Batailles de turf : l’appropriation symbolique de l’espace par les Portoricains du Lower East Side

Abstract

The rehabilitation of Manhattan's Lower East Side during the last few years has occasioned bitter fights between several ethnic groups. The article analyses the practical and symbolical means used by the Portorican population in order to appropriate a space they considered as being theirs. The cultural factor is a stake in itself as each ethnic group endeavors to mark out and defend a socio-historical « turf. » Symbolic conflicts may conceal other interests — they are nonetheless an end in itself. Political elements are present, too, but the way in which they come between the fighters is proof that the solutions arrived at are at best temporary.