Barons of the Bronx: Latinx Bankers and Urban Revitalization in New York

New York's near-bankruptcy in 1975 transformed the city, as well as popular visions of who its government should serve. Whatever the competing theories to explain the crisis, the most common argument was that Gotham had been wasteful. Wielding this explanation, the banking elites who oversaw the crisis response promoted austerity measures that upheld a philosophy of private initiative, reduced spending, and "fiscal responsibility." This paper explores how this outlook was not the exclusive domain of New York's wealthy white bankers or like-minded state and federal representatives. It was also embraced by a small but influential group of Latinx bankers who developed its cultural and political purchase. As Latinx organized labor's power waned, Puerto Rican electoral hopes stalled, and the vast number of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans failed to materialize into a broad-reaching movement, this group became local and national brokers whose interests most often did not align with the majority of those so-called "Hispanics" whom they claimed to represent. To tell this story, my paper traces the history of three Latinx banks: Banco Popular, New York National Bank, and Capital National Bank.