Latinos in Cities and Suburbs

A Hispanic urban neighborhood in the United States and Latin America is called a barrio from the Latin barium, meaning part of the city. Other names for Latino neighborhoods indicate the origins of a particular group living in an area. For example, Cuban immigrants created “Little Havana” in Miami, and residents from Sonora in Mexico created “Sonoratowns” in cities of the Southwest.

The earliest barrio residents were Mexicans who had lived in the Southwest since it was controlled by Spain, beginning in 1690. Mexico ruled the region from 1810 to 1848, when the United States annexed the Southwest after the Mexican War. Under the American flag, the separate Anglo settlements sprawled out and surrounded the smaller Mexican communities, and so by the late 1800s, Mexicans lived in cities controlled by Anglos.

As the Southwest economy grew, these Mexican neighborhoods became sources of labor for the cities, railroads, farms, and mines. Like European immigrants, Mexicans and other Latinos became segregated as a result of chain migration along with poverty and discrimination. However, as immigration increased in the 20th century, Mexicans became dominant in border cities like Laredo, Texas, which was more than 80 percent Mexican and Mexican American by 1960.

East Coast barrios formed in a more familiar way. In the 19th century, Spanish, Cuban, and Puerto Rican immigrants carved out neighborhoods where they found work: in factories, on the docks, and in construction. After World War II, Puerto Ricans settled in New York, where they worked in factories and on the docks. Others went to the Midwest, first working as farm laborers and then migrating into the cities for factory jobs. Like Cuban Jose Martí, some Latino immigrants were refugees fleeing oppressive regimes at home, and they used the barrio as a base for political activities.

In the 20th century, farm, factory, and railroad jobs lured Latinos (mostly Mexicans) to the Midwest, and in the 1920s, barrios appeared in cities. During the Great Depression, the Latino urban population declined, but with World War II, Mexican immigrants returned seeking the same kinds of jobs.

Barrios grew across the United States during the 20th century for various reasons. Latinos moved to cities for better jobs, but discrimination and poverty restricted them to poorer neighborhoods. Mechanization of agriculture after World War II decreased agriculture jobs and propelled urban migration. In the Southwest, the burgeoning Sun Belt economy saw rapid job growth in cities like Houston, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

Many Latino immigrants, like other immigrants, were conflicted about leaving their homeland for the United States. Many longed for home, but once they had American-born children or they found adequate employment, they delayed the return. As a result, barrios served as transnational conduits where they could maintain connections with the old country via railroad, highway, telephone, telegraph, airplane, theater, television, and more recently computer. In the barrios, Latinos formed hometown clubs, mutual aid societies (mutualistas), and labor and merchant associations that also had connections to the old country. On the East Coast, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans owned bodegas (corner grocery stores) and botánicas (pharmacies) that provided ethnic foods and religious and health items while serving as social and information centers. Ethnic retail stores, restaurants, and bars, Spanish-language media, and arts centers also served to maintain traditions.

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