Take a walk through East Harlem, New York City, where the Puerto Ricans first got their taste of America through "El Barrio", the short story that lends its name to the book title. From a young man who expresses his rights in the streets to a politician who hands out leaflets about a celebrated couple's marriage to a young woman who works hard to make her apartment a better place to live in to an entrepreneur extraordinaire who buys and sells everything and anything to a diminutive nun whose political views lean toward Puerto Rican nationalism, the story portrays how they challenge their destinies in this foreign land. Slowly, they try to fulfill their dreams of prosperity, to ply their trades and test their mettle against fate, to build their empires, to find their futures, and to seek and conquer new worlds.

Wrapped with a sundry of emotions, El Barrio presents a collection of author Humberto Cintron's selected poems in English and in Puerto Rican Spanish and short stories that capture the soul of a Puerto Rican living in America, one that has dreams of soaring high yet also seeks the comfort of his hometown.