University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

The impact of gentrification on Hispanic communities in San Antonio

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The impact of gentrification on Hispanic communities in San Antonio

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Content COPYRIGHT 2022 Mayte Carrillo

The Impact of Gentrification on
Hispanic Communities in San Antonio

By Mayte Carrillo

A Thesis Presented to the

FACULTY OF THE USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL
FOR COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM)

AUGUST 2022

ii
Acknowledgements

I am deeply grateful to everyone who trusted me with their stories, especially to Celeste Orta, for
driving me around the city of San Antonio after randomly connecting at a coffee shop and
permitting me to share her life story through a meaningful topic.

Thank you to my thesis chair, Diane Winston, for allowing me to flourish as a writer and guiding
me to my utmost potential. Thank you to my committee members, Dr. Allissa Richardson, and
Sandy Tolan, for uplifting me during each step of the process.

To my mother, Blanca, I am forever grateful to you. Thank you for teaching me how to engage,
listen and honor everyone's stories, especially those that came through the doors of your party
rental business for over 20 years. En honor a mis raíces y como decia mi abuelo desde El
Salvador, “nunca dejen de instruirse.”

To my sister, Jennifer, thank you for being the most luminous light and greatest blessing in my
life. Watching you conquer your goals inspired me to discover my own. Thank you for being my
loudest cheerleader and constant support system.

To my friends, thank you for holding me down and checking up on me during this chapter of my
life. I appreciate the porch hangouts and coffee breaks. I am inspired by each of you.

iii
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ii

List of Figures iv

Abstract v

A Family Legacy 01

History’s Roots Run Deep 03

Renters Feel the Impact 06

Real Estate with a Twist 09

Cracked Promises 11

Unity Holds the Power for Change 14

Bibliography 18

iv
List of Figures

Figure 1: Celeste Orta outside of her grandmother’s house in Dignowity Hill on the Eastside of
San Antonio

Figure 2: Single-family houses in Dignowity Hill on the Eastside of San Antonio in March 2022

Figure 3: Side by side view of newly constructed apartments and a long-standing house on the
Eastside of San Antonio in March 2022

v
Abstract

Neighborhoods across the United States are significantly affected by gentrification, especially
communities of color. Gentrification is a term used to identify the buying and renovating of
properties, most often houses, in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper, middle-income
families or individuals. The effects trickle to the rise of higher property values and the
displacement of low-income families. For a city in San Antonio, Texas, the tide of gentrification
pushes out families that have lived in neighborhoods for generations.

With each passing day, high property taxes, inflations, low incomes, and limited resources
contribute to the rise of gentrification and displacement. Celeste Orta is a sixth-generation Texan
who remains one of the few Hispanics in Dignowity Hill on the Eastside of San Antonio with a
legacy. As time progresses, the impacts of gentrification have suddenly shifted her future goals,
and the fate of becoming a first-time homebuyer grows into an unattainable achievement.

1
A Family Legacy

It was 2:55 pm when the school bell rang. Seven-year-old Celeste Orta grabbed her belongings
and joined a line for dismissal with her second-grade classmates. Near the exit, Orta’s eyes
glimmered with excitement as she found the warmth of her grandmother’s sight.

Clutching hands, they walked past rows of single-family homes occupied by Black and brown
families in Dignowity Hill on the Eastside of San Antonio. In passing, the neighborhood kids
greeted them by name and invited Orta for a game of four square.

“It felt warm and loving being in our neighborhood,” Orta said. “I was in a community where
everyone knew each other.”

Orta remembers running up the blue steps leading to her grandmother’s house and the fragrant
aroma of bell peppers and paprika welcoming her inside. Kicking off her shoes, she rushed
through the living room to the kitchen, where huevitos (eggs) and beans awaited her arrival.

Orta’s grandmother purchased their family home in 1989 for $8,000 and built a haven for her
grandchildren. After her passing last December, Orta, now 30, inherited the property.

The childhood recollections of San Antonio’s tight-knit community are fading into the past.
Orta’s neighbors who had filled homes for two or three generations have moved away because of
rising property taxes and the increasing cost of renting and purchasing homes. New homeowners
either move in and renovate or rent the property to new residents. Within the last year, the
average apartment rental cost in San Antonio increased by 30% and the median home price
continues to climb. Orta is a sixth-generation Texan who remains one of the few Hispanics in the
area with a legacy.

