A Tale Of Two Barrios

Abstract

ACCORDING TO DAVID HARVEY, “the perpetual reshaping of the geographic landscape of capitalism is a process of violence and pain.” This process intersects with race and gender, forcing new definitions and criteria of belonging in different communities. Since beginning my fieldwork among poor and working-class Puerto Ricans in Chicago and San Sebastián, Puerto Rico in 1995, I have returned to Harvey’s description of capitalism’s impact on place and space to help me make sense of the shifting realities of thousands of puertorriqueños (Puerto Ricans) living on the island and the mainland. When I began my research project, I initially thought I would construct an ethnographic study of circular migration between Chicago and San Sebastián—a small town in the northwestern region of the island—focusing on particular households and family members as they moved between both communities over time. After a few months I began to panic because I had identified only one family that fit this profile. But as I continued to work at one of Chicago’s Puerto Rican cultural centers and continued to hear stories of displacement, gentrification, migration, and confusion over varying meanings of community, I redirected my research focus. I began to consider the changing meanings of migration among first- and second-generation Puerto Rican migrants in Chicago to examine what impact this movement had on both communities. Both places have been connected by transnational flows of people, goods, money, and ideologies for more than fifty years.KeywordsReturn MigrationCircular MigrationSocial RemittancePuerto Rican YouthTransnational FlowThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.