Neighborhood

Langley Park: an immigrant latino "community" ¹

By William John Hanna

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this chapter is to describe a Latino neighborhood in Maryland, to indicate some of its strengths and weaknesses, and to note a set of efforts now underway by a town-and-gown alliance to improve the neighborhood's quality of life.

LANGLEY PARK

Walking through the unincorporated Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. called Langley Park, Spanish and many other foreign languages fill the air. This is a vibrant international neighborhood. The area is multinational, multicultural, multiethnic, and multiracial. Although most immigrants are from El Salvador and the next ranked sender countries are from Central America, the accents in the schools and streets also come from Haiti, Jamaica, Nigeria, Vietnam, and many other countries. Salsa and ju-ju are among the musical rhythms. The attractive smells come from chicken pupusas, pho beef soup, vegetable curry, and other world foods.

There are many wonderful, good people living in Langley Park: Francisco, Luis, Juan, Jos, Margie, Elizabeth, Nikki, Tracy, and so many others whom I have come to know. They work hard and contribute to their neighborhood -- and to their country of choice as well as their countries of origin.

Langley Park has resources and potential -- and also challenges and needs. It is in many respects an attractive area, yet it also has unattractive characteristics. The neighborhood is a step up for most Latinos and others who move in, but many residents hope to improve themselves by moving out.

Located in Prince George's County approximately two miles north of the District of Columbia line and one mile west of the University of Maryland at College Park, Langley Park is an unincorporated area covering less than a square mile² .

THE LANGLEY PARK PROJECT

The Langley Park area was selected as the focus of the 1995, 1996, and 1997 spring semester's graduate urban planning studio-seminar. A handful of graduate students plus several invited bilingual undergraduate students worked with me each of the semesters. To provide identity and to indicate continuity into the future, I named the continuing effort "The Langley Park Project."

At the time the research focus was being developed, we had (I admit) only limited information about Langley Park. We knew, for instance, that its residents were multinational (predominantly Spanish-speaking) and working class or in some cases underclass, and that a s ystematic needs assessment of the area had not been conducted but was needed.

Early contacts with regionally prominent Latinos and Prince George's County officials were encouraging. The Latinos indicated that it would be useful to learn more about Langley Park so that conditions would be better understood and requests for needed public services more solidly justified. Some public officials also expressed a keen interest in the project. Indeed, late in 1994 key staff members of half-a-dozen county agencies were assembled by the then-chief aid to the County Executive in order to have the project explained and facilitated. Two officials thought the project might be a catalyst for some resource reallocation, saying that if we studied Langley Park "the county would have to pay some attention to it."

In the first days of 1995, the research team members committed themselves to conduct the needs assessment. This effort appeared to be a useful first step for a continuing project, because it would provide information about the area. A needs assessment is an effort to obtain basic information about the needs of a set of people. Some needs assessments focus upon a limited domain such as health. Our decision was to pursue a broad agenda that would include a wide variety of needs and yield a broader portrait.

The needs assessment soon developed into an example of good university-community cooperation. Within weeks, relationships were established with the federally supported Community Services Coalition⁴, the nonprofit CASA de Maryland⁵, La Comunidad, and numerous other regional, county, and community-based organizations⁶. The federal program will draw upon this needs assessment as a planning document for its five year program of community development. Throughout the study, linkages were developed with additional projects and organizations. Indeed, the seminar became a focal point of many organizational efforts to improve the quality of life in Langley Park.

The Langley Park Project will continue in future years. For instance, we have currently begun an effort to create a community development corporation that will include Langley Park and two neighboring areas. We adhere to the advice of Jean Rhys: "Feed the sea, feed the sea." Our small projects will, we hope, have a cumulating effect with potentially large consequences.

NEIGHBORHOOD RESOURCES

Langley Park has resources. Here, we focus on five: the residents are diverse with international connections, hard-working, and family-oriented, and the area is well-located and has a rich natural resource.

(1) The term diverse appropriately describes Langley Park. Perhaps the area's most striking resource is its international-multiethnic-multiracial-multicultural character. Most residents come from El Salvador, but there are also residents from more than thirty other countries. There are grocery stores, restaurants, shops, and services representing India, China, Vietnam, Colombia, Jamaica, and other countries. A Cuban owns a grocery store catering to the Latino population, a Columbian operates a chicken restaurant serving Mexican-style food. The barber shop next to a Peruvian restaurant is staffed by young Vietnamese. The large chain supermarkets in the area have signs in Spanish and English. In addition, European-American and African-Americans residents who settled in the neighborhood in the 50s, 60s, and 70s add to the cultural mix.

(2) Hard-working is an expression often used to characterize the people of Langley Park. The characterization appears to be appropriate regardless of national background or immigration status. For some immigrants, the hard work is perhaps linked with the great effort they have made to come to the United States. Chavez (1992, 149) also reports a strong work ethic among undocumented Latino immigrants interviewed for his California study. "Both men and women," he writes, "typically express a great deal of pride in their ability to work hard."

