Sunbelt Diaspora

Patricia Silver is an anthropologist affiliated with the National Coalition of Independent Scholars. For more than a decade, she has conducted ethnographic, oral history, and archival research about Puerto Rican experiences in Orlando, with an emphasis on sociocultural heterogeneity and collective identification. Silver holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from American University. She has published her findings in numerous academic journals and authored expert testimony as part of a 2014 federal case against Orange County, Florida, for diluting the Latino vote during redistricting.

• List of Maps, Tables, and ChartsPreface. For Orlando ReadersAcknowledgmentsIntroduction. Race, Class, Place, and Politics in a New Puerto Rican DiasporaPart I. Puerto Rican Orlando Chapter 1. Between Black and White: Geography, Demography, and Political PlaceChapter 2. Hidden Histories in the New Orlando: Colonial Migrations, Color-Blind Multiculturalism, and Natural NeoliberalismPart II. Difference and the Incompleteness of Political Community Formation Chapter 3. “You Don’t Look Puerto Rican”: Race, Class, and Memories of Place in OrlandoChapter 4. Enough Is Enough: Memory, Political Formations, and Participatory CitizenshipChapter 5. “This Building Is Our Island”: Seen and Unseen in OrlandoPart III. The Case of Redistricting in Orange County, Florida Chapter 6. Divided by Beans: Difference and Political Community FormationChapter 7. Four Districts for Americans: Mapping Community in Orange CountyConclusion. Navigating Ambiguity in the Interests of CommunityEpilogue. “Things Will Be Different Now”Appendix. Oral History Collections and Orange County Board of County Commissioners ProceedingsNotesReferencesIndex

Silver offers a groundbreaking perspective on the recent social history and politics of [Orlando] by unravelling the dynamics of race, class and place-making in the development of a heterogeneous community...The true value of this book is its ability to scrutinize the unseen sociopolitical realities that shape Puerto Ricans and other Latinxs’ efforts for community organization and political participation in this new place. Silver has made an impressive contribution to fields of Latinx migration and politics by focusing on the recent history of the understudied area of central Florida. Researchers, students, and a wider audience will be fully satisfied with the vivid life histories of this well-written book. (The Independent Scholar) Throughout Sunbelt Diaspora, Silver demonstrates how Puerto Ricans and, more generally, other Latinos have affirmed their presence in spite of their circumscribed political and social positioning in the imagined community of the United States, Florida, and Orlando...The expanse of data collected and examined in this study, combined with an insider-outsider perspective integrated throughout and critiques informed from perspectives in Puerto Rican and Latino studies make Sunbelt Diaspora an original contribution to the literature on Latinos in the region and provide a space for this work to engage in dialogue with comparative studies on Latinos in traditional and nontraditional urban destinations. (US Latina & Latino Oral History Journal) Sunbelt Diaspora is an extremely well-written and insightful book about Puerto Ricans in Orlando, Florida, the state with the largest concentration of Puerto Ricans stateside. It is also a compelling account of the Puertoricanization of Orlando, how this has meshed with the larger Latino/a community, and the politics of race, ethnicity, class, and place in determining political representation amidst widespread demographic changes in a southern town. This is a must read for scholars of Puerto Rican migration and diasporic communities as well as race and ethnic relations. (CENTRO Journal) Silver’s work is a must-read for those interested in the history of Latinos and Puerto Ricans in Florida...It captures the complexity of the intersection of different racial/ethnic identities, class relations, and memories of place...The important lessons contained in this book are going to be vital for understanding the process by which the continuous resettlement of Puerto Ricans to less traditional Latino destinations such as Georgia, the Carolinas, and elsewhere are going to impact their identity, social inclusion, and political power. (Latino Studies) There is an unfortunate tendency among many academics to homogenize the racial experiences and identities of Puerto Rican migrants as well as LatinAmerican immigrants. Silver’s study bucks this trend...This is the first significant academic monograph to focus on this fast-growing community in Central Florida, and it will be of great interest to scholars from various disciplines. This is a readable book that will also be appropriate for graduate and undergraduate students. (American Historical Review) Silver fills an important gap in social scientific knowledge by providing a rich analysis of an important yet underexamined case...a key contribution of Sunbelt Diaspora, which is supported by its methodological and analytical approach, is its engagement with intersecting histories, 'messiness of difference,' 'contradictory relations' in the examination of place-making, and political community formation in a new and southern destination. (Journal of Anthropological Research) Silver guides readers, in deft and engaging prose, across the shifting and combated sociopolitical terrain of Orange County, where Puerto Ricans, and Latinx peoples in general, have been subjected to discriminatory policies and regulations, which look to curtail their viability and vibrancy as a political force. The triumph of this book, however, is that...the author has made the astute decision to focus on the ideological fault lines among Puerto Ricans in Orlando. (Chiricú Journal)