Latinization, Landscapes, and Soundscapes

Chapter 2 traces the long-term impact of Latino migration and the Latinization of communities. The chapter highlights the economic, cultural, and political influence of these newcomers by focusing on both the landscape and soundscape in the suburbs of Osceola County. The different ways that the demographic changes were talked about, understood, and sometimes contested are documented. Chapter 2 reveals how transformations to the landscape and soundscape and language ideologies impact racial identities, migrant incorporation, and the response to Latino migrants. These ideas or language ideologies reveal how linguistic practices are racialized along with other practices, physical characteristics, and signifiers of identity. Thus, this chapter begins to grapple with the complexity of race relations in the region by drawing attention to the circulation of racial anger, feelings of white exclusion, and the move to confine linguistic differences to the home.