Barrio

Definition

Barrios are found throughout Latin America as well as within the United States and include residential, commercial, and industrial properties. William Siembieda and Eduardo Lopez Moreno asserted that the term has become a descriptive category and not a functional concept of daily life. The barrio is identified objectively, positively, or negatively. When barrios are operationalized objectively, the focus centers on delimiting geographical census tracts and spatial boundaries, while identifying demographic trends. When barrios are operationalized negatively, they are described as deteriorated urban areas occupied by impoverished Latinos.

Since the barrio is a place of commerce and residence, Emmanuelle LeTexier characterized it by demographic, socioeconomic, and political criteria. Demographic criteria include those who reside in the barrio. Since the majority of barrio residents are of Latin American origin, most services available to community residents cater to this demographic population.

The second criterion of a barrio is based upon socioeconomic factors, usually referring to measures of education, income, and occupation. Although barrios include Latinos from all socioeconomic backgrounds, the majority of Latino communities identified as barrios in the United States tend to include low-income residents. Low socioeconomic factors result in restricted opportunities, resulting in high unemployment rates, low median household incomes, and a population that according to national decennial census data subsists below the national poverty level.

The third criterion of a barrio is political. A resident's immigration status is a highly political position in a community. Many barrios, especially those marked by economic deprivation, include residents who are undocumented, or who reside illegally in the United States. This criterion impacts the services rendered to a community or neighborhood by local, city, state, and national agencies.

Barrio as Symbol and Community

Residents

The barrio is a symbolic place of identification, whereby residents may affiliate themselves, first, with their barrio, and, secondarily, with their city, state, region, or country. In contemporary urban research, residents of the barrio might be labeled as members of the underclass, a group marked by low median annual [Page 135]incomes and low school retention rates. Some people also choose to live in ethnically concentrated barrios because of shared differences from the host (e.g., predominantly Anglo) society, regardless of socioeco-nomic status.

Mariachis in East Los Angeles, California. The barrio is a place of both work and residence. Without work at the end of the day, these Mariachis ponder their next move at La Placita in East Los Angeles, California (June 18, 2003). East Los Angeles's population is 98% Latino and is the oldest Latino immigrant neighborhood in Los Angeles.

Source: Getty Images.

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