“Hermano Entrepreneurs!”: Constructing a Latino Diaspora across the Digital Divide

Abstract

On a balmy September morning in 2003, I arrived at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to attend the launching of an innovative development initiative. This invitation-only event was advertised as a novel effort to promote “the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals through mobilizing the technological, entrepreneurial, and professional expertise and resources of Diaspora networks” (UNICT, “Digital Bridge”). Based on the successful experience of an Indian initiative in 2000, followed by a project for Africa commencing in 2002, this newest so-called Digital Diaspora project had its sights set on Latin America and the Caribbean. In an effort to bridge the technology gap—referred to here as the “digital divide”—between North and South, the program aspired to increase the direct flow of knowledge and resources between US-based Latino entrepreneurs and community development projects in Latin America. The kickoff event was to be attended by a diverse array of business executives, diplomats, consultants, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, information-technology experts, and a handful of academics who had an interest in building this initiative from the ground up.