View source for Barrio

{{short description|Neighborhood or district in Spain and the rest of the Hispanic world}}
{{Other uses}}
{{use American English|date=August 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
'''''Barrio''''' ({{IPA|es|ˈbarjo}}; {{lit|[[Quarter (urban subdivision)|quarter]], [[neighborhood]]}}) is generally defined as each area of a city delimited by functional (e.g., residential, commercial, industrial, etc.), social, architectural or morphological features.<ref>{{cite book |last=Caves |first=R.W. |title=Encyclopedia of the City |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |pages=31}}</ref> In [[Spain]], in most of [[Latin America]], and in the [[Philippines]], the term may also be used to officially denote a division of a [[municipality]]. The word ''barrio'' is an [[Influence of Arabic on other languages|Arabism]], as it is derived from the [[Andalusi Arabic|Arabic]] word ''barriyy'' ({{Lang|ar|بري}}; 'wild, exterior').<ref>{{cite journal |last=Corriente |first=Federico |author-link=Federico Corriente |title=Hacia una historia de los arabismos y otras voces con étimos del romance andalusí o lenguas medio-orientales en el diccionario de la Real Academia Española (segunda parte) |url=https://www.rae.es/sites/default/files/Corriente_153_195_Reducido.pdf |journal=Boletín de la Real Academia Española |publisher=[[Royal Spanish Academy]] |volume=76 |issue=269 |year=1996<!--|pages=371-416--> |page=157 |issn=0210-4822 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230723192052/https://www.rae.es/sites/default/files/Corriente_153_195_Reducido.pdf |archive-date= Jul 23, 2023 }}</ref>

==Usage==
[[File:Barrio San Anton, Ponce, Puerto Rico (IMG 2741A).jpg|thumb|Sign marking the entrance to [[San Antón|Barrio San Antón]], one of [[Ponce, Puerto Rico|Ponce]]'s official barrios in [[Puerto Rico]]]]
In [[Argentina]] and [[Uruguay]], a ''barrio'' is a division of a municipality officially delineated by the local authority{{fact|date=November 2021}} at a later time,{{discuss}} and it sometimes keeps a distinct character from other areas (as in the [[Barrios and Communes of Buenos Aires|barrios of Buenos Aires]], even if they have been superseded by larger administrative divisions). The word does not have a special socioeconomic connotation unless it is used in contrast to the ''centro'' (city center or downtown). The expression ''barrio cerrado'' (translated "closed neighborhood") is used to describe small upper-class residential settlements planned with an exclusive criterion and often physically enclosed in walls, that is, a kind of [[gated community]].

In [[Colombia]], the term is used to describe any urban area neighborhood whose geographical limits are determined locally.{{fact|date=November 2021}} The term can be used to refer to all classes within society. The term ''barrio de invasión'' or ''comuna'' is more often used to refer to shanty towns, but the term "barrio" has a more general use.[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_belleza_de_sabaneta.jpg]

In [[Cuba]], [[El Salvador]] and [[Spain]], the term ''barrio'' is used officially to denote a subdivision of a ''[[municipio]]'' (or municipality); each ''barrio'' is subdivided into sectors (''sectores'').{{fact|date=November 2021}} 

In the [[Philippines]], the term ''barrio'' may refer to a rural village, but it may also denote a self-governing community subdivision within a rural or urban area anywhere in the country. A 1974 decree replaced the word barrio with ''[[barangay]]'', the basic administrative unit of government, possessing an average population of 2,500 people.{{efn|name=bgy|By virtue of Presidential Decree No. 557, s. 1974<ref name=pd557>{{Cite PH act |chamber=PD |number=557 |date=1974-09-21 |title=Declaring All Barrios in the Philippines as Barangays, and for Other Purposes |url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1974/09/21/presidential-decree-no-557-s-1974 |access-date=July 12, 2020 |publisher=[[Official Gazette (Philippines)|Official Gazette]]}}</ref>}} ''Barrio'', however, is still widely used interchangeably with ''barangay''. Both may refer to rural settlements or urban municipal districts (the latter formerly known as ''visitas''). It is alternatively spelled as ''baryo'', though the preferred spelling is the Spanish one (barrio).<ref>{{cite web |title=Baryo |url=https://www.tagaloglang.com/baryo/ |website=Tagalog-Lang |access-date=16 August 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220406061322/https://www.tagaloglang.com/baryo/ |archive-date= 6 April 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Boquet |first=Yves |title=The Philippine Archipelago |publisher=Springer |date=2017 |pages=426–427 |isbn=9783319519265 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=90C4DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA426 }}</ref>

