Bushwick has since emerged as the largest hub of Brooklyn's
Hispanic American community. Like other Hispanic neighborhoods in New York City, Bushwick has an established
Puerto Rican presence, along with an influx of many
Dominicans,
South Americans,
Central Americans and
Mexicans. As nearly 80% of Bushwick's population is Hispanic, its residents have created many businesses to support their various national and distinct traditions in food and other items. Sunset Park's population is 42% Hispanic, made up of these various ethnic groups. Brooklyn's main Hispanic groups are Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Dominicans and
Ecuadorians; they are spread out throughout the borough. Puerto Ricans and Dominicans are predominant in Bushwick,
Williamsburg's South Side and East New York. Mexicans (especially from the state of
Puebla) now predominate alongside Chinese immigrants in Sunset Park, although remnants of the neighborhood's once-substantial postwar Puerto Rican and Dominican communities continue to reside below 39th Street. Save for Red Hook (which remained roughly one-fifth Hispanic American as of the 2010 Census), the South Side and Sunset Park, similar postwar communities in other waterfront neighborhoods—including western Park Slope, the north end of Greenpoint, and
Boerum Hill, long considered the northern subsection of Gowanus—largely disappeared by the turn of the century due to various factors, including deindustrialization, ensuing gentrification and suburbanization among more affluent Dominicans and Puerto Ricans. A Panamanian enclave exists in
Crown Heights.