The Latin American community in Tottenham Hale. London.
Cultural identity, multiculturalism
Tottenham Latino
The streets from Seven Sisters to Tottenham Hale, in North London, are brimming with vitality, colors, flavors, different languages ​​and different cultures. Among them, the Latin American community has gradually created their space in the district to the extent that the Spanish language, the Latin music and Latin-American strong scents of food dominate the area. The Seven Sisters and Tottenham Hale's markets , for and run by Latinos, underline the strong Latino identity of the neighborhood.
A Latino cultural identity that the community of North of London knows how to maintain with a steely determination, through their customs and their parties despite having to coexist with other cultures and being based in London.
Perhaps because of the multicultural characteristic of the British capital itself used to centuries of immigration or perhaps, because of the inevitable nostalgia of the immingrant's culture, the Latin American people in Tottenham Hale have created a community that seems to be protected against cultural clashes, a community that is continously growing as a result of the Spanish economic crisis.
A Latin American neighborhood that wraps up the five senses but that remains still invisible to official recognition and social benefits. "The invisible community" in London.
Do they preserve their cultural identity as a defense mechanism against the difficulties to adapt into London's life style or as a result of maladjustment?
Tottenham Hale and Seven Sisters are located in Haringey's council, North London (see map). Connected with the city center in just twenty minutes via underground, the north of London represents the cultural diversity from which the British capital is renowned.
Surrounded by the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood (Stamford Hill) and the Turkish quarter known for its trendy bars (Dalston and Hackney) among others, Tottenham Hale has a population of 115.965, according to the latest census of 2011, consisting of an Afro-Caribbean majority together with a wide Latin American community, as well as other nationalities such as Turks, Somalis, Albanians, Kurds and Congoleses.
Carolina Velasques, coordinator of LAWRS (Latin American Women Rights Service) and "Mujeres Norte" (North London organization for the rights of Latin American women) which aim to link the local community with local services, claims however that 7% of the population in the area is not updated because it "has widely grown after the immigration caused by the Spanish economic crisis" in the last three years.
If Latin American immigration can be traced from the seventies, being mostly a political immigration due to the unsteadiness of the governments of the time, in recent years there has been an important economic immigration, especially significant among Latin American immigrants that immigrated first to Spain and decided to continue their path to move away from the economic difficulties that the Iberian Peninsula has been struggling with in recent years.
According to the 2011 census the largest Latin American community in London is the Brasilian, however in Seven Sisters and Tottenham Hale the Colombian community is the one that gives identity and vitality to the neighborhood.
The North Latin American community faces two major challenges: to improve their access to public health and to obtain the recognition of their presence in North London and thus being eligible for social services.
"If in the south of London ( Elephant & Castle, another Latin American spot in London) the main objective was to improve Latin American access to education, in the north the main issue is to access public health and interpretation services.", notes Carolina.
"Mujeres Norte" is the association created for Latin American women in North London in order to facilitate their integration, taking into account, according to Carolina that "the Latino community still perpetuates sexist schemes and at the end the woman is the one to carry the heaviest load."
Through activities such as free weekly English classes or thematic workshops to learn about taxes, loans or gardening "Mujeres Norte" is preparing the Latin American community, "a rather passive community", without English proficiency that "has difficulties reporting their problems".
"Colombian's mindset is a business one, but without resources, whithout financial preparation, without business vision", adds Carolina, "they have failed to sell their culture, the Latinos have been, since the seventies, overcoming stereotypes of drugs issues and the hyper-sexuality of women".
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In that sense the local council, despite the claims, has not yet established Spanish interpreters in the public health.
"The Latin American community of Tottenham Hale and Seven Sisters is a very closed community and that creates ghettos, because the outside is so different, it makes people become isolated and they only remain Latinos for the Latinos. Immigration stops time, many of them come from villages and sometimes it happens that you don't feel Latin American until you leave your country, then you feel part of a larger group", notes Carolina, Colombian herself, based in London.