“Everyone is just trying to flip and make a quick buck here,” she said. “But even those of us who
live here and want to flip can’t because we don’t have the income to do so.”

2
For the past seven years, Orta has been a fourth-grade math teacher. In 2014, after graduating
from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, she returned
home. But when she arrived, the neighborhood and the community she loved so much was
unrecognizable. Multiple properties on her block had been bought, flipped, and sold at a rapid
speed.

Figure 1: Celeste Orta outside of her grandmother’s house in Dignowity Hill on the Eastside of San Antonio

“For the first time in my life I had white neighbors,” she said. “I’m like, where do these people
come from?”

As San Antonio grows, districts like Dignowity face a surge of gentrification that prohibits
residents from keeping up with new developments. Gentrification is a term used to identify the
buying and renovating of properties, most often houses, in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by
3
upper, middle-income families or individuals, resulting in higher property values and the
displacement of low-income families. The 2020 census revealed that Latinos account for more
than 900,000 residents of the city’s 1,434,625 people. The census also reported that it
undercounted Latino, Black, and Indigenous households. Although gentrification brings in new
developments for a city like San Antonio, it is at the expense of low-income communities of
color. With high property taxes, inflation, low incomes, and limited resources, the tide of
gentrification pushes out families like Orta’s and her neighbors’.

Figure 2: Single-family houses in Dignowity Hill on the Eastside of San Antonio in March 2022

History’s Roots Run Deep

Dignowity Hill is located on the Eastside of San Antonio in Bexar County and is two miles from
downtown. Listed on the National Historic Registry of Neighborhoods, the area is named after
Anthony Michael Dignowity, a Czech-American writer, public official, and physician born in
Kuttenburg, Bohemia, in 1810.

4
Dignowity immigrated to the U.S. in 1831 and journeyed to San Antonio from Nachez,
Mississippi, with a group of volunteers during the Mexican-American War. In the early 1850s,
he bought 27 acres on a hill overlooking San Antonio and sold estate-sized lots to his wealthy
friends. He built his home on a hillside with a view of downtown San Antonio and called the
estate Harmony House.

Dignowity became San Antonio’s first upper-middle-class residential suburb. During the late
19th century, it became home to notable San Antonio merchants and business owners who
constructed large estates consisting of one house per block. The area became exclusive and
affluent due to its proximity to downtown and large lot sizes. Its predominantly white population
erected folk Victorian-style houses and Craftsman bungalows. Two-story homes with limestone
and intricate woodwork reflected the most expensive designs of their time.

“If you look at the housing construction, it was built for a white community and not for African
Americans or Mexicans in the late 19
th
century in Texas,” said Dr. Christine Drennon, associate
professor of sociology and anthropology at Trinity University. Noting the area had railroad
tracks around its edges, she added, “African Americans and Mexicans lived along the tracks.”

After the Great Depression in the 1930s, a quarter of the population was out of work, and more
than one million Americans faced foreclosure on their homes. Under the presidency of Franklin
D. Roosevelt, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) established a program called the New
Deal, which included programs to stimulate the economy and offer home buying aid—but only
to white Americans.

In the book, The Color of Law, author Richard Rothstein writes that the program advanced
housing segregation by refusing to insure mortgages in and near Black neighborhoods – a policy
known as “redlining.”

The term “redlining” originated from actual red lines on maps that identified predominantly
Black neighborhoods. The color codes alerted appraisers to areas that were too “risky” to insure
mortgages.
5
According to Rothstein, “If a Black family could afford to buy into a white neighborhood
without government help, the FHA would refuse to insure future mortgages even to whites in
that neighborhood, because it was not threatened with integration.”

In 1948 the Supreme Court ruled to end racial deed restrictions and non-white residents started to
move into Dignowity. The white population began to leave when Black and brown people
moved in.

“Redlining caused the population to shift,” Drennon said. “Historically, the white population has
moved north, mostly because it floods from north to south, but also because they could.”

By the 1970s, the area became predominantly Black and in the ‘80s, tipped to Hispanics. During
this time, neighborhoods began to experience decline as houses were abandoned or burnt down
and drugs and prostitution moved into parts of the area.

During the ‘90s and early 2000s, street violence continued and many, like Orta, frequently
witnessed crime and police activity in her neighborhood. “I remember being a kid and hearing
the SWAT team break into my grandmother’s neighbor’s house and feeling scared,” she said.

