Locals, Newcomers, and Longtimers
How Business Owners Navigate Culture and Commerce in Gentefying Barrios of Southern California
Yael Shmaryahu-Yeshurun (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) and Janet Muñiz (California State University, Long Beach)
Commercial gentrification, or upscaling of businesses in an area, has displaced long-standing and working-class residents and businesses in communities across the U.S. In communities of color, the drivers of commercial gentrification have become associated with wealthier, white, and new business owners with no prior connection to the areas they are gentrifying. The commercial gentrification of communities of color threatens to disrupt the local cultural fabric and residents’ ability to connect to their heritage through products sold and services offered in their native language. In our paper “Locals, Newcomers, and Longtimers: How Business Owners Navigate Culture and Commerce in Gentefying Barrios of Southern California,” we offer an alternative perspective on the drivers of commercial gentrification by looking at Latinx business owners participating in a new form of redevelopment coined gentefication.
Commercial gentefication, a term in Spanish that we use to describe gentrification led by “la gente” or “the people,” is a process in which Latinx individuals establish new businesses. These businesses cater to a new audience of middle- and upper-class consumers from outside the neighborhood who come to experience its culture. This challenges the assumption that commercial gentrification is solely imposed by outsiders. It also highlights the agency of new Latinx business owners, or gentefiers, who are provided with the business opportunity to commodify Latinx identity for-profit and exploit local culture as a means of maintaining, rather than displacing, their heritage.
We draw from interviews with business owners and participant observations in the business districts of two majority Latinx communities in Southern California – Barrio Logan in San Diego, CA, and Santa Ana in Orange County, CA – to demonstrate a nuanced understanding of the actors involved in gentefication, their motivations, and narratives regarding their involvement in this new form of culture driven redevelopment. Our article’s main contribution is categorizing three types of gentefiers: locals, newcomers, and longtimers.
Local gentefiers grew up in the neighborhood they are gentefying and see their businesses as an alternative to white-led gentrification to preserve local culture and community cohesion. Locals see themselves as agents in uplifting the neighborhoods’ identity and history as cultural insiders. They view redevelopment positively when it includes their participation and representation as a means to uplift and empower their community. While local gentefiers are well-acquainted with the community surrounding their businesses and express solidarity with them, they are generally less involved in local politics, relying instead on their deep-rooted presence and historical ties to the community to justify their role. Having grown up in marginalized neighborhoods and successfully established a business, they see themselves as role models and frame their entrepreneurial activity as a political act of defending the community.
Newcomers are outsiders to the neighborhood – reflecting more closely the traditional gentrifying type – who move in due to economic opportunity. Newcomers perceive redevelopment as beneficial and are typically drawn to these areas because they are affordable and present opportunities to capitalize on their identities within a vibrant cultural landscape. Newcomers often align with discourses of cultural empowerment. Still, it takes longer to integrate into the community as they aim to run successful businesses that introduce unique offerings to the neighborhoods, attracting locals and outsiders. For these reasons, it is understandable why, unlike locals, newcomers often seek to understand and engage with local issues to better integrate into the community and justify their presence. Lacking deep-rooted connections to these neighborhoods, they integrate into local politics and actively celebrate the culture in a way that helps them avoid association with a stigmatized “gentrifier” identity. However, their unfamiliarity with the community can lead to a superficial cultural representation that often lacks a deep-rooted understanding of local history and context.
Longtimers are established business owners who predate gentefication but are affected by its emergence. They often express nostalgia and thus frustration with the ongoing redevelopment they have seen over the years and sometimes with newcomers’ and locals’ advancing of gentefication. Longtimers demonstrate fatigue from constant waves of change and prefer to maintain their established businesses instead of channeling their energies into broader community and city engagement. While longtimers are not gentefiers, we include them as a reference point for understanding newcomers and locals.
Our categorization of business owners in the gentefying landscape is crucial for determining the best approach to engaging each group and fostering collaboration on three levels. First, identifying local gentefiers and business owners who grew up in the neighborhood and are familiar with its history, politics, and community needs can help foster more inclusive practices in collaboration with community members, activists, organizations, and policymakers. Second, unlike locals, promoting education and awareness among newcomers who move into the neighborhood is essential. Despite their commitment to contributing to the community, they often lack an understanding of its needs. Many also attempt to engage in local politics, sometimes to avoid criticism and resistance from residents and activists due to their outsider status. Distinguishing types of gentefiers and their modes of engagement contribute to previous findings on the socio-political awareness of gentrifiers. It highlights their efforts to balance personal reputation, ethics, and the stigma associated with gentrification and mitigate the displacement effects of gentrification through activism. Finally, it is crucial to distinguish between locals and longtimers because, as we find, they present differently based on the community context. Still, at their core, longtimers are subject to coexisting with locals and newcomers actively mobilizing their businesses in the landscape of gentefication.
Our comparative case study underscores Latinx communities’ resilience and ability to adapt and navigate the challenges of this new form of commercial gentrification – gentefication. Amidst gentefication, business owners are shaping their neighborhoods’ future, asserting their cultural identity, and working toward economic and social justice. We highlight that collaborating with local business owners, educating newcomers on historical context, and supporting longtimers with targeted policies can help create a more inclusive and sustainable approach to gentefication. As commercial gentefication continues to reshape Latinx communities across the U.S., understanding the role of commercial gentefiers becomes crucial in understanding multi-faceted redevelopment that benefits its community.
Yael Shmaryahu-Yeshurun is an assistant professor in the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Her research focuses on urban politics and policy, with particular emphasis on gentrification policies, their impact on power structures within cities, and the activism of ethnic communities in response to these policies.
Janet Muñiz is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at California State University, Long Beach. Her research looks at Latinx-led gentrification or gentefication of upwardly mobile Mexican Americans in immigrant communities with an emphasis on intraethnic conflict and generational differences in response to redevelopment as individuals work to maintain and preserve their neighborhoods and culture.