Liberal Arts Faculty Books
Latino Orlando: Suburban Transformation and Racial Conflict
Files
Description
Latino Orlando portrays the experiences of first- and second-generation immigrants who have come to the Orlando metropolitan area from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and other Latin American countries. While much research on immigration focuses on urban destinations, Simone Delerme delves into a middle- and upper-class suburban context, highlighting the profound demographic and cultural transformation of an overlooked immigrant hub. Drawing on interviews, observations, fieldwork, census data, and traditional and new media, Delerme reveals the important role of real estate developers in attracting Puerto Ricans—some of the first Spanish-speaking immigrants in the region—to Central Florida in the 1970s. She traces how language became a way of racializing and segregating Latino communities, leading to the growth of suburban ethnic enclaves. She documents not only the tensions between Latinos and non-Latinos, but also the class-based distinctions that cause dissent within the Latino population. Arguing that Latino migrants are complicating racial categorizations and challenging the deep-rooted black-white binary that has long prevailed in the American South, Latino Orlando breaks down stereotypes of neighborhood decline and urban poverty and illustrates the diversity of Latinos in the region.
Publication Date
2-25-2020
Relational Format
book
Department
Sociology and Anthropology
Disciplines
Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies | Sociology
Recommended Citation
Delerme, Simone, "Latino Orlando: Suburban Transformation and Racial Conflict" (2020). Liberal Arts Faculty Books. 213.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/libarts_book/213