The Tenement Museum - or “The Time Machine” as it should be called.

Sometimes having no expectations proves to be the smartest thing you could do. I had never heard of the Tenement Museum before and did not know what to expect. Now I understand why Shae had said it was one of his favorite places in New York City. Before the visit, I tried googling it, but still I was not too sure what it was all about. So I decided to go with an open mind and let it surprise me. Boy, was I surprised.

This is not your traditional museum. As soon as you cross the door, you step into a time machine that takes you to an 1870’s German beer saloon, a kosher butcher’s, an auctioneer and an undergarment store. All throughout the visit, you can feel what the place must have been like. You can sit at the table in the saloon, visit the kitchen and interact with the different objects from that time. You can listen to stories from the people who walked those rooms, who drank at those bars, who sold at those stores.

Coming from an immigrant family (like most of us), I could truly connect with the stories we were presented. In fact, one of the immigrant boys who once lived at 97 Orchard St was a delivery boy for his parents’ business, just like my uncle, who delivered pasta on his bike to help his family make ends meet.

Both Buenos Aires and New York share an immigrant past, hard stories of exile, of broken families, of new opportunities, of a new life. It certainly changed the way I see this city now.