Identity on the Landscape
Engrained in the landscape of Roosevelt Avenue is the ever-present cultural identity of immigrants that is maintained through place-names, flags, and even stereotypes. “Business owners use toponyms and cultural symbols to identify source countries, resulting in businesses named for places such as Cali, Guayaquil, or Puebla (see Figure 8). National flags and crests are common on store awnings and the colors of national flags are incorporated in the signage” (Miyares, p.477). National colors and flags permeate the entire commercial landscape, whether the product is food, clothing or real estate. Jackson Heights embodies a ‘home away from home’ for a diverse group of Latin American immigrants from Peru, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Colombia, and Bolivia, as well as many Koreans and the inhabitants of the ‘Little India’ enclave originating from Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Bangladesh. Flags and national colors are the visual representation of the need to maintain national, ethnic and religious identity (see Figure 9).
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Patterns that emerged during research of cultural identity include the concept of regionalization and co-ethnicity. Although a restaurant or multi-service venue may represent a single national identity (see Figure 10), the general trend is the emergence of a ‘regional identity’ (see Figure 11) whether it is South Americans or Central Americans, where multiple national flags are displayed in conjunction with each other. One specific example is the Los Paisanos Centrao Americanos import store. The business uses a regional cultural identity of ‘Central Americans’ that includes Ecuatorianos, Mexicanos, Peruanos, and Colombianos in order to better serve the needs of immigrants and appeal to a larger consumer audience (see Cover photo). These ‘regional’ cultural markers on the commercial landscape express the power of numbers.
As with other underrepresented groups in the United States, political, economic and cultural capital can be achieved through unification with other similar groups to gain numbers. Another expression of this new regional identity on the landscape of Roosevelt Avenue is the Union Andina bank. The financial institution has embodied a place-based identity centered around the Andes Mountains, rather than advertising to separate national identities of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia (see Figure 12). |