Latino Urbanism revisited: placemaking in new gateways and the urban-rural interface

Abstract

Rapid and dramatic ¹ Latino/a population growth in recent years has taken place in ‘new gateways’, which include, notably, rural communities. Hence, as much as Latino Urbanism is shaping the metropolitan landscape, given these recent and ongoing demographic trends, efforts to understand and engage Latino/a placemaking must also attend to the rural realm. By studying an Iowan town we contribute to empirical research and ongoing discussions about Latino Urbanism by, first, bringing to the fore the question of how Latino/as are shaping the cultural, social and physical geographies of communities throughout rural America, second, by exploring empirically Latino rural placemaking practices within their socio-political and institutional milieu, and third, by considering the implications of such practices and contexts for planning and development.

Keywords:

• immigrant communities
• community planning
• new gateways
• public participation
• cultural change
• Latino Urbanism/ruralism

Notes

1. The terms ‘new gateways’ and ‘new destinations’ are used in the sociological literature that examines the changing geography of immigration to refer to those urban, suburban and rural communities, states and regions in which immigrant populations have historically been fairly small, but where these populations have grown significantly since the 1990s (Singer 2004. Jensen 2006, Massey 2008).

2. See Nasser (2005). ’New urbanism’ embraces Latinos. USA Today.

3. Research on new gateways has begun to document some areas of difference between established and new gateways, such as the history and timing of immigration, the size of immigrant populations, differences in institutional arrangements, and the repercussions these differences have for Latino/a lives (for a summary discussion of the sociological literature on this, see for example, Waters and Jimenez 2005). Nevertheless, these and other differences and their impacts remain in need of theorizing and empirical investigation.

4. We use the term ‘white’ to refer to what the Census calls ‘non-Hispanic Whites’, who constitute the vast majority of residents in Perry.

5. Arizona’s ‘Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act’ (SB 1070) was signed into law in April 2010. The measure requires state and local law enforcement agencies to check the immigration status of individuals it encounters, and makes it a state crime to be without proper immigration documentation.

6. We use the term ‘usual suspects’ to refer to those segments of the Latino/a population who are US born or are relatively ‘safe’ in the context of their immigration status (are US citizens, legal residents or have Temporary Protected Status), thereby having relative freedom to participate in public processes within community. This population tends to speak at least some English, have lived in their particular community for a relatively long time, and are often readily identified as Latino/a leaders in their community, often being involved with local formal organizations.

7. DeGenova noted that, in the context of surveillance and policing created by the Homeland Security State, immigrants’ life conditions are shaped by the threat or possibility of deportation, by the possibility of ‘removal’ from the space of the state, more than by deportation itself.