The articles of Miyares, Hums, and Davila give insight into the transformation of neighborhood demographics in many Spanish communities in New York. The three categories of neighborhoods illustrated by Miyares are the dominant cultures, multiethnic cultures, and the invasion cultures.
The dominant Latin American cultures presented were that of the Dominicans in Washington Heights, Manhattan and the Puerto Rican community in East Harlem. These cultures, although not dominant cultures until recent history, have established a high representation of the neighborhood’s population through the ownership of businesses and the number of residents.
In places like Jackson Heights we have the more multiethnic neighborhoods that do not necessarily have one dominant ethnicity. Many businesses and homes display symbols of the owners’ home countries such as flags. In having a multiethnic neighborhood, diverse people do business with one another and form a new multiethnic identity.
The final neighborhood category discussed the “invasion” of new immigrants to an enclave neighborhood that they were not a part of. An example of this was the immigration of Mexican immigrants to East Harlem (El Barrio). East Harlem, primarily a Puerto Rican enclave has transitioned to a multiethnic neighborhood by the addition of Mexican immigrants. These immigrants opened up new businesses and have established themselves into a neighborhood that was primarily only one ethnicity.
These articles help us to understand the complexities of these neighborhoods, especially in their growth of representation. The neighborhoods themselves will always be there but the primary socioeconomic group living there changes depending on which groups are moving in.
