Abstract Barrios

“Abstract Barrios does a masterful job in moving beyond the hype of the ‘Latinization’ of US urban areas and instead offers a deeply historicized account of the rise of Latinx-majority cities.  Crafting a theoretical analysis of the role of Latinx brokers in the late twentieth century, Johana Londoño helps us understand how urban designers use everything from bright colors to ‘Latin’ architecture to domesticate the urban barrio and prepare it for gentrification and the passive inclusion of Latinxs in US urban society.” - George J. Sanchez, author of Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900–1945

“A captivating account of the everyday moments that produce the barrio, Abstract Barrios offers a unique view into the built environment of Latinidad. the book's ambition and vastness singularly fills gaping holes in the urban planning and architecture scholarship on Latinxs. Providing a wide-ranging view of how barrios are made and the actors involved in their making, this special and unique book is a crucial work of scholarship for Latinx studies, urban studies, and urban sociology.” - Zaire Zenit Dinzey-Flores, author of Locked In, Locked Out: Gated Communities in a Puerto Rican City

“Londoño employs an innovative multidisciplinary approach in her methodology in Abstract Barrios. She incorporates archival materials, interviews, visual texts (i.e. posters, photographs) and criticism from architecture, history, urban studies, Latinx studies, ethnic studies and cultural studies to provide a more complete portrait of Latinx urban barrios. By doing so, Londoño opens a critical dialogue to reconsider the gaps in these traditional disciplines and to rethink the emerging field of Latinx urban studies.” - Juanita Heredia, The Latinx Project

“The author masterfully weaves an interdisciplinary account of how abstractions of Latinx culture have been integrated into the built environment and design while continuing to exclude true representation of low-income and marginalized members of those communities.... Abstract Barrios is a timely addition to literature on urban planning, design, and architecture in relation to an increasingly important demographic.” - Sarah Valentina Diaz, Affilia

“Abstract Barrios enriches the fields of American, Latinx and urban studies and planning by having readers rethink the concept of the barrio as something much greater than the literature has heretofore defined.” - Salvador Zárate, American Studies

“By situating her readers in the bustling transnational intersection of migration, housing, aesthetics, and their attendant questions, [Abstract Barrios] navigates a Latinx urban geography that runs from the Caribbean to California.” - Alhelí Harvey, E3W Review of Books