Angel López saw something familiar in Martin Wong’s 1988 painting “Desire,” showing a wall of bricks in two ornate golden frames.
“It’s sparkling, inviting and intriguing, like New York,” said Mr. López, who, along with three other curators, chose the piece for an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. “But it also captures how harsh New York can be. Many of us end up facing a wall of bricks or hitting a brick wall.”
Born in Puerto Rico, Mr. López, 50, and his now wife, Libertad O. Guerra, 48, visited New York in 1999 to earn and save money for their next adventure — Istanbul or Lebanon, where they would study Islamic culture.
But they decided to stay. “I liked the city too much to leave,” said Mr. López, who goes by Monxo. “Everything was exciting, and we were having too much fun.”
Along the way, Mr. López became the Museum of the City of New York’s first Latinx permanent curator, and its first curator of community histories. He was part of the curation team for the museum’s “This Is New York: 100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture,” which includes Mr. Wong’s work and runs through July.
After several apartment stints — a shared basement room in Sunset Park, a railroad apartment in Bushwick, a one-bedroom in Fort Greene — Mr. López and his wife bought a four-story, landmark brownstone in Mott Haven, South Bronx, 20 years ago. They live there with their daughter, Xul Marina, 11.
“We love it here,” Mr. López said of the historic building, which includes stained-glass windows, a balcony and a garden. “This building has its own personality. It’s not a background to our lives, but one of the people in the conversation. I feel I’m living in a piece of history.”
STRONG COFFEE I wake up naturally at 8 a.m. My wife is still asleep. So is my daughter. I make stovetop espresso with a coffee called Café Lareño, which I take with almond milk. It’s from Puerto Rico and really strong, but not bitter. Friends bring it to us when they are visiting.
I get out of bed to buy Mexican tamales; they’re like cornmeal Hot Pockets with different fillings. Isabel, and her son, sell them from a supermarket cart on 138th Street, a block from my house. If I’m not there by 8:45, they’re gone. I get the one with cheese and peppers. They are hardy and filling. I might stop at the vegetable shop to pick up tofu, almond milk, scallions and tomatoes.
FRENCH NEWS When I get home, I bring coffee to my wife. My daughter wakes up and I make breakfast, because my wife makes it during the week. Usually it’s scrambled tofu, beans and the tamales.
Then we watch the news. Sometimes that’s France24, CNN in French, because my daughter goes to the École, a French school. In the house we speak Spanish, so we alternate between American news, CNN or MSNBC, and the French one, which gives us a more global perspective and a larger array of opinions on what is going on.
COMMUNITY GARDEN At 11:30, my daughter and I go to the Maria Solá Green Space on 134th and Lincoln Avenue. I’m part of the South Bronx Unite environmental justice coalition, which I co-founded with other neighbors from the area in 2012. We are a trust initiative fighting for a clean environment for the Bronx. A trust initiative takes land out of the real estate market so the community can enjoy it.
The green space was an abandoned garden. We revived it. We cleaned it and planted flowers and greens. We dug a pond and added solar energy. It’s in demand on the weekend. We have community meetings, birthday parties and holiday celebrations. It allows our kids to connect with nature.
ROAD RIDE By 1:30 we go home. My wife is ready, and we drive our white Tesla electric car — we take the subway during the week — to the museum where I work. I love cultural institutions. They protect us and bring us together. I like going without people knowing I’m the curator and hearing what they are saying about the exhibit. What you hear incognito is sincere. My wife and I get another coffee from the museum’s cafe, and my daughter gets a chocolate croissant. We usually see people we know because we all move in the same circles.
MORE CULTURE My wife is the executive director at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center on the Lower East Side. It’s a former public school that was abandoned in the ’70s and has been turned into a cultural center. It has theaters, galleries and 40 subsidized artist’s studios. There’s always something happening there — a matinee, an art show, a concert or a closing exhibition, so we head there next. The center is filled with memories. We got married there in 2010, before she got the job. We also had a band. We would perform and rehearse there, too. I played the guitar; she played the keyboard. Half the people in the band didn’t know how to play their instruments. It was a funny, punk experience.
MUSICAL MOMENTS We are home by 6 and everyone does their own thing. My wife reads the news or sends work emails. My daughter does homework or reads. She’s reading “El Relato del Inquisidor” (“The Inquisitor’s Tale”) by Adam Gidwitz. We give her space, but we are still supervising. I pick up the guitar. I’ve been playing for 38 years. It’s part of me. I learn new pieces all the time. Right now it’s very short, small, beautiful pieces by Domenico Scarlatti.
HOMEMADE MEAL We have a housemate, Maxim, a charming and smart political refugee from Uzbekistan who I met through a cultural exchange program. He has lived with us since 2012. He’s part of the family now. He’s a really good cook and makes manti, which is a dumpling/ravioli filled with potato, squash or pumpkin from Eastern Europe. He also bakes, so he might make a Belgian chocolate cake.
TV TIME We still watch old TV shows like “The Jeffersons,” Archie Bunker and Mary Tyler Moore. They are smarter and more courageous than a lot of TV shows nowadays, and they’re really funny. They are old but still relevant. We love Norman Lear. Before our daughter was born, he was part of the soundtrack of our lives in New York. It was part of the schooling we have put ourselves through to understand this place. We were really sad when he died.
NEW UNIVERSE Our daughter is showered and in bed by 8:45. I’m in bed by 9; my wife is exercising — she does yoga or spinning. I read for the next 30 minutes. I recently discovered Chinese science fiction. Western sci fi is more familiar. This tells more history of an unfamiliar world that generally doesn’t make it into mainstream sci fi. That’s refreshing and interesting. Right now I’m reading Liu Cixin’s “The Three-Body Problem.” I’m out by 9:30.
