A street sign. Paterson New Jersey

Forms part of a group of images documenting Grini's Fashions & Bakery.
These signs were erected when the Farmacia on the corner was Irving Pharmacy, when the surrounding neighborhood was populated mainly by Irish and Italians, and when St. John the Baptist Cathedral, a small portion of which is visible in the background of this frame, was not a Spanish-speaking parish. Today, this sign might bear the names of such places as Lima, Santo Domingo, San Juan, or San Salvador, and the orientation it offers, rather than being strictly geographical as in the old but still present sign, might be cultural, and be relevant more to individual and collective identities than to orientation or direction in space.