Conference Agenda

In this panel, we explore different community projects that seek to document practices and/or artefacts of community life that are under threat. In times of heightened surveillance of immigrant communities and communities of color, this work has particular importance. Each paper reflects a collaborative effort between university faculty or administrators and undergraduate students. One paper examines indigenous language preservation practices and access in two New Jersey cities, through qualitative interviews. Another describes a Latine foodways project in Hudson County, documenting the culinary traditions, food-related cultural artefacts (like menus), and narratives of restaurant patronage as part of a public archive illustrating these enclave spaces as sites of community building. The third paper continues this theme by creating a comprehensive inventory of all microbusinesses, including Latine restaurants, across five immigrant-dense neighborhoods. The data are used to construct statistical portraits that help, in part, to evaluate how closely neighborhood foodscapes reflect local demographic composition.

Intended to be part of a panel titled Community efforts to preserve culture amidst erasure Chair: Devin A. Heyward, PhD; Discussant: Jennifer Ayala, PhD

Language is a fundamental part of identity. Language shapes how individuals understand themselves, connect with others, and maintain ties to their cultural roots. Immigration, however, often requires individuals to leave familiar environments behind and adapt to new social, linguistic, and cultural realities. In this process of movement, language can become both a challenge and a source of resilience. Specifically, indigenous-language-speaking immigrants may face additional pressures as they cross borders. These additional challenges can lead to discrimination and marginalization, as indigenous languages, many of which are already endangered, lack institutional representation. This, in turn, shapes their experience towards a language shift to adapt to the dominant languages of their host countries. This research asks how first- and second-generation immigrants in Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey, preserve their indigenous languages in their new places of resettlement. Language is preserved in two ways. First, through intergenerational transmission, in which first-generation immigrants teach their indigenous language to the second generation and native born citizens. Second, through shared language within community networks. Second-generation immigrants assimilate into the dominant spoken language more than first-generation immigrants do. This study uses life-history interviews to investigate how language is preserved both through intergenerational transmission and within community networks. This research seeks to contribute new insights into the ways indigenous and endangered languages are preserved and flips the lens to center on indigenous languages in dominant English-speaking communities.

Food establishments in ethnic neighborhoods can be sights of cultural preservation; but to what extent do restaurants in immigrant neighborhoods actually reflect the communities in which they are located? In neighborhoods historically shaped by one or two dominant ethnic groups, representational alignment may be relatively straightforward. However, as immigration flows become more diverse and neighborhoods become increasingly multi-ethnic, one might wonder: How truly representative is the local foodscape? At the same time, gentrification and a charged anti-immigrant political climate raise questions about whether cultural representation in local foodscapes is being reshaped—or compromised. As part of the Latine Foodways Project in Hudson County, our research combines U.S. Census data with a comprehensive inventory of all microbusinesses, including Latine restaurants, across five neighborhoods that are immigrant-dense, though in varying degrees. The data are used to construct statistical portraits that distinguish among ethnic subgroups (e.g., Cuban, Dominican, Mexican) to: (1) assess the prevalence of Latine food establishments as potential sites of cultural preservation; (2) compare their presence to non-Latine restaurants; and (3) evaluate how closely neighborhood foodscapes reflect local demographic composition. We conclude by integrating insights from qualitative interviews with Latine restaurant owners, examining how they selected their locations, how they understand their cultural and economic roles, and how contemporary political tensions shape their experiences. Together, the findings highlight the dynamics of food representation and cultural continuity within changing neighborhoods.

Intended to be part of a panel titled Community efforts to preserve culture amidst erasure Chair: Devin A. Heyward, PhD; Discussant: Jennifer Ayala, PhD

This paper describes the Latine Foodways Project, a study documenting Latine neighborhoods, restaurants, and the role they play in preserving Latine cultures and culinary heritages from the 1970s to today. We focus on three communities in Hudson County, in northern New Jersey: Bergenline Avenue (from Union City to North Bergen), Kearney Avenue in Kearney, and Central Avenue in Jersey City Heights. This project includes faculty-student collaborations in the form of research assistantships, experiential learning activities, and academic courses that have students doing research on Latine foodscapes, foodways, and related cultural practices. A variety of materials were collected, including oral history interviews of community members, interviews with store owners and workers, photographs and video of the neighborhoods, menus from the various restaurants, home recipes and family food preparation videos, artwork featuring the role certain foods play in their understanding of culture and memory. From these materials, we learn the ways that the foods we eat tell us stories of migration, ceremony and ritual, family and community connection, social, economic and political trends, the connections between land and people, as well as intergenerational traumas and triumphs. This collection of materials will be part of a digital archive, as well as presented as an exhibit in a local non-profit space, and finally, an open-source book with the student-generated title Sabores de mi gente: A collection of community-rooted stories by estudiambres.