Necesidades y Problemas: Immigrant Latina Vernaculars of Belonging, Coalition, and Citizenship in San Francisco, California

Abstract

On an unusually fogless Saturday morning in the late spring of 1996, a van loaded with seven women and small children circled a busy block in San Francisco’s Chinatown, failing to find a coveted on-street parking spot. The neighborhood was bustling already at 9 a.m. with Chinese American families arriving from outer city districts and suburbs for their weekly grocery shopping or extended family visits. The van finally double-parked in front of the enormous concrete cube of a 1970s-era public housing complex. The passengers alighted and the sound of their Spanish conversations soon joined the English and Cantonese already heard at high volume on the street. Arriving late after a cross-town trip from the Latino Mission District, the women moved quickly inside the complex to the housing project’s community meeting room, dropping their children in an older multipurpose room where childcare was provided. More than a dozen other women were already there, sitting around a U-shaped table with headphones on, trying hard to help volunteer interpreters figure out how to broadcast Cantonese and Spanish translations to the appropriate participants. The sponsoring community organizations’ staff welcomed everyone and asked the late arrivals to introduce themselves to the group.