Preface

Abstract

The idea for this book first came about four years ago when I was asked to write about the social history of Latinos in Washington, DC and Maryland for an academic publication. One of the first difficulties I encountered then was that, with the exception of Marie Price, Audrey Singer, and few others, academics had largely overlooked the phenomenal growth of Hispanic immigrants in the District of Columbia and its suburbs while they continue to dedicate considerable amount of energy to demographic and social changes in other more traditional ethnic destinations like New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami.¹ At the time, it was particularly difficult to assess the tipping point of when the Latinos community began to grow in the area and how that growth unfolded especially between the Great Depression and the 1960s. Yet, while doing archival research, I was surprised to find that the Hispanic presence, albeit a small one, in the region dates as far back as colonial times and that even some first- and second-generation Latinos, such as David G. Farragut, Juan de Miralles, and the civil engineer Aniceto Garcia Menocal, played a considerable role in the development of the capital city.

Citation

Pumar, E.S. (2012), "Preface", Pumar, E.S. (Ed.) Hispanic Migration and Urban Development: Studies from Washington DC (Research in Race and Ethnic Relations, Vol. 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. ix-xii. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0195-7449(2012)0000017003