Barrio Urbanism; Chicanos, Planning and American Cities

THIS BOOK FOCUSES on Latinos in USA from a planning and urban policy perspective. It provides a substantial historic overview of the issue, tracing the movement of Latinos from Mexico to American cities, and describing the problems and prejudices that they face. The barrio is presented as a space of segregation and repression and the reaffirmation of the Chicana/o and Mexicana/o cultural identity. It relates to United States’ urbanism in terms of physical locale, economic inequality, cultural solidarity, racial injustice and political mobilization. The book is divided into four sections.

Chapter 1 introduces the topic with a critique of planning literature in relation to Chicana/o urbanism. The following chapters in the first section then review the initial economic, social and physical factors involved in the barrio urban formation from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Chapter 2 focuses on the early history of Chicana/o urban settlement patterns in the American southwest between 1900 and 1950: the impact of immigration from Mexico on Chicana/o urbanization, and the role of mining, agriculture and railroad industries. It also provides a review of historical literature documenting barrio formation in the cities. Chapter 3 documents the consolidation of Chicanas/os in cities between 1950 and 1975, with particular attention to the mass suburbanization context of changes in the residential patterns and social networks of some major US cities, context in which the character of Chicana/o urbanism was structured. Chapter 4 covers the urbanization process in the southwest from 1975 onwards. It looks at the impact of civil rights reforms on the social and economic contours of the barrio. It then focuses on the future geography of Chicana/o suburbs and their relationship to suburbanizing rings in metropolitan areas. A series of maps illustrates the impact of Chicana/o urbanism on different cities of the southwest.

Part II addresses a range of major urban issues that have affected the Chicana/o community. Chapter 5 deals with major questions around housing policy and the crisis of housing affordability in the barrios. Chapter 6 focuses on economic development and the structural role of barrio businesses as a permanent characteristic of urban form. Chapter 7 examines the current crisis with open space, cultural programmes and recreational amenities, which are of crucial importance to the community in densely populated barrio spatial systems. Chapter 8 provides an historical analysis of the antagonistic relationship between redevelopment policy and barrios. Part III relates the history of conflict between Chicanas/os, the planning profession and the urban cartel, characterized by multiple political controversies. Chapter 9 links the history of confrontational politics with the evolution of barrio-based social movements during the modern era of urban public policy, coinciding with the civil rights movement and the war on poverty. It is characterized by the political exclusion of the Chicana/o community, and the disparity in access to, and the censorship of, planning knowledge. Chapter 10 focuses on the politics of environmental justice and the history of regressive land use policy in barrios throughout the southwest. Chapter 11 documents the substantive and symbolic role of the Chicana/o community in the political, social and cultural transformations of Californian cities.

Part IV assesses how the recent arrival of Chicanas/os in public office is transforming the public policy arena in the southwest. Chapter 12 looks at the demographic trends that have reconstructed social, political and economic relations in the southwest, and the expansion of barrios as a response to global and regional economic demands. The effect of these changes on the future of political coalitions, as well as the question of land use policy in a new political environment where Chicanas/os have become the major force, are subsequently analyzed