Residents in the area include a small number of professionals and managers. However, most of the area's residents have lower-level service jobs with incomes that are quite modest by regional standards. Many Latinos and Latinas we have interviewed hold down several low-skill jobs to support their proximate family as well as relatives in their home countries. (Several companies in the area specialize in money transfers to Central America and the Caribbean.) Typical jobs for men are in landscaping and construction, and many women work in domestic and office cleaning jobs. In the summer, the men's jobs often last from early morning until sundown.

(3) Family strength is a great resource in most immigrants' countries of origin, and in Langley Park this resource is to some extent sustained. However, there has been a weakening of families; influencing factors include the divisions which occur when only some family members travel to the United States, and the generational break that sometimes exists between adults with strong roots in their native cultures and children who have become Americanized.

(4) Spatial location constitutes another Langley Park resource. The area is a motor vehicle transportation nexus just southwest of Interstate 95 (the main north-south roadway in the eastern United States) and the Washington area's circumferential Interstate 495 "Beltway." The area is almost exactly in the center of a multi-pointed star with the points at an array of major metropolitan area suburban communities as well as the White House and other government buildings in the center of the District of Columbia.

(5) The natural beauty in the Langley Park area is not immediately apparent to visitor. However, a glorious greenbelt called "Northwest Branch" bounds the area on the north and east. This wooded ravine with a fish-stocked stream flows from the northern part of Montgomery County through Langley Park and eventually into the Anacostia River⁷. Alas, most residents do not take advantage of Northwest Branch. (Indeed, the majority of the Latinos don't know about it!) However, a few residents fish regularly in the stream, and some others use the path alongside the stream for walking, jogging, or biking.

It should be noted, in addition, that there are many public, nonprofit, and private organizations that have an interest in the residents of Langley Park and occasionally provide them with various forms of support.

NEIGHBORHOOD CHALLENGES

Many Langley Park Latinos face enormous challenges. These challenges are reflected in the specific needs mentioned by residents during interviews and focus groups, including eliminating threats to children created by drug dealers, developing more English-language classes, improving the maintenance of apartments, creating more recreational space, making the police actions against criminal activities more effective, and providing more job training. The list is long. We think there are seven broader challenges that shape or infuse the more specific ones.

(1) Poverty is the major challenge facing Langley Park's Latinos. Whether above or below the poverty line, there is no doubt that the average resident is relatively poor by national as well as county standards. In the local elementary school, for instance, over nine out of ten families qualify for the subsidized children's lunch programs. There are, of course, many explanations for poverty. Certainly, job scarcity, few skills, and poor English are key factors⁹.

(2) Isolation from the "mainstream" of American society characterizes the lives of many residents. The isolation is the result of limited financial resources, recency of tenure, problematic English-language skills, limited transportation options (for instance, car ownership is low), and fears of personal safety in an area known for gang activity, drug sales, and violent crime. A striking scene in Langley Park is that of play-areas without children who are kept at home by fearful parents.

(3) The negative community image held by many people outside Langley Park has to some extent been internalized by the area's residents. A sample of interviews throughout the Maryland suburbs revealed either a lack of acquaintance with the area or a negative image. For instance, two Latinas who live in nearby Adelphi, Maryland, told us: "Langley Park is not a very nice place. There is too much crime." And an African-American man in North Bethesda (about ten miles away) associated Langley Park with alcohol; for him, the area was best known for the liquor store called Tick Tock¹⁰. Langley Park residents, when away from home, often say that they live in "East Silver Spring¹¹."

(4) Painful personal histories, individually or collectively experienced, appear to have been internalized by many Langley Park residents¹². Perhaps the most obvious examples are the experiences of terror and conflict brought by thousands of refugees from El Salvador and others from such countries as Guatemala and Vietnam. Psychologists tell us that post-traumatic stress syndrome probably handicaps thousands of the residents. These traumatic experiences have socialized some residents to be fearful of officials and strangers. The fears are retained in their new country, and they are sometimes "validated" by aggressive drug sales, theft, seemingly random violence, and INS forays.

(5) A weak and fragmented neighborhood constitutes another challenge for the residents of Langley Park. There is a minimal sense of community. Of course, there are many definitions of "community." We have in mind an aggregate of people who live in a local area and to a significant degree share social institutions and collective identities. There may also be some shared common culture. In Langley Park, national, regional, racial, and other social and cultural divisions exist (diversity is a strength but can also be a source of weakness), resident participation in collective activities is low (due in part to fears and transience), and leadership internal to the neighborhood is almost non-existent. Most Latinos have not become citizens or even applied for citizenship, and more than a thousand Latinos are undocumented. The voting turnout of Latino citizens is relatively low. Perhaps Langley Park is an area but not a community.

(6) A transient self-image characterizes many Latinos in Langley Park, especially those who live in the apartments and rented houses. Many of these residents do not consider themselves at home, i.e., they view their current residence as no more than temporary. Immigrants from Central America often sustain a myth of return, and they retain family and other ties with their countries of origin. Many Latinos routinely send money to their home country¹³. Even those who do think of the U. S. as home are likely to want to move to what they consider to be a more desirable location¹⁴. Of course, the anti-immigrant sentiments that are becoming more virulent in the country lead some Latinos to wonder if their future is in Langley Park or, indeed, anywhere in the United States.

