In the course Hispanic Hartford, the first questioned posed is “What is a community”? This question leads us quickly to many others: Who gets to determine what the boundaries of a community are and who is included in its definition? Who shapes community in Hartford today? What are the sub-communities inside the larger ones? Is there one Latino community, many, or none? Is the Peruvian community separate from the Puerto Rican community? Do any of these groups really adhere into a community, into a group conscious of itself as cohesive and distinct from others? What do communities need to develop and flourish? What are the points of friction between communities? What models can we use or devise to better understand “community” and how it works?
In the below pages you will see our definitions and explorations of key components of the Hartford Latino community, as we understand it. We invite Hartford community members and groups to add and update information about their organizations–after all, community is a collective effort!