Unpacking Latino urbanisms: a four-part thematic framework around culturally relevant responses to structural forces

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article unpacks literature on Latino Urbanism to identify a holistic, thematically organized framework for understanding Latina/o sociospatial practices and to suggest how planners might plan for and/or better support Latino Urbanisms. Cultural expressions in response to structural forces that have and continue to challenge, oppress, and marginalize Latino communities in the U.S. form four thematic fundamental to Latino Urbanisms – spatializing translocal economies, embedding mobility, functionalizing housing, and enacting place. Through education and training, planners come to accept Anglocentric practices and aesthetics as normative, in contrast to the sociospatial practices of Latino communities, which become otherized and marginalized as Latino Urbanisms. Additionally, as “enacted environments,” Latino Urbanisms appear relatively unamenable to a formal paradigm. There are nonetheless planning and policy responses that planners can take to support Latino communities and in the enactment of Latino Urbanisms, and to enhance the qualities of sustainability and resilience inherent to Latino Urbanisms.