of the city are in an economic upswing, but even "progress" has its costs. Residents repeatedly describe the ways in which places and people are central to their health and wellbeing. In one predominantly Puerto Rican community, residents spoke of their loyalty to the neighborhood, even as they saw it rapidly gentrifying and pricing them out. One woman described the way she saw her "people being pulled out like sweet potatoes, roots and all—and their health has never been the same since." Some have resisted the change, ardently.
If you look over there on that wall there is a tree and the words 'aqui me quedo' and that was their saying 'you're never going to take me out of here—I am going to stay here.' 
-Health of Philadelphia Participant