"Pueblito Paisa" market, located next to Seven Sisters' underground station and established in 2001, along with the market of Tottenham Hale, smaller in size, mark the strategic points for the Latino community in the neighborhood . Shops, restaurants, clothing stores, hairdressers or Latino grocery shops are examples of businesses that teem in the area, targeted to the Latin American community. In parallel, salsa and pachanga classes, workshops or meetings, theme parties and church services in Spanish are activities that intent in North London to meet all possible needs of this community.
A worker community that puts effort and time into their businesses. But also a very vulnerable community that works antisocial hours and is locked in a vicious circle. "Their working sector doesn't allow them to learn English and is also underpaid. But on the other side, the Latin American education is not officially approved here although the educational level is sometimes considerably higher", adds Carolina.
Despite being mostly a young community with an average level of education that has a large employment rate in London (85% according to the only study conducted to date on the Latino community in London: "No Longer Invisible ", read more here), Latin Americans suffer a significant loss of status when they immigrate to London. Based on the survey data, 70% of Latin Americans in London work in low-paid jobs such as cleaning, catering or hospitality.
The lack of English proficiency along with the lack of support from the British government are the main keys to the issues that the Latin American community in north London has to face. A community in which the sense of belonging to a group and the church play a fundamental role for their wellbeing while facing adversities.
In fact a Catholic church whose role is reinforced once abroad. With weekly masses in Spanish for Latin Americans, the St Ignatius Catholic church in North London recovers a role within the community that has been gradually weakening in their home countries.
On the side of the social role, the weekly masses not only represent a place to practice the Christian faith in a country of Anglican religious tradition, but also appears as a place to make friends, share experiences and approach a community of similar culture. On the other hand, the church also plays an important role as a gate to education for the Latin American community in north London as it is responsible for facilitating or hindering access to the St Ignatius Catholic school in the area. A school that combines Catholic culture along with integration into British society.
If the Latin American community is struggling to overcome cultural, linguistic, economic and social obstacles, the second-generation of immigrants, ie, those born and educated in England, are without a doubt the future and the key to the community's integration in the capital.
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Cultural clashes are inevitable. The Latin American community remains a familiar culture, identified with customs and food versus the British individualistic society. And it is perhaps for that same cultural counterforce, that this community maintains a strong cultural identity, overexposed in English society and based on stereotypes that have certainly encouraged the entrenchment of internal and external bias.
Still, the Latin American community in London is growing swiftly due to the Spanish economic crisis. And Spain has been, in recent years, a country that has hosted a large wave of Latin American and more recently, a large exodus of that immigration due to cuts and adjustments caused by the crisis in which it is mired.
Latino immigration is not novel, in the same way that neither it is any European economic immigration nowadays.
However, the roots of their cultural identity in England constrasts with the cultural mimicry that Latin Americans experienced in Spain.
The hectic contemporary way of life, accentuated by economic difficulties as well as new lifestyles driven by the new digital age of social media have created a steady
However, Latin American parents tend to discharge that integrative and educator responsibility in school. And while trying to maintain and pass on their culture and habits to their successors, they also often create tense situations and cultural clashes that sometimes are linked to racist discrimination.
flow of migration between European countries. Immigration has certainly numerous positive and negative features but the cultural and familiar uprooting remains one of the most marked aspects.
Nowadays through social networks it is easier to find all kind of communities that have adapted to the different specificities, however the tangible communities, the social meeting points for communities are gradually fading in cities due to the new digital age.
However those elements remain certainly important components that create the cosmopolitan characteristic of a city.
While maintaining cultural ties and an identity abroad is a fundamental requirement for a successful integration, the indifference of the authorities often plays a stronger role in the integration's difficulties rather than the group marginalisation as a cause of exclusion.
In fact, the Latin American continent has lived through, during the last hundred years, various social experiments and economic difficulties, actually often ignored in European countries, which have given the Latin American community enough experience to develop a stable level of adaptation and maintaining cultural characteristics.
An experience that is lacking in most Europeans that are nowadays immigrating to Latin America in search of new opportunities.
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Meanwhile, in an overview of migration flows and continuous political, economic and social instability, one of the only goods we have secured is the celebration of our cultural characteristics. And building a strong and adaptable identity is undoubtedly one of the most powerful weapons against current adversities.