In the [[United States|U.S.]] [[<!--U.S. state-->Territories of the United States|<!--state-->territory]] of [[Puerto Rico]], the term ''barrio'' is an [[official]] government designation used to denote a subdivision of a ''municipio'' and denotes the government's lowest level and geographically smallest [[Official#Adjective|officially]] recognized administrative unit.<ref>[http://www.salonhogar.com/est_soc/pr/pueblos/ponce/index.htm ''Ponce'']. Proyecto Salon Hogar. Map of Barrios of Ponce. Accessed 14 March 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20211101001135/http://www.salonhogar.com/est_soc/pr/pueblos/ponce/index.htm Archived.]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=O7uh8WbWj1oC&pg=PA113 ''Un Acercamiento Sociohistorico y Linguistico a los Toponimos del Municipio de Ponce, Puerto Rico'']. Amparo Morales, María T. Vaquero de Ramírez. "Estudios de lingüística hispánica: homenaje a María Vaquero". Page 113. Accessed 14 March 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20211101001338/https://books.google.com/books?id=O7uh8WbWj1oC&pg=PA113 Archived.]</ref>  A barrio in Puerto Rico is not vested with political authority.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110710184418/http://www.elsuralavista.com/periodico/?p=10978 ''Historia de Nuestros Barrios: Portugués, Ponce'']}}.  Rafael Torrech San Inocencio. El Sur a la Vista. elsuralavista.com. 14 February 2010. Accessed 12 February 2011.</ref> It may or may not be further subdivided into sectors, communities, ''urbanizaciones'', or a combination of these, but such further subdivisions, though popular and common, are unofficial<ref>[http://lapiceroverde.com/historias-de-nuestros-barrios-una-introduccion/ ''Historias de nuestros barrios: una introducción'']. Rafael Torrech San Inocencio. Lapicero Verde. 10 February 2015. Accessed 14 March 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20211101000141/http://lapiceroverde.com/historias-de-nuestros-barrios-una-introduccion/ Archived.]</ref>

[[File:Elbarrio116thLex.jpg|thumb|Spanish signs advertising ''"[[Bride|La Casa de las Novias]]"'', ''"[[Wiktionary:Cuchifritos|Cuchifritos]]"'' and [[Popular, Inc.|Banco Popular]] are visible in a row of stores in this photo of El Barrio at [[Lexington Avenue|Lexington]] and [[116th Street (Manhattan)|116th]] in [[Manhattan]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.]]
In the mainland [[United States]], the term ''barrio'' is used to refer to [[inner-city]] areas overwhelmingly inhabited by first-generation Spanish-speaking immigrant families who have not been assimilated into the mainstream American culture.  Some examples of this include [[Spanish Harlem]] in New York City, [[East Los Angeles, California|East L.A.]] in Los Angeles; and [[Second Ward, Houston, Texas|Segundo Barrio]] in Houston. Some of these neighborhoods are simply referred to as just "El Barrio" by the locals, as opposed to using their actual names (Spanish Harlem, East L.A., Segundo Barrio, etc.).<ref>Pérez, Gina M. ''Keywords for Latina/o Studies.'' Edited by Deborah R. Vargas, Nancy Raquel Mirabal, and Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes. NYU Press. 2017. p. 18, "Barrio." {{ISBN|9781479892532}}</ref> 