Orta recalls that her grandmother and her parents always kept an eye on her during bike rides or
playdates in the front yard. “My grandmother would take us juice boxes and I knew I was being
looked after, but you never knew what was around the corner.”

Today, San Antonio comprises ten districts divided among ten city council members. Residents
identify their communities through the four cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west sides.
A mixture of owners and renters occupies the residential real estate.

Renter-occupied households in San Antonio make up 39% of the total occupied housing units in
the metropolitan area and the cost of rent has increased by $200-$300 yearly.

6
Those who plan to purchase a home find it more challenging to acquire a property, and even
those currently renting face a rise in their rent due to the yearly increase of tax rates. An inheritor
and hopeful first-time home buyer, Orta finds it impossible to purchase a home she can afford as
a teacher.

Renters Feel the Impact

Fueled by surging house prices, Marisol Nieves, 34, has been forced to delay her plans to
purchase a home on the Eastside of San Antonio.

“I barely could afford my rent. How am I supposed to afford the down payment for a house?”
she said.

The 552 square foot, one-bedroom and one-bath apartment has been home to Nieves for the past
five years. A single mother, she shares the space with her four-year-old son, who uses the
kitchen as a playpen and stores his Spiderman toys under the sink.

An administrative assistant at a local dealership, Nieves earns around $28,000 yearly. In the last
12 months, her rent increased from $650 to $785 in her rent. When asked why, the landlord
dismissed her question and said if she couldn’t afford the rent, she should provide a 30-day
notice.

“I have daycare, gas, food, and other necessities to pay for my child and me. It's all getting too
expensive,” said Nieves. “In the long run, can I afford to stay here and build a future with my
child? I'm not sure.”

The increased cost of living doesn’t allow residents to keep up. New developments and high
property taxes have resulted in raising rents. San Antonio was ranked one of the hottest housing
markets of 2022 by Zillow and named one of the least affordable cities for renting an apartment
by RentHops. For families like Nieves, the rent hike has many like her questioning whether to
stay or leave a community they call home.
7

Figure 3: Side by side view of newly constructed apartments and a long-standing house on the Eastside of San
Antonio in March 2022

“The thing that's causing this renting situation is that the housing market is simply becoming
unaffordable and there's not enough houses being built for the amount of demand that people
need,” said Uel Trejo, community equity analyst at Texas Housers, a non-profit organization that
focuses on housing justice.

Trejo works closely with low-income renters and helps connect them with resources to meet their
needs. In her experience, those mainly affected are inner-city Black and brown communities.

With the rise of housing prices, property taxes and influx of people moving to San Antonio, all
factors cause a housing market disaster.

8
“People are being forced to move into different places,” Trejo said. She notes that when
individuals are forced to move and housing is scarce, many can’t find another home to rent or
buy. “Even if they did find another home to buy, the homes are very inflated, and they can’t
afford them,” she added.

Many locals assume that the majority of those ruining the local housing market are transplants
from California or New York. On the contrary, four in 10 people looking to purchase a home in
San Antonio are from three of Texas largest metros—Dallas, Austin and Houston.

“San Antonio is affordable compared to Austin, Dallas and Houston,” said Trejo. “Tech
companies from higher income states are coming in and basing their headquarters in San
Antonio, meaning that a lot of their employees are also coming in and trying to find a place to
live.”

With the surge of home purchases as supply has tightened and mortgage rates rising, some
homeowners are persuaded to sell their homes.

The persistent calls, voicemails, and text messages from investors or realtors with the same note,
“are you interested in selling your property?” torment Orta.

“It’s frustrating,” she said. “I don’t know where they get my number, but I always ignore the
calls and don’t entertain them.”

With inflation on the rise, higher wages are necessary to compensate for the increase in the
expenses of consumer goods. The 2022 hourly minimum wage in San Antonio is $7.25 an hour,
marking a minimum yearly salary of $15,080.00. The wage increased in 2008 by $0.70 – from
$6.55 to $7.25.

For someone who earns minimum wage, the chances of purchasing an average house sold at
$400,000 in San Antonio is impossible.

9
Real Estate with a Twist

Military training led Rich Acosta to discover the beauty of San Antonio. The area, rich in history
captured his interest. He and his wife always felt welcomed by locals.

Setting the foundation for their future, his wife moved from California to San Antonio in 2015
and pursued a degree in architecture at The University of Texas at San Antonio. After
graduation, she started a real estate business and when she succeeded, Acosta felt confident to
get out of the military.

