From Marketplace to Promenade: Gentrification and Place Ownership in Santa Ana

The impact of gentrification on neighborhoods cannot be conceived of purely in terms of physical displacement. The physical displacement and exclusion of the incumbent population is accompanied and preceded by the psychic displacement and exclusion of the incumbent population. This is accomplished through a combined effort of municipal government and propertied interests rebranding space and effecting a transition in place ownership from the incumbent population to a quasi-imaginary privileged class. As this privileged class is not tied to race or ethnicity, younger and more-affluent members of the incumbent community's racial or ethnic group are just as likely to be party to the gentrification process. This article examines the correlation between the use of the Spanish-language and Latin American aesthetics in businesses in downtown Santa Ana, California, and how these businesses resist, contribute to, or adapt to the neighborhood's changing place identity.