Abstract
Displacement has marked the individual and collective lives of Puerto Ricans in Chicago, especially those who migrated in the 1950s and 1960s. For these older persons, the arrival of the gentry and the yuppies of yesterday, the hipsters of today, and the disappearance of familiar faces in their current neighborhoods are not new phenomena, but rather parts of a profoundly familiar process. They came of age in displacement. Today some Puerto Rican older adults have achieved housing security and are able to age in place because they live in low-income senior housing. Yet a sense of displacement still looms large in their daily lives with the upscaling of and new-build gentrification in their current neighborhood. This work sheds light on the meaning of place for older adult Puerto Ricans who have experienced what psychiatrist and urban studies scholar Mindy T. Fullilove calls a history of “serial displacement.” Through life history narratives and ethnographic snapshots, this paper highlights the neglected reality of “aging in displacement,” or the experience of growing up and growing older in a context of repeated socio-spatial dislocation and how individual and collective life histories of community upheaval texture the spatial and social meanings of place.
Highlights
Often when my parents and other elders in our community preface their migration stories with the phrase, “Cuando nosotros vivíamos... [When we lived...],” what typically follows are accounts of the many inequities and injustices they and many others in the community experienced
The transformation taking place in their neighborhoods – apartment buildings converted to luxury condominiums, bodegas with counter service restaurants turned into pricey coffee shops, and a band of bargain shops replaced by multiuse residential and commercial developments – impairs older adults’ ability to age in place
This paper sets out to address the following questions: What does “aging in place” signify to a population that has lived through a series of displacements? If, as this article suggests, displacement has characterized Chicago Puerto Ricans’ migration into elderhood, has this group remained attached and engaged in community life? After a brief survey of the literature on aging in place and displacement and a discussion of methods, I offer a historical and political economic context for the study of Puerto Rican serial displacement and ground my analysis in the life history narratives of Puerto Rican migrants to Chicago
Summary
Often when my parents and other elders in our community preface their migration stories with the phrase, “Cuando nosotros vivíamos... [When we lived...],” what typically follows are accounts of the many inequities and injustices they and many others in the community experienced. “Inner-city adults develop a ‘different shade of gray’ from that of their suburban age mates because the pathway that has shaped their lives in inner-city neighborhoods has been dramatically different” (2003, 26).i In other words, they have lived with reduced access to spatially determined resources, such as education, employment, health care, and housing across the lifespan Today many of these neighborhoods have started to change course due in large part to gentrification. The streets may be perceived as safer in upscaling areas, these changes in neighborhood spaces deeply affect older community members’ participation and engagement in public life because they no longer feel included or welcomed In other words, they experience a sense of displacement. This research elaborates and extends on Becker’s observation by analyzing how Puerto Ricans’ history of serial displacement – which includes socio-spatial dislocation due to migration, urban renewal, and gentrification – gives meaning to their sense of place
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