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Abstract

The construction of the Cross-Bronx Expressway, in New York, and of the East Los Angeles Interchange complex, in Los Angeles, contributed immensely to the deterioration of the periphetal neighborhoods they cut through in the middle of the twentieth century. Part of their populations — most of which belonged to minorities, mainly Jewish people in New York and Latinos in Los Angeles — was suddenly uprooted, and those who remained had to learn to live in the new landscape. This article focuses on All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, by philosopher Marshall Berman, and Their Dogs Carne With Them and "Neighbors," by Chicana writer Helena María Viramontes.
These works, apparently so distant from each other, paint poignant portraits of the displacement of these peripheral populations, separated by an entire country, and yet so
similar in their plight.