(7) Marginalized¹⁵ is a term that is used to describe people who are relegated or confined to a marginal status within their social system. The images, histories, and contemporary experiences of many Langley Park Latinos, especially those new immigrants living in apartments, have to some extent led the residents "to experience themselves as different and marginalized" (Fisher and Kling 1993, 320). Of course, marginal people are not outside the society; rather, as Castells and Mollenkopf (1991, 409) write, "they occupy a specific position and perform specific services in the urban social structure." For the marginalized Latinos of Langley Park, these services include cleaning homes and commercial buildings, working in heavy construction and landscaping, and even selling crack cocaine.

TOWARDS COMMUNITY

The fragmented nature of Langley Park and the avoidance of public activities on the part of the residents mean that most efforts towards individual- or family-improvement are not coordinated or collective. Indeed, the efforts themselves are absent or minimal. Yet without coordination or collective action, the neighborhood will almost certainly remain poor and under-served by the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

What, consequently, are some activities or strategies for transforming Langley Park from a place into a community? And how might community-building improve the area's quality of life?

I've been directly involved in several activities; let me share them with you.

First, I have been able to obtain funds to begin a teen-written bilingual neighborhood newspaper. Its name is Barrio de Langley Park. The first issue was published this January, and a second issue will be published towards the end of March. The 3,000 copies of the paper have been distributed to teenagers, schools, libraries, community centers, and elsewhere. The publication is the first evidence, since Langley Park became majority-Latino, that the neighborhood is in at least some respects an entity, a community¹⁶.

Second, there has been a recent change in the local Boys and Girls Club. For decades, this private organization located in the center of Langley Park has served basketball-playing African-American boys. Even the change of name that now includes "girls" has not made a difference. Alas, its neighborhood is now majority Latino, and few Latinos are interested in competitive basketball. They want to play fútbol. Fortunately, a change is about to take place. We have been able to convince the all-African-American club board of directors that they should serve the neighborhood, and so funds are about to come from United Way to the club to start a fútbol program. Needless to say, families in the neighborhood are waiting with heightened interest for the weather change that will enable neighborhood children to come together for this sports activity. At last, there will be fútbol teams that have the name "Langley Park."

Third, an effort has been made to encourage Latinos to pursue citizenship. Working with a local organization, several of my students and I have organized three information sessions designed to inform residents of the advantages of citizenship. The sessions have drawn an average of sixty residents¹⁷.

And fourth, an effort has begun to enhance local business activity and employment opportunities. Currently, most local businesses are surviving marginally; success often seems to mean paying the rent and putting food on the table at home. Also currently, un- and underemployment among residents is very high. (We estimate that unemployment has reached the one-third to one-half range.) While Langley Park does not have a sufficient number of businesses with adequate capitalization to make significant changes (with the exceptions of a market, a toy store, and a video rental establishment that are units of large chains), the possibilities for improvement appear to increase significantly with an alliance of the businesses of Langley Park and those of two proximate neighborhoods. Consequently, we have been working to create what we have termed "Maryland's International Corridor." The effort is moving forward thanks to active interest on the part of some officials at the state, county, and sub-county levels. Already there have been four public meetings, and the odds on creating a corridor CDC appears to be good. It is worth noting that the residents who know about the corridor idea seem proud that their neighborhood will have such a label -- and they look forward to the job-creation that should follow.

Alas, communities are not built in a day or even in a year. But there is movement in the right direction; and if Langley Park becomes a community, residential stability will increase, crime will decrease, and many other changes will take place that should significantly improve the quality of Latino life.

Notes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Barrio de Langley Park, No. 1. 1997. College Park, University of Maryland.
• Castells, Manuel, and John Mollenkoph. 1991. Dual City: Restructuring New York. New York, Russell Sage Foundation.
• Chavez, Leo. 1992. Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society. Fort Worth, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
• Fisher, Robert, and Joseph Kling. 1993. "The Continued Vitality of Community Mobilization." In Fisher and Kling, ed., Mobilizing the Community: Local Politics in the Era of the Global City. Newbury Park, Calif., Sage.
• Hanna, William J., et al. 1995. Langley Park: A Preliminary Needs Assessment. College Park, University of Maryland.
• Hanna, William J., et al. 1996. Maryland's International Corridor: 1996 Working Paper. College Park, University of Maryland.
• Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. 1991. Restoring Northwest Branch. Rockville, MD.
• Moore, Joan, and Raquel Pinderhughes. 1993. In the Barrios: Latinos and the Underclass Debate. New York, Russell Sage Foundation.
• Nossiter, Adam. 1995. "A Shabby Welcome Mat: Harlem Hotel Is a First Home for Hundreds of Africans," The New York Times, February 11, 21 and 23.
• Perlman, Janice. 1976. The Myth of Marginality: Urban Poverty and Politics in Rio de Janeiro. Berkeley, University of California Press.
• Stavans, Ilan. 1995. The Hispanic Condition: Reflections on Culture and Identity in America. New York, Harper-Collins.