Latino Urbanism revisited: placemaking in new gateways and the urban-rural interface

Abstract

Rapid and dramatic1 Latino/a population growth in recent years has taken place in ‘new gateways’, which include, notably, rural communities. Hence, as much as Latino Urbanism is shaping the metropolitan landscape, given these recent and ongoing demographic trends, efforts to understand and engage Latino/a placemaking must also attend to the rural realm. By studying an Iowan town we contribute to empirical research and ongoing discussions about Latino Urbanism by, first, bringing to the fore the question of how Latino/as are shaping the cultural, social and physical geographies of communities throughout rural America, second, by exploring empirically Latino rural placemaking practices within their socio-political and institutional milieu, and third, by considering the implications of such practices and contexts for planning and development.