LATINA/OS TAKE CENTER STAGE: CENSUS 2000

BY LYAM

As I read Mike Davis’ 'Magical Urbanism', I began to notice how much attention was given to the constant change in population rate in the United States. While noticing this, I realized that for many years, Latinos have been rising to the peak of the population. As shown in the data and census talked about in the book, ever since the 1980s, Latinos have prominently taken over many cities throughout the country. By 2000, this made New York City the most Latino populated city in the country, followed by others like Los Angeles and Chicago, according to the National Census Bureau; and expecting this double by 2020. Thus proving that ever since the 1980s and 1990s, the Latino population has been in charge. In just about every major city, we see how the Latino population has made its mark, ensuring that at least one neighborhood is 'Latinized'. As mentioned in the text, there will be "18 out of 25 most populous US cities will have larger Latino than Black populations by 2003…". And therefore, Latinos will be dominating the work force, even if  its only the low-wage sectors.

             Creating these ‘barrios’ must have not been easy, given the fact that Latinos were not always welcomed where they resided. As the book mentions, Latinos were almost categorized as “heroes”, by society, for being able to stick around because living in some of these places wasn’t always easy. Because they came in great amounts, they were usually stuck in small, but over-populated areas. As Latino migration into the United States increased, Americans found every way possible to make it hard for them to stay; whether by making laws that forced Latinos to move elsewhere or affecting their job performance and conditions. Some of the worse rules might be such laws that, although not directly pointing the finger at them, are some what issued to attack and affect them. Laws like limiting the amount of people that live in an apartment, or limiting accommodations and repairmen's to attempt to fit more people in a household, are all in place affecting the Latino community. Because we are unable to gain high wage paying jobs, many Latino families move in together, to try to safe money on rent; other just happen to have bigger families than the average American. Other ways in which Latinos are targeted is by abusing them at their place of employment by depriving them of any, if all, benefits.

           As the text followed, I did however have many questions. Given that the Latino population has always been the majority in these city neighborhoods, why are Latinos the minority when it comes to high-wage, white collar, jobs? I felt as if not enough attention was given to this matter. I come from East New York; a place where the more us, Latinos, accommodate ourselves, the less we seem to make it out of there. You see it everyday: the Latino struggle seen every morning in the faces of the people who wait for the buses and trains. Moreover, I noticed that we continue to hold these mediocre jobs. But most of all, it bothers me that instead of migrating and moving on to better things, we tend to stay close to home.  It bothers me, and in a way confuses me, how we’ve been here for so long, and yet we aren’t at the top of these major corporations and business. Unfortunately, we have constantly been victimized when it comes to the work force. Although the number of Latinos, who are now attending and bettering their higher education, is in constant increase we still don't see the amount of high-end jobs increasing. As shown in the statistics shown in class, from 2010 to 2011, the amount of Latinos enrolled in school increased by 0.2%. Though Latino educational statistics have indeed improved, they don’t have better jobs.

          For as long as we have touched base in the United States, Latinos have been constantly targeted and neglected; whether it has been in education, law, or housing. And although we have been isolated and made to live in the same ‘barrios’ for many, many years, we have yet to make any progress in the work force. I would hope that eventually we would begin to move out of these barrios, to rise above in the work force and to begin the transition to better things; but yet the statistics prove otherwise. Living in these barrios should be of example to families and friends, as to why we should rise above these statistics and try our best and make it out these places. Coming from a young Latina, who is currently in college, I see so many Latinos making their dreams come true and trying to reach the goals. But unfortunately, just because our population is progressing, it doesn’t always means that our suppuration and successful rates are also going up. We see that it becomes harder and harder for a Latino to be successful due to their race, color and/or background. Sometimes, we see in a lot of cases in which just because one’s race is Latino/a, but the color of their skin may tell otherwise, it is somewhat easier to succeed. As I read more into these readings, all I kept thinking about was how this text, and many other articles, paid little attention to the employment rate within Latinos and the reason behind this. It made me think and see that we should make sure that as long as we are the majority in these towns and neighborhoods, we should also be the majority who rules, works, and runs them.