What ethnic neighborhoods are most like the old country?

[xzmattzx]

In your opinion, what ethnic neighborhoods around the world are most like the country where the people are from? In other words, which ethnic neighborhoods give the most authentic experience if someone wants to experience a country or culture without traveling? Take a few elements, such as cuisine/restaurants, architecture, history, and so on, into consideration.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

In your opinion, what ethnic neighborhoods around the world are most like the country where the people are from? In other words, which ethnic neighborhoods give the most authentic experience if someone wants to experience a country or culture without traveling? Take a few elements, such as cuisine/restaurants, architecture, history, and so on, into consideration.

i mean, i'd say heavily mexican neighborhoods from my experience. the automobile culture, seemingly endless low-rise construction in parts of LA or Chicago, corner tiendas, catholic churches, corner panaderia's...

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

i mean, i'd say heavily mexican neighborhoods from my experience. the automobile culture, seemingly endless low-rise construction in parts of LA or Chicago, corner tiendas, catholic churches, corner panaderia's...

Any one in particular? I guess I should have made that clearer. Obviously, a Mexican enclave in, say, Connecticut is not going to be as authentic as a Mexican enclave in Houston or Los Angeles.

[the urban politician]

Este threado, no comprendo

[ThePhun1]

How is it hard to understand? I have a harder time getting that than the subject of the thread, which is crystal clear.

[jd3189]

At their beginnings, places like New York's Little Italy and San Francisco's Chinatown were pretty representative of their respective countries. That probably goes for many ethnic neighborhoods in walkable neighborhoods. They become less like the old country overtime.

[Capsicum]

In time diaspora communities diverge from the "old country" often even if they try and retain their culture in isolation, from the old country.

That's because the old country changes too so that unless there is an attempt to re-kindle ties, habits of the diaspora might be "frozen" reflecting the habits of the old country at the time they immigrated, not the current inhabitants of the "old country" now.

For example, Chinese immigrants' descendants in the US and elsewhere might carry Chinese cultural things and traditions that were destroyed or gotten rid of by the communists in the "old country" during the cultural revolution.

[Docere]

In North America, Mexican enclaves in the Southwest seem the most obvious. Perhaps Hispanic and Caribbean enclaves in South Florida as well? Geographic proximity helps.

[Urbanguy]

^Geography, climate & topography really help give it a vibe like you could be somewhere in an ethnic enclave's home country. A couple of good examples in Honolulu's metro would be places like Waipahu or Kalihi Valley where there is a huge Filipino presence. The types of homes, the trees & plants in the yards, etc. are similar to what you'd find in parts of the Philippines not to mention the presence of restaurant chains that are based in the Philippines. Waipahu for example is like over 50% Filipino which is kind of a trip because back in the plantation era there used to be a lot of Portuguese, Spaniards, Hawaiians, Puerto Ricans, Chinese & Koreans along side the Filipinos with a sprinkling of Norwegians now there's almost no sign other than the Plantation Village that they once lived there.

Way out in the small towns of Laie and Kahuku where there's a very diverse population of Pacific Islanders from Tongans, Samoans, ethnic Fijians, Tahitians, Marquesans to Rotumans -- the small rural & tropical setting makes it feel like you could be in any of those places.

[10023]

None of them. At all.

Maybe Mexican neighborhoods in states that used to be part of Mexico, but that’s absolutely it. No Little Italy or Chinatown in America has ever borne even he faintest resemblance to the “old country”.

[McBane]

I'd have to imagine that there are only so many ethnic neighborhoods in North America that resemble the built environment of where the immigrants came from. For example, the Italian enclaves in NY, Philly, St. Louis, Boston, etc. look nothing like Italy. Sure, you can find similarities between Mexico and border communities in AZ, NM, and TX but that's more a result of geographic proximity. I suppose one could make an argument that some Chinatowns resemble China, what with the Chinese lettering, Chinese architectural embellishments, and the density. But no one will mistake Chinatown for China.

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by 10023

None of them. At all.

Maybe Mexican neighborhoods in states that used to be part of Mexico, but that’s absolutely it. No Little Italy or Chinatown in America has ever borne even he faintest resemblance to the “old country”.

I'll nominate the town of Guadalupe, Ariz. It's a town of about 5,500 in less than a square mile, surrounded by Tempe on 3 sides and Phoenix along the 10 freeway to it's west.

Historically it's been a town populated with Mexican-Yaqui Indians and it largely remains that way today. It was founded in 1900 by Yaqui Indians who fled Sonora, Mexico due to the Mexican government oppression.

According to the census it is 62% hispanic and 40% Native American Indian, surrounded by census tracts that don't resemble the town at all.

I've driven in there to buy Mexican pastries at a local market maybe about 20 years ago. It feels and looks like a Mexican town, but with modern U.S. [paved] streets, dozens of men loitering the streets, looking for work, waiting a contractor to pull up and hire them for the day.

[SIGSEGV]

Little Village, Chicago comes to mind ( streeview link), although the architecture isn't very authentic.

[DJM19]

I think most people got it right that many hispanic neighorhoods in the southwest feel like their counterparts in the home country. Mostly because the time disparity of development is not all that distant.


Obviously nothing in America will quite feel like the distinct vernaculars of a European village. A lot of cities where immigrants went already had established a decidedly American big city feel. Some cities might in America might feel a little English or northern European.

[Capsicum]

If English-speaking Canadians ever gathered as expats or immigrants in a neighborhood in the US (but I don't think they do as opposed to being just scattered all throughout), you could argue that would be likely the most similar "to the old country" since Canada and the US are so similar.

But as far as I can tell English-Canadians never formed enclaves (French Canadians emigrating from Quebec or Acadia to the US historically to places like Maine, Massachusetts and other parts of New England etc. are of course a different story).

[10023]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Little Village, Chicago comes to mind ( streeview link), although the architecture isn't very authentic.

Little Village is very Hispanic. Little Village is nothing like anywhere I’ve been in Mexico (and that includes several of the main cities, not beach resorts).

[Capsicum]

It's also hard for a lot of places to look like the old country when the old country's built forms are very unlike the American urban landscape in terms of architecture/street style, roads etc.

It's hard to get an American city's neighborhood to "pass" for a European or Asian or Latin American city for the most part, since even if the signs/language, storefronts, people, and decorations are there, the built form is not.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

It's hard to get an American city's neighborhood to "pass" for a European or Asian or Latin American city for the most part, since even if the signs/language, storefronts, people, and decorations are there, the built form is not.

and in little village's case, the overt "mexican-ness" is really only found on the commercial main drag of 26th street where you see all of the business and their signage in spanish catering to the large mexican-american commuinty that lives there, but step a half block off of 26th onto any side street and you're in hardcore chicago residential vernacular territory.

i'd be surprised if there's anyplace in mexico that looks anything like this: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8453...7i13312!8i6656

i mean, would anyone who sees that streetview honestly say to themselves "wait, i'm not sure if that's mexico or chicago"?

[Sun Belt]

This could resemble something in Asia if you washed all English words off the signage and replaced the parallel parked cars with Surrey taxies and mopeds and added a few thousand pedestrians on the street.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/rickysan20/10651607614

[edale]

I've not been to Korea, but I have heard that parts of LA's Koreatown are somewhat similar to parts of Seoul. Especially the area right around Wilshire. Other than that, parts of Westlake kind of look like Tijuana to me, especially around the intersection of Alvarado and 6th: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0595...7i16384!8i8192