Type of slum in the United States, found near the border with Mexico
In the United States, a colonia is a type of unincorporated, low-income, slum area located along the Mexico–United States border region that emerged with the advent of shanty towns.
The colonias consist of peri-urban subdivisions of substandard housing lacking in basic services such as potable water, electricity, paved roads, proper drainage, and waste management. Often situated in geographically inferior locations, such as former agricultural floodplains, colonias suffer from associated issues like flooding.
Furthermore, urbanization practices have amplified the issues, such as developers stripping topsoil from the ground to subdivide land, and the resulting plains then become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and disease. Traditional homeownership financing methods are rare among colonia residents and so the areas consist of ramshackle housing units that are built incrementally with found material on expanses of undeveloped land. Colonias have a predominant Latino population, and 85 percent of those Latinos under the age of 18 are United States citizens. The U.S. has viewed border communities as a place of lawlessness, poverty, backwardness, and ethnic difference.
Despite economic development, liberalization, intensification of trade, the strategic geographic location of the southern U.S. border region does not stop it from being one of the poorest in the nation. Most cases had shown that its communities formed after landowners illegally sold and subdivided rural lands, often to buyers who did not understand the terms under which this land was being sold. The contract for deed through which plots were offered by land developers often had false promises that utilities would be installed.
The majority of the communities have no water infrastructure and lack wastewater or sewage services. Where sewer systems exist, there are no treatment plants in the area, and untreated wastewater is dumped into arroyos and creeks that flow into the Rio Grande or the Gulf of Mexico.
More than 2,000 colonias are identified within the U.S. The highest concentration is in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, with others in New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Evidence suggests that there are more than 1,800 designated colonias in Texas, around 138 in New Mexico, 77 in Arizona, and 32 in California. These settlements are part of an informal sector or informal economy that is not bound by the structures of government regulations within labor, tax, health and safety, land use, environmental, civil rights, and immigration laws.
Etymology.
The Spanish word "colonia" means a 'colony' or 'community'. In Mexican Spanish, it is specifically a 'residential quarter [of a city]', and a "colonia proletaria" is a shantytown. In Spanglish, the English-Spanish mix, "colonia" began to be used to refer primarily to Mexican neighborhoods about thirty years ago. A 1977 study uses the term "colonia" to describe rural desert settlements with inadequate infrastructure and unsafe housing stock. Since these Hispanic neighborhoods were less affluent, the word also connoted poverty and substandard housing. In the 1990s, "colonias" became a common American English name for the slums that developed on both sides of the Mexico–United States border.
The history of the word "colonias" in the United States, and its interpretation through politics, suggests that places called colonias are not to be perceived as natural or prosperous communities. In many parts of Texas, Spanish-language terms are often used to frame and highlight a class difference.
The term "colonia" is an essential symbol for public policy in the United States, and this Spanish name is a critical component for constructing public and policy attention, underscoring the settlements' differences and labeling them as racialized and distinct places, which has a powerful way of constructing and reinforcing marginality.
Definition.
Section 916 of the Cranston–Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (1990) (NAHA) defines "colonias" as any "identifiable community" determined by objective criteria that include the lack of potable water and adequate sewage systems, the lack of decent, safe, and sanitary housing, and which were in existence before the passage of the Act. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the term "colonias" has a specific meaning within the U.S., referring to a community within the rural Mexico–U.S. border region with marginal conditions related to housing and infrastructure. Other definitions and criteria for a colonia are used by the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Texas Code.
History.
Researchers traced the first colonias in Texas to the 1950s and early 1960s.
These appeared as an informal housing solution for low-income predominantly Hispanic wage-earners through a model referred to by scholars as the "incremental approach".
Due to the rise of the maquiladora industry—foreign-owned factories in Mexico creating goods for export—the border population quickly grew and in 1965 created a housing shortage for these workers.
The overlap of four variables attributed to the development of colonias: high demand from a population of low-income wage earners meeting a low supply of affordable housing, a supply of low-cost and fruitless land, the absence of regulations on the subdivision of that land, and a legal way for that land to be sold to individuals. Land developers began purchasing low-value land in peri-urban areas where strict enforcement of housing and environmental laws was either weak or nonexistent.
During this period the sale of rural lands without basic housing policies was lawful. Colonias were hidden from view due to physical isolation and properties were divided into small lots, which would be bought by low-income families via contracts for deed. These deals, which sold unimproved lots, included undocumented and thus unenforceable promises to provide basic provisions such as water, sewage, and electricity.
Because these deals lacked a foreclosure period or buyer's protection, any property that was not paid in full could be repossessed and resold by the sellers, who retained title for the land and were allowed to keep all payments the buyer had made. As more dwellings appeared with minimal infrastructure, the value of the land decreased and ultimately became more affordable as a living option for low-income families on the border.
Colonia communities grew rapidly in the 1990s when the number of residents almost doubled from 1990 to 1996. This can be subject to the effects of globalization and the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, which industrialized the Mexico–United States border, created many jobs, and encouraged migration.
