Mexicantown Bucks Statewide Trends

February 6, 2009

With bad economic news becoming a daily event, some are finding a glimmer of good news in immigrant neighborhoods. As part of our ongoing series called New American Voices, Latino USA visits Detroit to explore the dynamics of immigrant businesses.

Businesses in Detroit's Mexicantown are doing relatively well.

In Michigan, the unemployment rate is now at 10 percent, the highest in the nation. The state’s largest employer remains the auto industry, currently in economic disarray. And people are leaving the state in huge numbers—fleeing Michigan faster than from any other state in the country.

But some are just arriving.

Immigrants are bringing new energy and economic growth to at least one neighborhood in the Motor City. Martina Guzman has our story from Detroit’s Mexicantown.

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Martina Guzmán’s report was produced with the help of Feet in Two Worlds, a project of the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School.

The Future of Immigrant Businesses

John Austin

While immigrants add new energy to blighted neighborhoods, the fragile economy overall threatens the stability of that new growth. Host Maria Hinojosa speaks with John Austin, Director of the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan, about the economic future of immigrant-owned businesses and their prospects for long-term success.

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The Monark Monareta is an inexpensive, practical bicycle built and marketed in Brazil. You see them everywhere. They’re the ubiquitous cheap local transportation. And in recent years, it’s become chic to restore the classic old bikes and be seen peddling around the streets and sidewalks of the trendier Latin American neighborhoods.

And trendy is what the Colombian music duo Monareta is striving for. Founded by two former bicycle-racing champions, the group recently celebrated its first American release titled “Picotero.” Maria Hinojosa talks with Andres Martinez and Camilo Sanabria about their hip, electronic music — and the sensibilities that come from seeing the world freestylin’ on a two-wheeler.

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“Matanza Funk”

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“Get the Rec”

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