Latino Design in an Age of Neoliberal Multiculturalism: Contemporary Changes in Latin/o American Urban Cultural Representation

Abstract

This article considers an emerging shift in Latino cultural politics of design representation and urbanism. To illustrate this shift, I include interviews with designers whose imaginative and geographic locations across the Americas have fostered a global attitude that challenges previous Latino designs that follow nationalist cultural politics of differentiation and are shaped by neoliberal multicultural imperatives. This article serves as an analytical study for scholars interested in understanding the ways in which cultural difference is included in a creative industry that has a large role to play in the configuration, evaluation, and theorization of poor, urban, and ethnic spaces. In particular, this article stimulates a debate about the different modes of incorporating Latino culture in design and generates future discussion on how to achieve more inclusive urban representations.