Ernesto Quiñonez is a alumnus of the Jefferson Park Clubhouse of The Boys' Club of New York. A native and resident of East Harlem , Quiñonez is the author of the bestselling novel Bodega Dreams and Chango's Fire . In a Spike Magazine interview, Ernesto Quiñonez “explains that the setting is one of the most important things for him about the novel: ‘It's basically a fact in the United States, that a lot of Latino issues go uncovered, especially in neighbourhoods like Spanish Harlem. They get totally ignored...I name a lot of places in the novel because I want the world to know that they exist. I wanted to show that this is a neighbourhood that is vibrant and a big cultural force in New York City and that you can't keep ignoring us, we're part of the United States .'”

View pics from Ernesto's reading