Title: Texas-Mexico Border Communities

Summary

Border areas are always special areas where economic interaction happens along with social and cultural exchange.  The Texas-Mexico border region is not an exception, and it is especially relevant because its relatively high economic growth during the 1990s and the first decade of the new millennium. Looking on the Texas side, McAllen, Brownsville, and Laredo are the metropolitan areas that attracted most population. The lack of affordable housing in these rapidly growing cities has resulted on the growth of low-income settlements on their outskirts, known as colonias. In Texas a colonia refers to a residential area along the Texas-Mexico border that may lack basic water and wastewater systems, electricity, paved roads, and safe and sanitary housing. Colonias are mainly populated by Hispanics, most of them of Mexican heritage, and the reasons for the emergence of colonias are not unlike the reasons for the emergence of slums in Latin America. Lately the “colonia” type of development is observed away from the border and is also related to “model subdivisions”. This seminar series is co-organized by CHUD (Center for Housing & Urban Development), GeoSAT (Center for Geospatial Sciences, Applications and Technology), and TAMIDS-DAL (Design and Analytics Lab for Urban Artificial Intelligence @ Texas A&M Institute of Data Science).

Speaker’s information

Dr. Cecilia H. Giusti is Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M University.  Dr. Giusti teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on economic and community development and international development. Her work focuses on low-income micro entrepreneurs and their contribution to local economic development from a multidisciplinary approach, involving access to financial sources, gender and ethnic perspectives as well as built environment constrains. Her community engagement continues to inform her research and outreach and publishes and presents her research in academic and professional networks. Dr. Giusti has been involved with the APA Latinos and Planning Division and led two “Dialogos” in Texas.

Time: 12:00-12:30 p.m. US Central Time (Friday, March 31, 2023)

Zoom Meeting ID: 732 641 0814    Passcode: 575829

Direct Link: https://tamu.zoom.us/j/7326410814?pwd=cGZKY045dmVkdzVRLy9MYWhocWorQT09

Faculty Host: Xinyue Ye, Dept. of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, TAMU