- Between weeks 8 and 14, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
This week I focused on collecting information about the Salvadoran experience in New York, particularly in Long Island. SalviYorkers by Carmen Molina-Tamacas talks about soccer as a form of place-making for Salvadorans in Long Island because many of them grew up playing the sport. Also, Molina-Tamacas points out that the reason why Salvadorans stayed in the suburbs is that historically Long Island has received a lot of immigrants and in the 1980s there was an economic boost that produced many low-income jobs that local residents did not want to take up. Salvadorans in suburbia: symbiosis and conflict by Sarah J. Mahler focuses on Salvadorans living in the suburbs in Long Island. Molina-Tamacas used Mahler’s findings a lot so they both agree as to why Long Island became home for many Salvadorans in New York. Additionally, Mahler points out that in comparison to other Latino migrants in New York, Salvadorans were mostly poor and uneducated when they first arrived which made the transition to the United States more difficult since they did not have a solid foundation and network to help them.
After reading these two books on Salvadorans in New York it was interesting to see how their experience compares to Salvadorans in Los Angeles. Both types of Salvadorans came to the United States with fewer resources and education than other established Latino migrant communities that had been in these cities for decades, even centuries. However, the economic boost that allowed Salvadorans in Long Island to remain in the suburbs did not occur in Los Angeles. It would be interesting to see how much the benefits of living in the suburbs have affected Salvadoran Americans in comparison to those who had to remain in an urban setting in Los Angeles.
A challenge I encountered this week is understanding some of the intricacies and nuances of life in New York. I grew up in Los Angeles so the culture and setting are very different than in New York. I had to remind myself to be aware that my experiences living in Los Angeles have shaped my own Salvadoran identity and other Salvadorans have their own version of what it means to be Salvadoran. My next step is to synthesize all the data I have found thus far in order to tell a story. I want to divide my findings into different themes that could serve as segments in the podcast and potentially interview a Salvadoran American I know that grew up in Long Island.