Hispanic Spaces, Latino Places Chapter Six

1
Hispanic Spaces, Latino PlacesChapter Six

• Barrio Space and Place in Southeast Los Angeles,
  California

2
Introduction

• City of Vernon
• Exclusive industrial town
• Home to one of the largest and highest
  concentrations of Latinos in Southern California
• A generation ago, this area was dominated by
  assembly-line industries such as automobiles,
  steel, glass, tires, and consumer durables, as
  well as meatpacking
• Area was composed almost exclusively of
  native-born whites who embraced an array of
  discriminatory policies and practices that
  promoted racial and ethnic discrimination

3
Topics

• In this chapter the author examines
• the factors and processes responsible for the
  formation, growth, and contemporary character of
  Southeast L.A. as a Hispanic space and Latino
  place,
• contends that from a metropolitan-wide
  perspective, the southeast region represents the
  newest barrio type in an evolving sociospatial
  pattern of Latino settlement and culture in the
  greater city and
• maintains that while the Latino tenure has
  altered the Southeasts cultural landscape, the
  material and infrastructural legacy inherited
  from preceding occupants was generous and
  continues to exert a pervasive influence on the
  areas built environment and sense of place

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Southeast L.A.

• Sometimes called L.A.s empty quarter, rust
  belt, or armpit
• Author calls it a vanquished industrial
  wasteland, an urban eyesore, and a civic
  embarrassment.
• Includes areas that are immediately south of
  downtown L.A.
• Consists of cities including Bell, Cudahy,
  Huntington Park, Maywood, South Gate, Vernon, and
  Walnut Park
• As defined above, the Southeast population
  totaled 262, 858, according to the 2000 Census.
• Predominantly Hispanic
• 67-77 Mexican
• Others include Peruvians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans,
  and Central Americans, especially Salvadorans

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A Typology of Barrios in the Hispanization of L.A.

• As a consequence of the long tenure of Latinos in
  the region, Hispanic communities in L.A. have
  evolved and changed over time.
• For most of the history of L.A., the barrio was a
  rather small, insular Mexican enclave that
  focused on the citys main plaza
• Marginalized community that evolved as a
  consequence of Spanish colonial town planning,
  limited population size, and socioeconomic
  factors
• After 1910, the plaza-based barrio was supplanted
  by numerous urban colonias, occupied almost
  exclusively by residents of Mexican ancestry
• Several colonias created a single dominant Latino
  place, creating a hierarchy and then continuing
  to its metropolitan form

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Reindustrialization and Barrioization

• The flight of Anglos from the Southeast created a
  significant housing opportunity for incoming
  Latinos
• Houses and apartments were readily available, and
  home prices and rents plunged, at least
  initially.
• By the mid-1980s, explosive Latino growth had
  already pushed the existing housing stock to the
  threshold of saturation
• In response, single-family homes were replaced
  with new multifamily complexes and small
  apartments were built on the back property of
  existing homes
• Tens of millions of dollars annually were lost as
  a result of plummeting sales, property,
  corporate, and personal taxes due to plant
  closures and downsizing in those that remained in
  operation
• Foreign entrepreneurs, especially Asians,
  converged on the area to introduce a plethora of
  smaller-scale replacement industries such as
  textiles, apparel, dyeing, furniture making and
  upholstery, beverage processing, and many more
• Sound fiscal policy along with revitalization of
  the areas commercial districts and strips have
  influenced Latino character of the area and
  improved its quality of life since the late 1980s

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Conclusion

• Through the process of barrioization, the
  Southeast L.A. area has been enlivened with a
  distinctive Hispanic personality and verve
• As inadequate or overcrowded as they may have
  become, the existence of public facilities such
  as schools and churches enhances the quality of
  personal and social life and contributes to a
  strong sense of order, stability, and identity