Sábado en la Ciento Diez (Saturday on 110th Street)

1996 110th Street (6) New York City Transit

Artist Manny Vega's childhood memories are revealed in the station's artwork, a series of four mosaics panels. The panels - “Earth,” “Air,” “Fire,” and “Water “- capture the joyous, colorful atmosphere of la ciento diez in images that make the neighborhood come alive. “Air” illustrates a typical summer-in-the-city diversion: children playing under the spray of a fire hydrant (a piraguero shaves a block of ice to make tropical fruit-flavored snow cones of guava, papaya, mango, and tamarindo.) In “Earth,” a street vendor sells bananas, plantains, papayas, avocados, and coconuts. Shangó - a deity from the Yoruba pantheon - embodies Harlem's West African roots in “Fire,” dancing to the beat of three bata drummers. In “Water,” an elderly woman represents motherhood as she carries a bouquet of flowers and leads a child by the hand from a neighborhood botánica.