Nida Rivera, is also known as La Nena, but in reality she is the true queen of beans with candy in Washington Heights.
“Here people are crazy, crazy, crazy. Wherever the men cry, saying that the joy of Manhattan is gone, that the joy of here is gone,” says Rivera, explaining how the neighbors have taken the death of his daughter.
Nida Rivera thus remembers Isabel Peralta. For more than 20 years they worked together at the helm of this sweet beans business, located at the corner of 182nd Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue.
During the completion of this report, the customers who arrived could not believe that Isabel, or how they knew her here, Chabe, I would not return to attend the position.
“Oh, I feel very bad, because she was very loved. Good nice, a good person nice. It depresses me a lot, “says one of the clients.
Someone else added: “Very sad and sorry for Chabe’s death. Very beautiful person.”
Doña Nena and her children have become characters in this neighborhood. They were one of the first to make the Dominican dessert popular in Washington Heights.
According to Isidro Medina, executive director of Washington Heights BID: “Doña Nena, along with Chabe, have been icons of what Upper Manhattan is. People from Connecticut, New Jersey or Pennsylvania come here to buy their beans with candy.
This afternoon, clients and friends continued to decorate a makeshift altar to remember the woman as a person of contagious joy.
Elvido Pérez, who was her husband, said: “The whole world is destroyed, because, imagine, she was the point of joy here.
Many remember Isabel as a very generous person, always ready to help those most in need.
Manuel Rivera describes himself as a homeless person in the area who, along with others like him, came daily with Isabel to look for food, beans with sweets and even clothes.
“And in truth this companion, sister, never turned her back on us, she helped us a lot,” recalls Rivera.
Isabel died last week of a stroke, according to her mother, she was 42 years old.
Nida Rivera remembers of her daughter: “She was the love of my life. That was the papaupa here. Even though it was snowing, she would not stop coming and she said to me: Mom stay, I’m going.”
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