Latinas/os in New Jersey

Histories, Communities, and Cultures

Edited by Aldo A. Lauria Santiago and Ulla D. Berg; Preface by Olga Jiménez de Wagenheim

SERIES: CERES: Rutgers Studies in History

Rutgers University Press

Since the 1890s, New Jersey has attracted hundreds of thousands of Caribbean and Latin American migrants. The state’s rich economic history, high-income suburbs, and strong public sector have all contributed to attracting, retaining, and setting the stage for Latin American and Caribbean immigrants and secondary-step migrants from New York City. Since the 1980s, however, Latinos have developed a more complex presence in the state’s political landscape and institutions. The emergence of Latino-majority towns and cities and coalition politics facilitated the election of Latino mayors, council persons, and many social and community leaders, as well as the election of statewide officers. This collection brings together innovative and empirically grounded scholarship from different disciplines and interdisciplinary fields of study and addresses topics including the demographic history of Latinos in the state, Latino migration from gateway cities to suburban towns, Latino urban enclaves, Latino economic and social mobility, Latino students and education, the New Jersey Dream Act and in-state tuition act organizing, Latinos and criminal justice reform, Latino electoral politics and leadership, and undocumented communities.

Contributors: Yamil Avivi; Jennifer Ayala; Ulla D. Berg; Giovani Burgos; Elsa Candelario; Laura Curran; Lilia Fernández; Ismael García Colón; Olga Jiménez de Wagenheim; Benjamin Lapidus; Aldo A. Lauria Santiago; Johana Londoño; Kathleen Lopez; Giancarlo Muschi; Melanie Z. Plasencia; Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas; Elena Sabogal; Raymond Sanchez Mayers; William Suárez Gómez; Alex F. Trillo; Daniela Valdez; Anil Venkatesh; Lyna L. Wiggins

Latino New Jersey is the overdue comprehensive book on New Jersey’s Latinos. Covering ethnicities, subcultures, cities, and a range of current issues, the volume analyses this diverse group—one-fifth of the state's population—its challenges, hopes, and contributions. Educators, students, and policy makers will benefit from this rich collection of histories and analyses. The future of the Garden State can be gleaned from the accounts in this wonderful volume. Andrés Torres, editor of Latinos in New England and coeditor of Revolution around the Corner

The editors not only provide up-to-date research on the demographic profile and trends among Latinos in New Jersey but dare to venture further into the realms of the social sciences, history, education, and art and culture and to put them each in conversation with one another. No other source has ever engaged with Latinos in the Garden State as deeply or profoundly as Latino New Jersey. Ramona Hernández, author of The Mobility of Workers under Advanced Capitalism: Dominican Migration to the United State

ALDO A. LAURIA-SANTIAGO is a professor of Latino and Caribbean studies & history at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He is the author of Rethinking the Struggle for Puerto Rican Rights.

ULLA D. BERG is director of the Center for Latin American Studies and associate professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Caribbean and Latino Studies at Rutgers–New Brunswick. She is the author of Mobile Selves: Race, Migration, and Belonging in Peru and the U.S.

OLGA JIMENEZ de WAGENHEIM is a professor emerita in history at Rutgers University, Newark, where she taught and mentored for more than twenty years. She is the author of The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History and Puerto Rico’s Revolt for Independence.

Preface
OLGA JIMÉNEZ DE WAGENHEIM

Introduction: Framing Latinos in New Jersey: From Invisibility to Empowerment
ALDO A . LAURIA SANTIAGO AND ULLA D. BERG

Part I Spaces and Places

1 Latino New Jersey: A Demographic and Geographic Portrait
RAYMOND SÁNCHEZ MAYERS, LYNA L. WIGGINS, ELSA CANDELARIO, AND LAURA CURRAN

2 Latino Segregation across New Jersey Counties: Are Latino Groups Becoming More or Less Residentially Segregated during the Last Four Decades?
GIOVANI BURGOS, ALEX F. TRILLO, AND ANIL VENKATESH

3 The Gateway Reconsidered: The Paradox of Latinx Barrioization in a Connected Metropolis
JOHANA LONDOÑO

4 From Havana on the Hudson to Bolivar’s Enclave: Change, Solidarity, and Conflict in Pan-Latinx Space
ALEX F. TRILLO AND JENNIFER AYALA

5 “Aggressive Newark”: Puerto Ricans, Brazilians, and Structuring Feelings under Neoliberalism
ANA Y. RAMOS-ZAYAS

Part II Histories

6 Peruvians in Paterson, New Jersey, 1920–1950
GIANNCARLO MUSCHI

7 “A Recoger Tomates”: Puerto Rican Farmworkers in the Garden State, 1940s–1980s
ISMAEL GARCÍA COLÓN AND WILLIAM SUÁREZ GÓMEZ

8 Puerto Ricans in New Jersey: Migration, Settlement, and Work, 1940s–1980s
ALDO A . LAURIA SANTIAGO

9 A Century of Cuban Music in New Jersey
BENJAMIN LAPIDUS

Part III Experiences

10 Mexican Immigrants Fighting for Educational Justice: Community Activism to Save a New Brunswick Public School
LILIA FERNÁNDEZ

11 Forgotten Voices: Gender and Social Networks in Paterson’s Peruvian Community
ELENA SABOGAL

12 “La Iglesia Católica es Mi Comunidad”: A Union City Latinx Destination from Arrival to Old Age
MELANIE Z. PLASENCIA

13 Parque Oaxaca/Jotería: Trans Latina History in New Brunswick from Urban Renewal to the Coronavirus Pandemic
DANIELA VALDES

Part IV Institutions

14 Reverse Diasporas: Immigrant Detention, Deportation, and Latinx Communities in New Jersey and South America
ULLA D. BERG

15 Latinx LGBTQ Students and Placemaking in School: Voguing and Ball Culture at Elizabeth High, 1989–1994
YAMIL AVIVI

16 From Puerto Rican to Latino Studies at Rutgers University: Fifty Years of Student Activism
KATHLEEN LÓPEZ

Notes on Contributors
Index

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