Sunbelt Diaspora
Race, Class, and Latino Politics in Puerto Rican Orlando
2021 — Silver Medal, Raul Yzaguirre Best Political/Current Affairs Book – International Latino Book Awards, Latino Literacy Now
An in-depth look at an emerging Latino presence in Orlando, Florida, where Puerto Ricans and others navigate differences of race, class, and place of origin in their struggle for social, economic, and political belonging.
Puerto Ricans make up half of Orlando-area Latinos, arriving from Puerto Rico as well as from other long-established diaspora communities to a place where Latino politics has long been about Cubans in Miami. Together with other Latinos from multiple places, Puerto Ricans bring diverse experiences of race and class to this Sunbelt city. Tracing the emergence of the Puerto Rican and Latino presence in Orlando from the 1940s through an ethnographic moment of twenty-first-century electoral redistricting, Sunbelt Diaspora provides a timely prism for viewing how differences of race, class, and place play out in struggles to claim political, social, and economic ground for Latinos.
Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic, oral history, and archival research, Patricia Silver situates her findings in Orlando’s historically black-white racial landscape, post-1960s claims to “color-blindness,” and neoliberal celebrations of individualism. Through the voices of diverse participants, Silver brings anthropological attention to the question of how social difference affects collective identification and political practice. Sunbelt Diaspora asks what constitutes community and how criteria for membership and legitimate representation are negotiated.
Silver offers a groundbreaking perspective on the recent social history and politics of [Orlando] by unravelling the dynamics of race, class and place-making in the development of a heterogeneous community...The true value of this book is its ability to scrutinize the unseen sociopolitical realities that shape Puerto Ricans and other Latinxs’ efforts for community organization and political participation in this new place. Silver has made an impressive contribution to fields of Latinx migration and politics by focusing on the recent history of the understudied area of central Florida. Researchers, students, and a wider audience will be fully satisfied with the vivid life histories of this well-written book.
Throughout Sunbelt Diaspora, Silver demonstrates how Puerto Ricans and, more generally, other Latinos have affirmed their presence in spite of their circumscribed political and social positioning in the imagined community of the United States, Florida, and Orlando...The expanse of data collected and examined in this study, combined with an insider-outsider perspective integrated throughout and critiques informed from perspectives in Puerto Rican and Latino studies make Sunbelt Diaspora an original contribution to the literature on Latinos in the region and provide a space for this work to engage in dialogue with comparative studies on Latinos in traditional and nontraditional urban destinations.
Sunbelt Diaspora is an extremely well-written and insightful book about Puerto Ricans in Orlando, Florida, the state with the largest concentration of Puerto Ricans stateside. It is also a compelling account of the Puertoricanization of Orlando, how this has meshed with the larger Latino/a community, and the politics of race, ethnicity, class, and place in determining political representation amidst widespread demographic changes in a southern town. This is a must read for scholars of Puerto Rican migration and diasporic communities as well as race and ethnic relations.
Silver’s work is a must-read for those interested in the history of Latinos and Puerto Ricans in Florida...It captures the complexity of the intersection of different racial/ethnic identities, class relations, and memories of place...The important lessons contained in this book are going to be vital for understanding the process by which the continuous resettlement of Puerto Ricans to less traditional Latino destinations such as Georgia, the Carolinas, and elsewhere are going to impact their identity, social inclusion, and political power.
There is an unfortunate tendency among many academics to homogenize the racial experiences and identities of Puerto Rican migrants as well as Latin
American immigrants. Silver’s study bucks this trend...This is the first significant academic monograph to focus on this fast-growing community in Central Florida, and it will be of great interest to scholars from various disciplines. This is a readable book that will also be appropriate for graduate and undergraduate students.
Silver fills an important gap in social scientific knowledge by providing a rich analysis of an important yet underexamined case...a key contribution of Sunbelt Diaspora, which is supported by its methodological and analytical approach, is its engagement with intersecting histories, 'messiness of difference,' 'contradictory relations' in the examination of place-making, and political community formation in a new and southern destination.
Silver guides readers, in deft and engaging prose, across the shifting and combated sociopolitical terrain of Orange County, where Puerto Ricans, and Latinx peoples in general, have been subjected to discriminatory policies and regulations, which look to curtail their viability and vibrancy as a political force. The triumph of this book, however, is that...the author has made the astute decision to focus on the ideological fault lines among Puerto Ricans in Orlando.
Patricia Silver displays an intimate and extensive knowledge of her topic, having conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Orlando, Puerto Rico, and New York. She moves from the historical background of Orlando as a ‘Sunbelt City,’ to tracing the origins of the Puerto Rican exodus after World War II to the present day, while focusing on the emergence of a large but marginalized community that doesn’t fit well within the established fault lines of race and class.
- List of Maps, Tables, and Charts
- Preface. For Orlando Readers
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction. Race, Class, Place, and Politics in a New Puerto Rican Diaspora
- Part I. Puerto Rican Orlando
- Chapter 1. Between Black and White: Geography, Demography, and Political Place
- Chapter 2. Hidden Histories in the New Orlando: Colonial Migrations, Color-Blind Multiculturalism, and Natural Neoliberalism
- Part II. Difference and the Incompleteness of Political Community Formation
- Chapter 3. “You Don’t Look Puerto Rican”: Race, Class, and Memories of Place in Orlando
- Chapter 4. Enough Is Enough: Memory, Political Formations, and Participatory Citizenship
- Chapter 5. “This Building Is Our Island”: Seen and Unseen in Orlando
- Part III. The Case of Redistricting in Orange County, Florida
- Chapter 6. Divided by Beans: Difference and Political Community Formation
- Chapter 7. Four Districts for Americans: Mapping Community in Orange County
- Conclusion. Navigating Ambiguity in the Interests of Community
- Epilogue. “Things Will Be Different Now”
- Appendix. Oral History Collections and Orange County Board of County Commissioners Proceedings
- Notes
- References
- Index
