Placemaking and Latino Urbanism in a Phoenix Mexican immigrant community

Abstract

Latino immigrants are remaking residential landscapes in Phoenix, Arizona. This case study explores Garfield, a Mexican immigrant neighborhood, where transformations to residential landscape have altered existing community space creating Latino cultural space. Landscape study and visual documentation in Garfield demonstrate how Latino immigrants transform the living environment of a once decayed inner-city neighborhood. Findings suggest that placemaking changes brought by Latino immigrants, particularly residential housescapes, can be a culturally sustainable practice that enhances the neighborhood aesthetic. It remains problematic whether Mexican housescapes can be successfully incorporated into Latino Urbanism because the creation process carries social meaning that is difficult to reproduce.