The Fractured American Dream

Abstract

Chapter 3 of the book focuses on the character, reputation, and place-identity of the Buenaventura Lakes suburb, and the impact of linguistic transformations due to the community’s Latinization. Drawing on various data sources, the chapter shows how talk about landscape aesthetics, living conditions, crime, racial, ethnic, and class identities, and language intertwine to reinforce social class distinctions and the racialization of suburban spaces, places, and therefore people. The strong connection between suburban living and prosperity is unraveling, and Buenaventura Lakes is a declining suburb representative of the changing social and economic conditions and demographics in suburbs across the United States. Buenaventura Lakes, once a community for “country club living” and “affordable luxury,” is perceived as a Latino “ghetto” or “slum” in the eyes of residents and non-residents, Latinos and non-Latinos. Despite the populations’ income diversity and the high prices of some homes, the residents are paradoxically described as poor, lower class, low income, or at best working class. Additionally, the concentration of Latinos is interpreted as a lack of diversity. Thus, this suburb is constructed as a non-white space, foreign and uncomfortable for non-Latino whites, which adds to residential segregation in Greater Orlando.