Robert Brinkmann - Carolina del Norte: Geographies of Latinization in the South

Front cover image: Struggle by Cornelio Campos. Photograph by Cornelio Campos.

2011 Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers. This publication is printed on 30% recycled, acid-free paper.

At Johnnys Caf on West Main Street in Carrboro, North Carolina, customers savor gourmet coffee with fresh pastries. Known for more than two decades as Johnnys Sporting Goods, the small corner market stocked fishing tackle in a down home atmosphere until 2008 when Johnny sold the store. The new owners cultivate a well-heeled clientele who play speed bingo, enjoy live music, and simply hang out with the neighbors. Customers who enter through the door on the opposite side of the building, however, immediately hear colloquial Spanish and come face-to-face with boxes of onions, jalepeos, cilantro and a display of brightly colored $2 and $5 phone cards such as Te Cuento; Boss Carolina; Bang! D.F.; Sigo Siendo El Rey; and Red Carolina, used for calling throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Separated by a single door and a wall, this parallel world is Tienda Rosita, a Mexican family business supplying fresh produce to a growing Latina/o working-class clientele in the area. Here you can buy 10 limes for a dollar, and the owners take pride in bringing wholesale produce from the farmers market in Raleigh. On weekend evenings, a taco truck parks in front of Tienda Rosita, offering a range of taquera fare such as tacos, consom, and tamales. In 2010, the family that had managed Tienda Rosita for over ten years left without notice.

Police doused students at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill with pepper spray and fired tasers into the air in 2009 in response to a noisy protest of an event that students considered thinly-veiled white supremacy. Tom Tancredo, a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, was invited by Youth for Western Civilization to speak on why public universities should not allow the children of undocumented Latina/o migrants to enroll and pay instate tuition. Many of these children have lived the majority of their lives in the United States and view it as home, yet they are mostly excluded from universities and community colleges in North Carolina because they dont have the appropriate documentation of residency. Chanting theres no debate, no space for hate outside the classroom where the speech was being delivered, student protesters interrupted Tancredos speech. Tancredo was escorted out by campus police after a small window was smashed. Student representatives of the Carolina Hispanic Organization (CHispA), who attended the speech to protest Tancredos view, felt the outcome mischaracterized the position of those who support tuition benefits for all residents. In a report by the Raleigh