Taquerias, laundromats, and Protestant churches: landmarks of Hispanic barrios in Denton, Texas.

Publication: Urban Anthropology & Studies of Cultural Systems & World Economic Development

Publication Date: 22-JUN-05

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Introduction

This article is all ethnographic account of approximately a decade (from the early 1990s to early 2000s) of Hispanic immigrants' presence ill Denton, Texas. The founding family for the Hispanic community is that of Popo Gonzalez, current deacon of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. He came with his wife and children in the 1960s from Corpus Christi, located on the South Texas coast. According to Popo, the first Catholic mass in Spanish celebrated in Denton took place in front of his house in 1972. Seventy-five individuals congregated then. Today, the Catholic Church has three services in Spanish on Sundays, and the church is at full capacity (around 1,000 individuals) particularly for the 1:00 pm. service. (1)

It was 1992 when I came to North Texas after accepting a faculty position at the University of North Texas. Eager to encounter the traces of the Hispanic world as a way to be in touch with my own Spanish background, i asked an acquaintance at one of those new faculty meetings about the areas populated by Mexican people in Denton. The answer shocked me: "We do not have Mexicans in Denton." A major lesson learned throughout my life as an anthropology student was that "A rose is never a rose; it is never a rose." Thus, I took that answer as the start of an intriguing process of discovering the intricate economic, political and socio-economic forces embedded in the mask of that metaphorical rose. (2)

According to the Census Bureau, the population of the city of Denton in 1990 was 66,421; among these, 5,920 were of Hispanic origin (4,723 Mexicans, 112 Puerto Ricans, 50 Cubans and 1,035 considered as "other"). How could the 8.7% of the population in Denton be so "invisible"? As a way to inaugurate my newly acquired status as a professor at the local university, designed a research project focused on identifying the Hispanic areas of Denton. Within a few weeks, through visits to the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and informal conversations, I understood that the scattered distribution of the Hispanic community contributed to its "invisibility" among the Anglo community. Within this scattered settlement pattern, two areas increasingly were populated by recent immigrants, particularly among the low-income group. The first was the Phoenix Housing Authority, within the surroundings of McKinney Street, and at the heart of the historically African-American area of Denton; the second was the Owsley neighborhood, commonly known as "Cement City," located to the west of the University of North Texas campus.

This article explores the effects of the increasing immigrant Hispanic presence in Denton, particularly the gender dynamics that it generates within the global capitalist context in which it is inserted. It also examines one of the most common repercussions of current migration movements: the creation of networks and transnational communities. With this, special attention is given to the process that I call the "hispanization of the urban landscape," or the cultural appropriation of the urban space by the immigrant Hispanic community. Based on ethnographic documentation gathered throughout a decade, I propose that the presence and proliferation of taquerias, laundromats, and Protestant churches serve as identity landmarks of Hispanic neighborhoods and, consequently, provide symbols of Hispanic agency in the re-creation of Denton's urban geography.

The Scenario in the 1990s: The Phoenix Housing Authority in Denton

The Phoenix apartments became my entry to a fascinating ethnographic exercise in understanding the ironies and contradictions embedded in the perceived invisibility of the Hispanic community in Denton. The peripheral location of the apartment complex certainly contributed to the invisibility of its tenants among members of the larger community. The Phoenix Housing Authority was located approximately one mile beyond the railroad tracks, facing the Denton County Jail, and next to an empty field. As the executive director of the apartment buildings pointed out in 1993, "this corner of Denton had long been the mistreated stepchild of the city ... even basic things had not been done to provide equal services."

This Housing Authority complex, created in 1969 with the name "The Dream Land," was built in a historically African-American area, and the apartments were at that time occupied 100% by African-Americans. Poor management led to a drastic reduction of investments in the program, which resulted in diminished supervision and sub-minimal maintenance. Although residents often complained about poor living conditions, including a lack of running water, electricity or gas, the need for low-income housing was so great that the project continued at full occupancy. Throughout the 1980s, the number of low-income Hispanic tenants increased, thus transforming what once had been a completely African-American complex into a blended one.

In 1988, an internal conflict erupted, involving a number of Hispanic and African-American families. The local newspaper reported the case as a "riot," thus confirming the larger community's perception that the Phoenix apartments were a "very unsafe place to be." Police did not want to intervene in the conflict. The combination of poor maintenance and ethnic clashes strengthened the Denton community's perception of this area as being extremely dangerous, with a high incidence of crime, prostitution, and drug distribution.

In that same year of 1988, after more than a decade of chaos, Miriam Hamilton became its executive director. The former "Dream Land" was renamed "Phoenix," the mythological bird that rises from its own ashes. During her initial meetings with the tenants, the new director was exposed to their concerns about high crime and violence in their community. After these meetings, burglar bars were installed on apartment windows, and the burglar deterrent known as QuickStop was integrated into the apartments' front doors. After the Housing Authority was convinced that the residents of the Phoenix community deserved the same kind of security service as the other citizens of Denton, one of its vacant apartments was converted into a police substation.

When I started the research project on the Phoenix Housing Authority in 1993-94, the ethnic composition of its 271 residents was as follows: Hispanics, 183 individuals (67.5%); African-Americans, 77 (28.5%); and the remaining 11 residents (4.0%), Caucasian (Re Cruz...

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