A decade ago, when cultural anthropologist Dr. Simone Delerme sought a place that exemplified the growing Latino influence on American suburbs, she turned to Orlando—specifically the Buenaventura Lakes community in Osceola County.
Herself the grandchild of Puerto Rican and Haitian immigrants who settled in New York, Delerme observed firsthand the departure of many Puerto Ricans from Spanish Harlem.
“I realized Puerto Ricans were going South, and they were going to Orlando,” says Delerme, a professor of anthropology at the University of Mississippi. Others migrated to Orlando directly from Puerto Rico.
This mass migration was no coincidence.
In the 1970s and ‘80s, “there were very deliberate marketing attempts” to attract Puerto Ricans to Orlando’s suburbs, Delerme says. Housing developers targeted their marketing at Puerto Ricans, even offering free accommodations for folks checking out the area. Once one family member relocated, chain migration brought many more Puerto Ricans and other immigrants from other Latin American countries to Orlando.
“Some people talked about it like a frontier. New York was already expensive. It was overpriced,” Delerme says. “Here, you could have the suburban lifestyle with the front lawn and the two-car garage. So there was a lot of opportunity that I think people saw.”
Businesses also saw opportunity to capitalize on the influx of Latinos in Orlando.
“It’s funny, ‘cause I didn’t go there to study food. That was the last thing on my mind. I wanted to understand suburban development and the migration process,” Delerme says. “And it was in the everyday life activities that I was documenting in my field notes where food kept arising.”
Supermarkets beefed up their international aisles with Latin American products. Publix opened a handful of now-defunct stores called Publix Sabor, grocery stores full of Latin American foods, Spanish-speaking employees and salsa music playing over the loudspeaker. Bodegas sprang up, offering groceries and hot food.
Other efforts were less formal, such as enterprising Latinos selling pinchos—Puerto Rican-style kabobs—in front lawns and parking lots.
The Latinization of Florida and other Southern states has influenced Southern foodways.
“There’s been what we call cultural hybridization in anthropology,” Delerme says. “You have these fusions that are really exciting and eclectic,” such as crawfish burritos.
Delerme says food provides a gateway for discussing immigration, racism and other social issues.
“We’re only going to see more of this over time,” Delerme says. “I just hope people will embrace the exciting diversity that comes with food.”
Related episodes:
- It’s Always Sunny at St. Petersburg’s Brick Street Farms
- Conscious Cuisine: Edible Gardening Tips from Albert Risemberg
- Conscious Cuisine: Rocky Soil Family Farm on How to Reconnect with Your Food
- Conscious Cuisine: Rob Greenfield on How to Live without Grocery Stores and Restaurants
Thank you to our sponsors: Seitenbacher and TECO Peoples Gas
