Barrio Dreams: Puerto Ricans, Latinos, and the Neoliberal City

by Arlene Dávila

Arlene Dávila brilliantly considers the cultural politics of urban space in this lively exploration of Puerto Rican and Latino experience in New York, the global center of culture and consumption, where Latinos are now the biggest minority group. Analyzing the simultaneous gentrification and Latinization of what is known as El Barrio or Spanish Harlem, Barrio Dreams makes a compelling case that―despite neoliberalism's race-and ethnicity-free tenets―dreams of economic empowerment are never devoid of distinct racial and ethnic considerations.

Dávila scrutinizes dramatic shifts in housing, the growth of charter schools, and the enactment of Empowerment Zone legislation that promises upward mobility and empowerment while shutting out many longtime residents. Foregrounding privatization and consumption, she offers an innovative look at the marketing of Latino space. She emphasizes class among Latinos while touching on black-Latino and Mexican-Puerto Rican relations. Providing a unique multifaceted view of the place of Latinos in the changing urban landscape, Barrio Dreams is one of the most nuanced and original examinations of the complex social and economic forces shaping our cities today.

Genres: Urban Studies, Nonfiction, Urban, Latinx, New York, Anthropology, Unfinished

271 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2004

Reviews

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for the "right" answer to questions regarding urban (and in this case, largely Latin@) space, the objectification of culture, gentrification, etc etc, this isn't the book for you. What the author has done in Barrio Dreams is lay out the facts and thoroughly document development, policy, community outcry and conflict in East Harlem-- doing a great job, I thought, in presenting the complexities of these issues, both in themselves and when having to be considered simultaneously. It's an interesting read; certainly offered a few points I hadn't fully considered before on my own.

[Drew Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some chapters are a little dry but others are really engaging and informative. Overall a very good book about Spanish Harlem and gentrification.

[Draco3seven Crawdady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neoliberal Barrio...

[Sophia Cheng · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's great to have books talking about culture and gentrification, but I thought this book was kind of rambling. It had a lot of descriptions but not many arguments or points.