Spaces and flows in the Puerto Rican Barrio: "Latero stories", "Bodega dreams"

Taking Manuel Castells’s idea of globalization in a world of late capitalism as a “space of flows,” where mobility and instability are essential to the workings of the system, the article looks at the role of the barrio and its ethnic dwellers as forces of stability and local resistance. If it is un...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Benito, Jesús
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/31886
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11441/31886
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Displacement
Barrio
Globalization
Ethnicity
Community
American dream
Dislocación
Globalización
Etnicidad
Comunidad
Sueño americano
Descripción
Sumario:Taking Manuel Castells’s idea of globalization in a world of late capitalism as a “space of flows,” where mobility and instability are essential to the workings of the system, the article looks at the role of the barrio and its ethnic dwellers as forces of stability and local resistance. If it is undeniable that many recent political movements of a clearly oppositional stance have gained visibility through the occupation of particularly prominent sites (whether in Zucotti Park, Tahrir Square or la Puerta del Sol, among others), can we also view the barrio as another site of metaphorical occupation, a bulwark against the forces of capitalist infiltration and gentrification? Can we then assume barrio dwellers as largely opposed to the economic dynamics of globalization? The article explores this issue by analyzing two Puerto Rican texts, Tato Laviera’s “Latero Story” and Ernesto Quiñonez’s Bodega Dreams, where the characters occupy diverse and complex positionalities with regards to the promises of a renewed American dream.