Curious, about a new career, he joined his wife and became a realtor.

During three months of attending zoning, police, and housing city meetings, Acosta learned
about the lack of resources for homeowners and low-income renters in his adopted city. That’s
when he spoke up at a city council meeting.

“I noticed that there isn’t any help for low-income renters, and no one is helping those
individuals get into housing,” Acosta recalled saying.

Their response shocked him. The council members deflected his question and instead placed the
responsibility on him. If he was concerned, they suggested he do something about it. He
discovered a passion for helping people with his knowledge of real estate. He concluded that
there were no free resources to help owners or low-income homeowners protest their taxes. That
same weekend, Acosta started My City Is My Home, a non-profit organization dedicated to
educating and supporting homeowners and renters about their housing choices.

San Antonio retains 11,136 active real estate agents, who Acosta views as gatekeepers for
locating housing for low-income individuals or families.

“As an agent, it takes me a click of a button to find all of the properties that accept section eight,
that work with criminal records, convictions, and broken leases,” he said. “But you can’t see any
10
of that as an everyday civilian, so I wanted to gather real estate agents that would help low-
income renters find housing, whether or not they could make any money.”

Within the last four years and without charging a single dime, Acosta has trained hundreds of
agents on how to protest hikes in property taxes.

Orta has been one of many San Antonians who have attended one of Acosta’s homeowner clinics
sponsored by My City Is My Home.

“I’ve seen familiar faces at these events and realized so many of us are facing the same
challenges,” said Orta. “Some families are from my mom’s generation and hearing their stories
on how they struggle to afford property taxes is unbelievable.”

Protesting property taxes isn’t what it sounds like. The process is confusing and frightening to
homeowners who worry about how to afford their tax bills.

Between January and April of every year, Bexar County goes through an assessment period
when appraisers place a value on the worth of local properties. In April, residents receive a
notice with a home and tax cost. If homeowners disagree with their appraisal, they are
encouraged to file a protest to the Bexar Appraisal District by May 16
th
. Shortly after, an
informal date to speak with an appraiser is scheduled, and homeowners are urged to share photos
of their property and an estimated value of what their home is worth. The appraiser then
determines how much they agree or disagree and decides to lower or keep the value as listed.

Suppose the homeowner disagrees with the decision from the formal meeting. The next step is a
formal discussion in July where an appraiser and three volunteers of the review board determine
the final decision.

“The volunteers have no appraising experience. They’re civilians that have applied to do this
work and be on the board,” said Acosta. “It’s a broken system within itself because many of
11
them are civilians listening to an appraiser all day, and of course, they’re going to believe the
government official more than the random homeowner.”

The process re-repeats itself every year.

"Who has the time to go through this process every year and spend their days away?" he said.
"Not many, and that is why people either pay their high tax rates, are bought out, or leave the
community."

As a real estate agent, Acosta often receives push-back about why he helps homeowners protest
their property taxes.

"My response to those who question me is simple. Homeowners continuously get taxed out of
their homes, and what the hell is the point of being a homeowner if you're basically a glorified
renter and your landlord is the county? You can have your house paid off and still foreclose on it
because you're unable to pay property taxes," said Acosta.

Adding, "It behooves a real estate agent to make sure that homeownership is something to want
still and preserve. Because if you're taxed out of your home, and somebody else is coming in
saying, Hey, I'm thinking about moving to San Antonio, what's the point? You're just going to be
gentrified and taxed out of this place. And so that hurts our industry."

Cracked Promises

From empty lots of undeveloped land and abandoned restaurants, 2014 set the groundwork for
transformation.

Under the Obama administration, San Antonio was one of five areas across the U.S. selected to
receive designated federal funding and tax credits to revive impoverished sectors—called the
Promise Zone initiative.

12
The creation of the initiative designated a 22 square mile area on the Eastside of San Antonio
with a mission to revitalize the neighborhood through job creations, increased economic activity,
education improvements, and reduced violent crime.

The San Antonio Promise Zone is a 10-year federal plan that does not include federal funding,
but instead brings to the area preferred access or extra points on various federal funding streams
as well as some business hiring tax credits and incentives. Locals recognize the plan as the
“decade of downtown.”

“When investors or locals apply for a federal grant, they get on a point system,” said Monica
Cruz, senior research associate at the UTSA Institute for demographic and socioeconomic
research. “If they are going to provide one of the designated services in the Promise Zone, they’ll
get approved simply because they’ll serve a particular geographic population.”

