s 2 A-CR QI
3
I once read in a Ripley's Believe It or Not column that
Paterson, New Jersey, is the place where the Straight and
Narrow (streets) intersect. The Puerto Rican tenement
known as El Building was one block up from Straight. It
was, in fact, the corner of Straight and Market; not "at"
the corner, but the corner. 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.
But the day President Kennedy was shot, there was a
profound silence in El Building, even the abusive tongues
of viragoes, the cursing of the unemployed, and the
screeching of small children had been somehow muted.
-"American History,"
Judith Ortiz Cofer
Which detail shows the historical background of the
story's setting?
"silence in El Building"
"Paterson, New Jersey"
"the day President Kennedy was shot"
"the place where the Straight and Narrow (streets)
intersect
Done