People shifted from traditional agricultural labor to work in transportation, construction, and manufacturing.
This led to an increased informality of U.S. housing, with colonias forming and growing because of the border's strategic location and trade liberalizations.
However, due to the lack of financial mobility, colonia residents face significant challenges escaping the colonia bubble. In June 1996, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs successfully obtained a waiver from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to set new housing-standards for colonias. The resulting standards provided a basis for safe and sanitary housing to alleviate the existing health risks. These standards are necessary for economic development in colonias because unsafe infrastructures and lack of education and jobs inhibit their growth.
As of 2007, Texas had the largest concentration of colonia residents in the U.S., with approximately 400,000 living in over 2,000 colonias. New Mexico had the second largest, followed by Arizona and California. However, as remote location and stealthy development characterize many colonias, exact counts are difficult and figures can quickly change. Despite the high count of individuals living in these areas, the severity of the living standards in colonias has yet to become common knowledge for U.S. citizens. Scholars have found that little has been done to remedy the living standards of the colonians, as their situation has become normalized by the public and associated with the "lawlessness" of the Mexico–U.S. border region. Scholars have criticized the naming of these settlements as "colonias", stating that the use of the Spanish word not only creates difficulties within the public policy sector of government, but also fosters the notion that these settlements are alien and not a part of the U.S. However, those within the public that do recognize colonias and their living conditions view them as "border slums", while scholars have since the 1990s described them as a "third world" within the United States. While poor living standards do persist in these areas, a positive side does exist for colonias and is often disregarded by media and policymakers. For the border region's poor, colonias provide affordable housing and the opportunity to obtain the American Dream of owning a home. Some scholars have praised colonians for seeking the realization of this dream through self-help. Because of this, the informed public has begun urging policymakers to make decisions that will not eliminate colonias but instead both enhance the living conditions and promote the incremental approach as a housing strategy, stating that this informal housing option creates opportunity.
Colonias by state.
Divergent state subdivision regulations have influenced the historical development of colonias, and how each state defines a colonia. Independent historical accounts should be considered by state.
Colonias in Texas.
Around the 1950s, developers began creating subdivisions along the Mexico–U.S. border on agriculturally poor properties, divided land in small parcels, and provided few services; the development of the properties, intended for low-income buyers, was the beginning of the Texas colonias. By 1995, the state passed laws against developing subdivisions without services. From 1995 and 2011, the office of the Texas Attorney General had 87 judgments against developers who created properties without services. The office of the Texas Attorney General said that, by 2011, Texas had about 2,294 colonias and estimates that about 500,000 lived in the colonias. As of 2011 Hidalgo County has the largest number of colonias in Texas, though estimating their population is difficult due to isolation, shared addresses, rapid changes in development, and mistrust of government.
Colonias in New Mexico.
In New Mexico, about 150 colonias have qualified for colonia-funding sources such as HUD, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), etc. In New Mexico, there are two types of colonias: small towns and subdivisions. Although many of New Mexico's colonias consist of rural small towns, they were considered colonias because of the absence of resources. Conflicts with acceptable water, sewers, and safe and clean housing that the colonias faced brought on the requirement of Section 916 of the National Affordable Housing Act of 1992.
In New Mexico, land was sold contract-for-deed; however, before 1990, New Mexicans were allowed to divide their property into four parcels without violating the law. Within a couple of years, landowners were then allowed to split their land into two parcels, but after some time, the subdivision law was amended to close this "loophole utilized by colonia developers".
Characteristics.
Demographics.
Colonias can be found in each U.S. state on the Mexican border: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Residents are mostly Hispanic and about 65% of the colonia population were born in the United States. Overall, colonias consist of low-income communities with families that cannot afford goods in a formal economy. In a random survey by the Texas Department of State Health Services, it was found that half of the families have incomes of less than $834 a month. About 70% of colonia residents have not graduated from high school and many lack English-language skills, which hampers their job mobility, suppresses wages, and the ability to seek assistance. The unemployment rate for families in colonias is 18%, compared to 11% in neighboring cities.
Residents of colonias pay, on average, 58% of their income on housing. In comparison, a two-bedroom apartment in Albuquerque, New Mexico costs $830, only 20% of the average income in the U.S. Colonia housing costs too much relative to the resident earnings and the living conditions are significantly worse.
Housing.
Colonias may be lacking in all types of essential physical infrastructure and public services, such as clean water, sanitary sewage, and adequate roads. Most colonia housing does not meet construction standards and building codes. Houses are often built little by little, starting as shabby tents of wood and cardboard. Only 54% of colonia residents in Texas have sewer service and about 50% drink water from a non-tap source. Because they do not qualify for financing, Colonia residents buy their land on a contract for deed, in which land ownership stays with the seller until the entire purchase is paid. This land eventually ends up to be worthless as the market for colonia housing is very low. Most houses cannot pass inspections to qualify for repairs and further improvements. The housing situation in Cameron County, Texas lacks certain infrastructure and requires $44 million