Los Olvidados/The Forgotten: Reconceptualizing Colonias as Viable Communities

Places of concentrated poverty are typically described in terms of their deficit, not simply in financial terms, but in their social and cultural resources as well. This characterization extends to informal settlements that exist along the U.S.-Mexico border known as colonias, rural and peri-urban communities lacking basic infrastructure like electricity, running water, and paved roads. Drawing on one case study of a colonia in the state of Arizona, we renew attention to these communities showing how the lack of infrastructure and public services complicate everyday tasks for residents, compromising their wellbeing and life prospects. We also call attention to the allure of colonias in a context of rising inequality, highlighting their promise as viable communities where families can raise families and prosper or retire with dignity. By showing how kin and fictive kin ties propel the settlement process and provide the organizational and cultural structure to these communities, we challenge common depictions of colonias lacking a sense of community and social capital. We find social capital in colonias is best represented through “bonding ties” that provide essential forms of social support, the kind of help that allows the poor to “get by” or cope. We distinguish this from social capital that is garnered via “bridging ties,” to individuals with resources or in positions of influence that can create opportunities for social mobility. The tenacity of colonia residents and their practices of mutual support makes these communities resilient, but the absence of “social leverage ties,” those able and willing to broker complex bureaucratic and political processes, sustains ill conditions in colonias. Colonia residents have set root in these communities worthy of public policy concern and ought to be folded into the larger conversation of poverty concentration, segregation and housing needs in the United States. We call on urban planners, other street-level bureaucrats, and policymakers to work with these communities to bridge and broker grass root efforts.