Week 8: Gentrification and the Barrio

(On Arlene Davila's Barrio Dreams Introduction, chapters 1-3, and Conclusion)

I had the privilege to take a seminar taught by Professor Davila with less than ten other students. Barrio Dreams was one of many readings that illustrated and explained the spatial organization of Latino/as. We went over complicated nature of the particular 'ethnic group' in America due to its diversity. Although people view them all as belonging to one group, they separate themselves and relate more to those from the same country and/or place. Thus there are tension between, say, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans that are not addressed. This difference in affiliation and alliance brings in politics into the picture, which naturally involves power struggle. As a result, the spatial manifestation and commodified culture of Latino/as are the result of deliberate processes of gentrification and marginalization. Davila attempts to provide an insider's insight with knowledge and understanding that one can only have as a Latina.

As its title suggests, chapter one was about housing and the claim over East Harlem. We've been going over residential segregation and homeownership so housing didn't interest me as much as it did last year. It was, however, nice to add on information that I have learned since the last time I read the chapter. I was able to apply the knowledge that urban renewal, such as that by Robert Moses, and gentrification is the processes that allow "white yuppies" take over Manhattan and Spanish Harlem. Chapters two started making connections between culture and place, connections that were focused upon more in chapter three, in which Davila argued that culture is commodified to represent and sell space. Before the process of gentrification, before the development of "cultural industries and entertainment infrastructure, Upper Manhattan communities (comprising Washington Heights and West, Central, and East Harlem were left with marketing their culture and the ethnic and historical identification of their neighborhoods" (99). The resultant commodified Latino culture and "embracing these institutions came at a cost. Not only did they ease the path for new developments in the area, but they also fed into the dominant alternative multicultural history for East Harlem" (106). Davila ends the chapter discussing the opportunities and perils provided by tourism. Tourism and "tourist enthusiasts found themselves supporting projects implicated in the area's gentrification" and led to Edison project and the Museum for African Art.

Davila leaves "some final words" ending the book on a hopeful note that we will sooner or later be able to see contradictions that will guide "us toward more appropriate and equitable urban and cultural policies" (214).