Abstract Barrios: The Crises of Latinx Visibility in Cities
Johana Londoño
(Author)
Description
In Abstract Barrios Johana Londoño examines how Latinized urban landscapes are made palatable for white Americans. Such Latinized urban landscapes, she observes, especially appear when whites feel threatened by concentrations of Latinx populations, commonly known as barrios. Drawing on archival research, interviews, and visual analysis of barrio built environments, Londoño shows how over the past seventy years urban planners, architects, designers, policy makers, business owners, and other brokers took abstracted elements from barrio design--such as spatial layouts or bright colors--to safely "Latinize" cities and manage a long-standing urban crisis of Latinx belonging. The built environments that resulted ranged from idealized notions of authentic Puerto Rican culture in the interior design of New York City's public housing in the 1950s, which sought to diminish concerns over Puerto Rican settlement, to the Fiesta Marketplace in downtown Santa Ana, California, built to counteract white flight in the 1980s. Ultimately, Londoño demonstrates that abstracted barrio culture and aesthetics sustain the economic and cultural viability of normalized, white, and middle-class urban spaces.
Product Details
Price
$33.29
Publisher
Duke University Press
Publish Date
September 29, 2020
Pages
328
Dimensions
6.0 X 9.0 X 0.8 inches | 1.5 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781478009658
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About the Author
Johana Londoño is Assistant Professor of Latin American, Caribbean, and US Latino Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York.
Reviews
"Abstract Barrios does a masterful job in moving beyond the hype of the 'Latinization' of US urban areas and instead offers a deeply historicized account of the rise of Latinx-majority cities. Crafting a theoretical analysis of the role of Latinx brokers in the late twentieth century, Johana Londoño helps us understand how urban designers use everything from bright colors to 'Latin' architecture to domesticate the urban barrio and prepare it for gentrification and the passive inclusion of Latinxs in US urban society."--George J. Sanchez, author of "Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945"
"A captivating account of the everyday moments that produce the barrio, Abstract Barrios offers a unique view into the built environment of Latinidad. the book's ambition and vastness singularly fills gaping holes in the urban planning and architecture scholarship on Latinxs. Providing a wide-ranging view of how barrios are made and the actors involved in their making, this special and unique book is a crucial work of scholarship for Latinx studies, urban studies, and urban sociology."--Zaire Zenit Dinzey-Flores, author of "Locked In, Locked Out: Gated Communities in a Puerto Rican City"
"Londoño employs an innovative multidisciplinary approach in her methodology in Abstract Barrios. She incorporates archival materials, interviews, visual texts (i.e. posters, photographs) and criticism from architecture, history, urban studies, Latinx studies, ethnic studies and cultural studies to provide a more complete portrait of Latinx urban barrios. By doing so, Londoño opens a critical dialogue to reconsider the gaps in these traditional disciplines and to rethink the emerging field of Latinx urban studies."--Juanita Heredia "The Latinx Project" (1/8/2021 12:00:00 AM)
"The author masterfully weaves an interdisciplinary account of how abstractions of Latinx culture have been integrated into the built environment and design while continuing to exclude true representation of low-income and marginalized members of those communities.... Abstract Barrios is a timely addition to literature on urban planning, design, and architecture in relation to an increasingly important demographic."--Sarah Valentina Diaz "Affilia" (9/1/2020 12:00:00 AM)
"Abstract Barrios enriches the fields of American, Latinx and urban studies and planning by having readers rethink the concept of the barrio as something much greater than the literature has heretofore defined."--Salvador Zárate "American Studies" (11/7/2021 12:00:00 AM)
"A captivating account of the everyday moments that produce the barrio, Abstract Barrios offers a unique view into the built environment of Latinidad. the book's ambition and vastness singularly fills gaping holes in the urban planning and architecture scholarship on Latinxs. Providing a wide-ranging view of how barrios are made and the actors involved in their making, this special and unique book is a crucial work of scholarship for Latinx studies, urban studies, and urban sociology."--Zaire Zenit Dinzey-Flores, author of "Locked In, Locked Out: Gated Communities in a Puerto Rican City"
"Londoño employs an innovative multidisciplinary approach in her methodology in Abstract Barrios. She incorporates archival materials, interviews, visual texts (i.e. posters, photographs) and criticism from architecture, history, urban studies, Latinx studies, ethnic studies and cultural studies to provide a more complete portrait of Latinx urban barrios. By doing so, Londoño opens a critical dialogue to reconsider the gaps in these traditional disciplines and to rethink the emerging field of Latinx urban studies."--Juanita Heredia "The Latinx Project" (1/8/2021 12:00:00 AM)
"The author masterfully weaves an interdisciplinary account of how abstractions of Latinx culture have been integrated into the built environment and design while continuing to exclude true representation of low-income and marginalized members of those communities.... Abstract Barrios is a timely addition to literature on urban planning, design, and architecture in relation to an increasingly important demographic."--Sarah Valentina Diaz "Affilia" (9/1/2020 12:00:00 AM)
"Abstract Barrios enriches the fields of American, Latinx and urban studies and planning by having readers rethink the concept of the barrio as something much greater than the literature has heretofore defined."--Salvador Zárate "American Studies" (11/7/2021 12:00:00 AM)
