What makes a city Latino

Growing up in Plainfield, NJ I was really only surrounded by two groups of people, African-Americans and Latinos.  To be honest almost all the residents were AA or Latino, except for one portion of the city; some would say this was the “rich” part of town. In fact, most of downtown Plainfield is now run by low – middle class Latinos; from music to discount clothing stores, a lot has changed since the 1990s. However, what exactly makes a city Latino? Could it be the history, culture, retail space, events, etc?

Would you say San Juan, PR is Latino? But of course considering everyone there speaks español. However, a lot of the lounges obviously don’t play Latino music; they place techno music which was interesting. Let’s take a look at other cities. New York, probably the most obvious has the Dominicans in Washington Heights and Colombians in Queens and everything else scattered around the city. If you go to some cities in Maryland and Washington, D.C. you’ll be surrounded by lots of Salvadorian restaurants.  But does this mean the city is Latino? Just because you have 1 or 2 restaurants doesn’t really mean much to some people.  Would you also think a city is Latino because their tourism web-site is in español? I’ve been to Chicago once and know a lot of friends that live there now and they say it’s great.

Here I am in Philadelphia, the second largest Hispanic market in the Northeast. Philly is also the 16^th largest Hispanic Market in the country, larger than Denver, Boston, Orlando, Washington DC, and Austin. Some don’t even realize there is Latino culture here in the City of Brotherly Love.  Now I bet you’re asking, well where are all the Latinos? They are actually all over the city. Although there’s a large Mexican and Central American population in South Philadelphia, the city has its own neighborhood called El Centro de Oro in North Philadelphia around 5^th Street. Over the last four decades, North 5th Street businesses have experienced cycles of prosperity and decline, but some beloved stalwarts have remained, including the music store Centro Musical, owned by the Gonzalez family for three generations; el Bohio restaurant, serving Puerto Rican food for over twenty years; and Taller Puertorriqueño, the cultural center founded by local artists in 1974.

by Eric Cortes