In [[Venezuela]] and the [[Dominican Republic]], the term is commonly used to describe slums in the outer rims of big cities such as [[Caracas]] and [[Santo Domingo]] as well as lower- and middle-class neighborhoods in other cities and towns.{{fact|date=November 2021}}

==History==
Over the centuries, the colonial Hispanic American cities evolved as a mosaic of the various ''barrios'', surrounding the central administrative areas. As they matured, the ''barrios'' functionally and symbolically reproduced the city and in some way tended to replicate it. The ''barrio'' reproduced the city through providing occupational, social, physical and spiritual space. With the emergence of an enlarged merchant class, some ''barrios'' were able to support a wide range of economic levels. This led to new patterns of social class distribution throughout the city. Those who could afford to locate in and around the central [[plaza]]s relocated. The poor and marginal groups still occupied the spaces at the city's edge.

The desire on the part of the sector popular to replicate a ''barrio'' was expressed through the diversity of the populace and functions and the tendency to form social hierarchies and to maintain social control. The limits to replication were mainly social. Any particular ''barrio'' could not easily expand its borders into other ''barrios'', nor could it easily export its particular social identity to others. Different ''barrios'' provided different products and services to the city, e.g., one might make shoes, while another made cheese. Integration of daily life could also be seen in the religious sector, where a parish and a ''[[clergy house|convento]]'' might serve one or more neighborhoods.

The mosaic formed by the ''barrios'' and the colonial center continued until the period of independence in Mexico and [[Latin America]]. The general urban pattern was one where the old central plaza was surrounded by an intermediate ring of ''barrios'' and emerging suburban areas linking the city to the hinterland. The general governance of the city was in the hands of a mayor and city councilors.  Public posts were purchased and funds given to the local government and the royal bureaucracy. Fairness and equity were not high on the list of public interests. Lands located on the periphery were given to individuals by local authorities, even if this land was designated for collective uses, such as farming or grazing.  This practice of peripheral land expansion laid the groundwork for later suburbanization by immigrants from outside the region and by real estate agents.{{sfn|Siembieda|López Moreno|1998}}

At the edge of Hispanic American colonial cities there were places where work, trade, social interaction and symbolic spiritual life occurred. These barrios were created to meet the space needs of local craftsman and the shelter needs of the working class. At times they were designed to meet municipal norms, but they usually responded to functional requirements of the users. Barrios were built over centuries of sociocultural interaction within urban space. In Mexico and in other Latin American countries with strong heritages of colonial centers, the concept of barrio no longer contains the social, cultural and functional attributes of the past. The few surviving barrios do so with a loss of traditional meaning. For most of them the word has become a descriptive category or a generic definition.{{sfn|Siembieda|López Moreno|1998}}

== See also ==
{{portal|border=no|Cities}}
* [[Colonia (Mexico)|Colonia]] – neighborhood subdivisions in Mexican cities
* [[Colonia (United States)]]
* [[Barrios of Puerto Rico]]
* [[Barangay]]
* [[Bairro]]
* [[Bario]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}

* {{cite journal
| last1      = Siembieda
| first1     = W. J.
| first2     = E.
| last2      = López Moreno 
| title      = Barrios and the Hispanic American city: Cultural value and social representation
| journal    = Journal of Urban Design
| volume     = 3
| issue      = 1
| pages      = 39–52
| year       = 1998
| doi        = 10.1080/13574809808724415
}}
* Karl Eschbach, Glenn V. Ostir, Kushang V. Patel, Kyriakos S. Markides, James S. Goodwin. "Neighborhood Context and Mortality Among Older Mexican Americans: Is There a Barrio Advantage?" ''American Journal of Public Health''. October 2004. Volume 94. pp. 1807–1812.
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* {{wiktionary-inline|barrio}}

{{Ethnic enclaves}}
{{Spanish terms for country subdivisions}}

[[Category:Ethnic enclaves| Barrio]]
[[Category:Neighbourhoods by type]]