Introdructions

Hello all

My name is Marylu Vazquez and I am currently a junior majoring in Communication Science and Disorders. I am also doing a Bridging Disciplines certificate in Social Entrepreneurship and Non-Profits.

I am interested in social problems and community development because I want to take my career in Speech Pathology to the public sector. In my chosen field of study, many low-income communities do not get to receive the specialized Speech Pathology services because they don't have the means to pay for them or their insurance often does not cover the services.
I want to make these services accessible for these communities and perhaps found an organization that offers Speech Therapy at low or no cost.
This is why I ended up with Bridging Disciplines and this class. I see this course as a great way to start thinking about how I as a scholar can take what I learned in school and actually apply it to benefit communities and bring the services that they need.

I asked a friend about her impressions on East Austin. She is from Houston and this is what she had to say:
"I have heard it is (East Austin) generally lower income and the majority of the population is Hispanic. The area use to have a reputation as having more criminal activity, but I'm not quite sure it is quite that way anymore. However I did hear the city of Austin a few years back was considering changing (I believe) property taxes or the area that concerned people feeling that the city would displace a large Hispanic population living there!"


I conducted some research on the area and this is what I found out:
Before 1960s, East Austin was a segregated ares where mostly black families lived. This area however, was a lively, ethnic hub were many minority families interacted with each other and small businesses did too. Indeed, in this close-knit ethnic community, people left the neighborhood just to go to work.

After 1960s, when integration began, the city started to neglect this part of Austin and crime increased, there were less opportunities for business and infrastructure was not to standard.

Lately, gentrification has affected East Austin as many people want to move in back to the city and minority families that have been in East Austin are being slowly displaced. Slowly but surely, more and more White families and business are moving closer to East Austin, making it more difficult for the "original" minority families to keep their power and land in the area. source (http://www.klru.org/austinnow/archives/gentrification/)