Cruz dedicated her research to the Promise Zone initiative during her doctoral program and
concluded that the endeavor negatively impacts the communities involved.

“There’s been different grants from the federal level going to the Eastside, but on top of that, the
city offered different incentives for development in different manners,” she said. “Suddenly, you
started to see prices for some of those beautiful old homes transform and lots of re-developments
where now, it’s become extremely unaffordable for residents.”

Riddled with homelessness and abandoned commercial properties, these investments began to
catch the eye of many due to the incentives. The industrial area was home to Pearl Brewery, San
Antonio’s beer-based house established in 1883 but permanently closed in 2001 after brewing
along the San Antonio River for 118 years due to a financial decline.

Shortly after, a San Antonio-based investment firm purchased the 23-acre site with a vision to
revitalize the area by developing restaurants and shops.

13
“Everybody loved the idea of re-development at the Pearl," said Acosta. "The decade of
downtown would increase investments in these blighted areas that have never been transformed.
But the problem that no one saw coming and didn’t prepare for was the onset of increased
valuations.”

Today, the area, known as The Pearl, is home to chic restaurants, coffee shops, a farmers’
market, and greenery terrains covering every angle of the platform. Visitors are encircled by the
preserved historical architecture of vintage tile work with Victorian black lacquer paint on
window casings.

The brewery transitioned to a 146-room riverfront boutique hotel with a restaurant, bar, library,
and club room called Hotel Emma. An average night's stay roughly starts at $600, and the
establishment was ranked the #1 best 2022 hotel in Texas by U.S. News.

The revitalization of the area attracts a middle to upper-class crowd that can afford to pay for a
$20 lunch meal and a $7 dollar cup of coffee.

The re-development significantly contributed to the hike of tax rates, consequently impacting a
community that could barely afford to remain.

“There are cracks in the system,” said Orta. “Attending property tax reliefs or mortgage
assistance meetings is exhausting and a full-time job. I don’t have the time to actively keep up
with the changes demanded of me as a resident.”

Renters also face insecurities and lack awareness regarding how, when, or if their rent will rise.
Standard rules established between landlords and tenants do not currently exist in San Antonio.
In their absence, the scales of justice often benefit those with wealth and power.

Texas Housers has initiated a fight for housing justice and protections for all renters via their
development of a San Antonio Tenant Bill of Rights. The proposed plan addresses the following
demands:
14
1. Ensures that every unit meets the minimum health and safety standards of utilities and
facilities.
2. Ensures that all repairs completed by landlords are made in good faith.
3. It prevents military veterans from being denied housing based on the veteran’s lawful
source of income to pay rent—including funding from a federal housing assistance
program.
4. Gives tenants proper notice of pending eviction, including an opportunity to cure for non-
payment of rents before an eviction filing is made.
5. It gives the tenant a right to privacy and sets up guidelines for when management or
landlords can enter a tenant’s space.
6. It gives all tenants the right to organize without worrying about the threat of eviction or a
decrease in services.
7. Creates a renter oversight commission that holds landlords accountable for their actions.

In conjunction with the Texas Organizing Project, the list developed from community
conversations among renters who have faced difficulties with the landlord or property.

“We based this list on an all-encompassing coalition that has this idea of housing justice at the
forefront,” Trejo said. “We started with a group of renters in the public housing units who often
represent other renters or are leaders within their units.”

The program organizers are in talks with council members to get this bill on the ballot and
working to obtain voters behind the bill. “It might take a lot of different incentives to push the
city council to accept this bill,” Trejo said. “Right now, we’re in the process of revising the bill
and trying to mark what is most important to make sure this bill is successful.”

Unity Holds the Power for Change

The queen of Tex-Mex, a music style fusing Mexican and U.S. influences, pop-star Selena
Quintanilla, marked a legacy in Texas. Her iconic “washing machine” dance moves and high-
15
waisted pants mixed with her timeless music, including hits like “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” and
“Como La Flor,” had a universal impact—especially for Orta.

The shock of Quintanilla's passing in 1995 left a void in the TexMex community. To honor her
life, Jennifer Lopez reprised the role of Quintanilla in the 1997 film, Selena. Production set
iconic scenes inside San Antonio’s Alamodome, a 64,000-seat dome indoor multi-purpose
stadium.

