barrio

Originally, a subdivision of a Spanish ciudad (city) or pueblo (village), which encompassed both urban and rural territory. The term is now used more loosely of Hispanic sections – or of the Hispanic community taken as an entity – in any of various US cities.

The ethnic composition of barrios depends upon the origins of the local Hispanic community. For example, in the southwestern USA, Barrios are chiefly Mexican, in the cities of Florida they are Cuban, while El Barrio in New York's East Harlem is essentially Puerto Rican. The term is more inclusive than vecindad (neighbourhood) and less specific than colonia (used of a group from a particular place of origin who form a cohesive community within a city). In Puerto Rico, it is one of the two types of legal subdivision within a Municipio, the other being the barrio-pueblo; a subbarrio is a further division of either.