Abstract
This paper examines the role of cultural appropriation in order to analyze how gentrifications happens and how global capital and financial markets change space and landscape in Latin@ communities. We attempt to see how Latinidad as cultural expressions are utilized by artists as methods of resisting the process of gentrification that make their spaces and communities marketable to white-middle-class renters. By analyzing music scenes, nightlife venues and graffiti/murals we attempt to use these forms of cultural expression as symbolic indicators of gentrification. The specific communities that this paper is concerned with are Latin@ enclaves throughout the 5 boroughs of New York City.