"Selena is very much still an icon here," Orta said. "Everyone that grew up in the inner-city part
of San Antonio has a picture in front of the stadium as a baby with their parents when they came
to film here. I have one, and it's special."

Corners of San Antonio spark memories that entice childhood flashbacks. The pulse is kept alive
by residents, like Orta, who want to preserve the legacy of a neighborhood but struggle.

“I can’t see myself leaving these memories behind and starting over somewhere else,” Orta said.
“It would be heartbreaking.”

Whether the changes make the neighborhood aesthetically pleasing to newcomers, a community
has united against its gentrification. The question is, where does a community go from here?

Acosta is leaning on his non-profit and proposing two property tax policies to the city council
and the public in July. In his research, he concluded that the following two policies would help
solve the issues.

The first proposal would provide a .02 tax rate discount for a given year when the San Antonio
total Real Property value increases more than 4%. For example, in 2021, the total Real Property
Value increased by 8.75%; if this policy were in place, property owners would receive a tax
discount of .03 cents per tax dollar or a total discount of $34M, an average savings of $70 per
property. With this policy, landlords would receive property tax relief for the first time in history.

16
The second proposal suggests freezing all actual property values and allowing the property value
to increase when the ownership changes. Unlike the first proposal, this one is against Texas
Property Code but can be changed with the help of Texas legislators. This proposal would
increase renovations as homeowners would not see added taxes for making home repairs, often
used to protest taxes. It would also increase permits and jobs and allow repairs to preserve the
most affordable housing available to San Antonians.

Associate Professor and Director of the Policy Studies at the University at San Antonio Rodger
Enriquez joined forces with organizations like Acosta’s to fight gentrification.

“It becomes difficult to keep up with property taxes as valuation increases because it’s a value-
added tax based on your property’s value. So, these things coalesce and create tremendous
pressures on communities,” Enriquez said.

He believes that a solution to gentrification starts with a house-by-house commitment.

“Essentially, the problem is generational neglect, political disenfranchisement, and educational
neglect,” said Henriquez. “Apartments don’t fix those problems, but what helps is to get the
community engaged in solving their issues. It’s important to get it done with the community and
not for the community.”

In contrast, Acosta believes gentrification is a word used to explain the rapid valuation in a short
period and a given area. Due to the lack of preserving the legacy of homeowners, there hasn't
been enough done by the city to help protect them from high valuations.

“They are now attacking their neighbors and blaming them for why this is happening,” said
Acosta. “When in reality, you should have the right to move into an area, remodel it, throw
diamonds on the roof, and have no effect on your neighbor next door. But since there are not
enough protections, it has caused this high evaluation.”
17
Orta is slowly easing into making improvements to her grandmother’s home. The kitchen’s
leveling was off, and recently spent money to get it re-leveled. For someone who has never
visited her neighborhood of Dignowity, she would describe it as divided.

“Right now, I’d say it's divided. I feel like there are two different sides,” said Orta. “There’s a
difference between a neighbor who has been here for years and one who moved in yesterday.”

Daily dog walks have brought her peace after long days at work and on rare occasions, she runs
into people who recognize her and ask for her beloved grandmother.

“The other day, I was walking my dog, and someone who knew my grandma approached me.
And he’s like, she lived in the blue house, right?” she recalled. “Nobody stops to talk anymore,
and this older, friendly man asked about my grandma. It was heartwarming.”

Orta has witnessed first-hand the arc of changes that have affected her community. As a teacher,
she hopes that her students see in her the potential to continue a family legacy in a neighborhood
that is at risk of being replaced with the next generation of incomers.

“I want to build a family here one day,” she said. “This neighborhood is home to me.”

18
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Abstract (if available)

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Asset Metadata

Creator Carrillo, Mayte (author)

Core Title The impact of gentrification on Hispanic communities in San Antonio

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism

Degree Conferral Date 2022-08

Publication Date 07/27/2022

Defense Date 07/27/2022

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag displacement,gentrification,Hispanics,Housing,inflation,Neighborhoods,OAI-PMH Harvest,renting

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Winston, Diane H. (committee chair), Richardson, Allissa V. (committee member), Tolan, Sandy (committee member)

Creator Email mayte.carr@gmail.com,maytecar@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC111374353

Unique identifier UC111374353

Legacy Identifier etd-CarrilloMa-11017

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Carrillo, Mayte

Type texts

Source 20220728-usctheses-batch-962 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given.

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu