Local Identities Global Challenges

THE ROLE OF THE MEXICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY 63 The Role of the Mexican American Community in the Production of Urban Space in Houston, Texas BARRY ESPINOSA-OROPEZA Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Houston is the fourth largest metropolitan area in our urban settlements are organized and built, in- the United States. It is also one of the most cultural- forming how different social groups (in terms of ly diverse cities in America. As such, Houston can be race, culture, ethnicity, gender, age, etc.) relate to presented as a paradigm of the twenty-first century space. Yet, among urban researchers there are dif- multicultural city in the United States. Yet Houston ferent views as to how this relation occurs. Some, remains largely understudied1, in particular, with re- for example, view it as a cause and effect situation, lation to the way ethnic and cultural minorities par- where social structure is the cause and spatial con- ticipate in the production of its urban space. This figuration is the effect. Others believe this spatial research is intended to help fill this gap, focusing configuration to be more the aggregate result of in- in one of the largest ethnic groups in Houston, the dividual decisions. Given the brevity of this paper, Mexican-American population. For this purpose, I and the extensive research already existing, I will conduct a socio-semiotic analysis of one of the old- not go into detail on these subjects.3 Yet, I would est Mexican neighborhoods in the city: ‘El Segundo like to comment, if only briefly, on a third viewpoint: Barrio’. that of the production of space as dialectically re- lated to the social structure.4 This socio-semiotic approach to spatial analysis fol- lows the work of urban sociologist Mark Gottdiener The basic tenant of this point of view is that indepen- and architect/geographer Alexandros Lagopoulos.2 dent existence apart from social reality, and, at the This approach centers on the link between social same time, society is only realized through space. and ideological aspects of the production of settle- Thus, it is through the creation and use of space—or, ment space with its materiality, its physical form. in dialectical materialism terms, the production and The first step, then, will be to frame this analysis consumption of space—that social relations of every around the concept of how cultural identity and spa- kind are reproduced and solidified, consolidating the tial production relate. Next, a brief explanation of social structure. Two mayor components are in- the production of space in Houston will help suggest volved in this process: agency and structure. how this framework encompasses the case of study. Lastly, I will center on the historical presence of the As structuration theory tells us, ‘agency’ is the ca- Mexican American population in this city and El Se- pacity of persons to act on their reality, with the gundo Barrio, tying the above elements to the pro- power to guide their actions in directions of their duction of the selected neighborhood. choice. Whereas, ‘structure’ is constituted by the economic, political and cultural framework that is IDENTITY, STRUCTURATION AND THE shaped by the collective agreement of this behavior. PRODUCTION OF SPACE The continuous reproduction of people’s actions fil- tered through this f ramework, that is, the socializa- One of the first assumptions this paper makes is tion process, establishes the social structure which, that ethnocultural identities are relevant to the way in turn, shapes social conduct and relations.5 64 LOCAL IDENTITIES GLOBAL CHALLENGES Social creations, from eating utensils to dialects to called a “growth coalition,” comprised of state offi- political-economic systems, are as well products of cials and members of the business elite that seek to this structuration process. The same is true about orient this development towards a better ‘business space and the objects that conform our human en- climate’.10 vironments. “[S]patial forms,” explains Gottdiener, “are contingent products of the dialectical articula- But, if the production of space in Houston has been tion between action and structure.”6 Each society indeed largely the result of actions taken by a hand- produces its own space through the interaction of ful of powerful agents, where does this leave the multiple actors and circumstances. Space is thus role of an underprivileged, but large, community like organized as a series of specific places assigned to Mexican Americans in this process? Perhaps exam- determined actions and organizing social life at the ining the evolution of a traditional Mexican American same time that it influences the way people sees neighborhood like El Segundo Barrio might give us and thinks about both space and themselves, that an idea. is, how they perceive both the exterior reality and their personal and collective identities. MEXICAN AMERICANS IN HOUSTON AND EL SEGUNDO BARRIO How has this process of socio-spatial production taken place in Houston? Historian Arnoldo De Leon has pointed out the presence of Mexicans in Houston right from the start, HOUSTON’S URBAN DEVELOPMENT when Mexican soldiers taken prisoner after their de- feat in the Texas War of Independence labored along Texan historian T.R. Ferhenbach has commented African American slaves in the dredging of the Buf- on the prevalent Anglo-Saxon ethos that has domi- falo Bayou and the clearing of the swamps that gave nated the relationship of Texans with nature (i.e., place to the Allen Brothers’ real estate enterprise.11 space).7 According to him, the first Texans came to Yet, up until the turn of the last century Houston this territory in search of land to own and exploit was practically a biracial town, composed of Anglos for private profit. Thus, in stark contrast with Native and African Americans. Americans or Mexicans in the region, their relation to space was unsentimental and entirely pragmatic. According to the population census of 1850, there A firm, “often schizophrenic”8 belief in private prop- were only eighteen Mexicans living in a city of thou- erty, along with other adamant ideological traits, like sands already. Some fifty years later, as the city individual worth and self-reliance, privatism, small started to boom with the discovery of the oil fields government, and the Anglo superiority, became part of East Texas in 1901, many more Mexicans, among of an ethos cutting across class, occupation, and re- other immigrants, began to flock into town in order ligion, that has greatly informed Texas and Hous- to procure the labor needs of this growth. Other ton’s urban development throughout the years.9 push factors, like the Mexican Revolution of 1910 that riddled town and country with violence, con- Since its conception Houston’s development has tributed to the increasing numbers of families from been closely tied to the mercantilization of space. all social classes moving to Houston. From there on, It was founded as a real estate venture in 1836 by the Mexican community would keep growing apace, land entrepreneurs John and Augustus Allen. Its despite constant discrimination, and even forced growth has always been contingent on commercial deportations of both foreign and US-born members enterprises such as the cotton and timber trade, oil during the tough years of the Great Depression, and and petrochemical industries, and direct land specu- by 1930, the Mexican communi ty comprised several lation. From the dredging of the Buffalo Bayou, the thousand members. construction of the railroad, and the drilling of the oil deposits in East Texas in the early twentieth century, One of the first established Mexican neighborhoods to the laissez-faire urbanism of the second half of in Houston was that of ‘El Segundo Barrio’, a latinized the century, with its suburban expansion, freeway term for the Second Ward, one of the six former po- construction, and overstock of commercial high-ris- litical districts of the city. Bounded by the Buffalo es, urban development in Houston has been mostly Bayou to the north, the railroad tracks to the east the result of the powerful agency of what some have and south, and the suburban neighborhood of Mag- THE ROLE OF THE MEXICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY 65 nolia Park to the west, this barrio extended about one mile east of downtown. 45 290 610 45 59 10 10 10 EL SEGUNDO BARRIO 610 290 59 610 59 45 225 59 288 610 45 Figure 2. Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. clave. Businesses advertised in Spanish, and the small but active better-off classes made efforts to Figure 1. Location of El Segundo Barrio. establish a Mexican presence in the larger society, with gestures such as the donation of the land for Its first inhabitants were those workers and their Hidalgo Park and its bandstand. But, neither this families that dredged the river; built the port; packed nor other relevant buildings like that of the Church and shipped the cotton bales; and laid the railroad of Our Lady of Guadalupe portray an aesthetic one tracks that composed Houston’s mercantile infra- can easily relate in particular to a Mexican Ameri- structure. Mostly poor and unskilled, they settled can sensibility. And, as the urban development of near their workplaces, some living in discarded train the neighborhood continued, building warehouses containers, while others lived in jacales, precarious, and industrial yards, privatizing as much space as makeshift shacks located on the river banks. possible, the dominance of other agents became apparent. With the city booming, and a growing demand for cheap labor by oil companies and factories locat- Even housing consisted (and still does) mainly of ing along the channel, more and more members single-family bungalows built originally for a work- of this social group began to establish in this area, ing class Anglo population.

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