Social Geography of Laredo, Texas, Neighborhoods

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Social Geography of Laredo, Texas, Neighborhoods

• Distinctiveness and Diversity in a
  majority-Hispanic place
• Alex Behles. IAFF 190. April 13, 2005

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Why Laredo?

• Historically Hispanic city
• Hispanics have been dominant politically and
  socially for three centuries, dictating the
  social geography of the city and surrounding
  rural hinterland
• Historical isolation from other population
  centers in Texas and Mexico

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A Little History

• 1757 population of 60 managed 10,000 livestock
  porciones and landless labor
• 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made Laredo an
  American town
• Nuevo Laredo foundedgt Los Dos
• 1881 rail traffic increases both role and
  importance of binational trade

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Infrastructure

• Trade inspired improvements to transportation
  infrastructure in Laredo
• Two international bridges _at_ Laredo oriented
  towards truck traffic
• Highway 85 is the only four-lane highway from
  Mexicos capital to the US border
• Laredo is the southern terminus of the US
  interstate 35
• Texas Mexican Railway Co. provides retail service
  from the two Laredos into Mexico and to the port
  of Corpus Cristi, Texas
• Union Pacific Railway provides freight service
  between Laredo and the upper Midwest

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Economy

• High land costs in Laredo make maquiladoras less
  important than in other border towns
• Business-government alliance emphasizes the
  port-function of the city
• Alliance promotes economic development at the
  expense of taxpayers
• Warehouses dominate land use
• Border retailing employs largest workforce in
  Laredo

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Life in Laredo

• High birthrate, influx immigrants, law officials
• Construction boomgt more than 1500 homes each year
• Economically active population of 75,000
• High unemployment rates
• Average weekly wage of 439
• Unemployment rate of 8 in 2000 was higher than
  national and state averages, but lower than that
  of other metropolitan border communities
• Cost of living was the highest in Texas fifth
  highest in the U.S. at the end of 1998 (adjusted
  for median household incomes)

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A Unique Division

• Many Laredos identify with the particular place
  they occupy
• South working class barrios and low income
  subdivisions
• North middle and upper middle class subdivisions
  and fast-paced automobile-oriented commercial
  land uses that typify mainstream North American
  suburban style
• 1998 mean household income of all inner city
  barrios was less than 20,000upper middle class
  on the north side averaged over 40,000,
  sometimes 50,000

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Real Estate

• Nearly all office space outside of the central
  business district is scattered throughout North
  Laredo
• Mall del Norte, primary retail and entertainment
  hub
• Franchise restaurants and motels line the freeway
  access roads from the mall
• Contrasted with pawnshops, automobile parts
  stores, and fast food restaurants in the South

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El Azteca

• Oldest surviving barrio
• First generation immigrants from Mexico and new
  wave of immigrants
• Near downtown Laredo, convenient for smugglers
  importing drugs and illegal immigrants
• Surrounded by The Heights and St. Peters Anglo
  neighborhoods that are historically more appealing

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The Heights

• Victorian architecture, prairie-style homes
• Few Spanish surnames among the list of residents
• From mobile homes to mansions
• Greatest variety of homes and market values

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Colonias

• Rural subdivisions created on unused ranchland by
  landowners seeking a means to generate capital
• Remote lack of basic services
• High unemployment
• Difficult to transport to jobs
• Forgoing of education due to the time involved in
  commuting to low-paying jobs in Laredo
• Lack of on-the-job training
• Low-density populations and spread outgt unlikely
  that maquiladoras will appear already present in
  Nuevo Laredo

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Unified

• Carnes asadas- cookouts involving extended
  families
• Palapa- gazebo-type structure where meat is
  grilled
• Norteno styles of music

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Laredo An Exception

• In contrast to other major Hispanic places
  throughout the U.S., the social disparities that
  exist in Laredo are not racial or Ethnic in
  nature
• Del Mar, 91 Hispanic The Heights, 93 El
  Azteca, 95 Santo Nino, 96 (U.S. Bureau of the
  Census 2000)
• Socioeconomic divide between the North and South
  exists as a result of land use, planning and
  zoning

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The End