A Brief History of Latinos in Washington, D.C.

By Carmen Molina Acosta

Checkers players in Mount Pleasant

Men take turns watching and playing checkers in front of the McCormick paint store in Mount Pleasant. Photo by Carmen Molina Acosta.

Welcome to la Esquina: the corner of Mount Pleasant St. and Kenyon Street NW, where a group of men spent almost every afternoon playing checkers before the pandemic.

Sat across from each other on crates, a board balanced between them, men still in their work clothes rotated in and out of matches, exchanging wisdom and gossip in rapid-fire Spanish— a quotidien affair at the center of this historically Latino neighborhood.

A few blocks away, politicians at the city’s center spent the past four years drafting policy and mounting legal battles against them— from tougher immigration enforcement to efforts to undercount and underfund their communities.

But the existence of Latino communities in this very same city is not by accident. It’s growth has been directly tied— for better or worse— to policies and decisions that emanate from the nation’s capital.

Latinos in the Nation's Capital

Over a million Latinos reside in Washington, D.C. and the surrounding area, according to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2019— a group as diverse as the label is vague.

The Census Bureau first started counting people of Latin-American descent in 1970, when the category of Hispanic first debuted. But for years prior, Washington, D.C. had been a growing home to a small Latino community.

First, they came as members of the Washington political class: ambassadors, or workers they brought from their home country, who came and ended up staying, according to the Smithsonian Latino DC HIstory project. Similarly, international organizations like the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund drew upper-class, highly educated immigrants from a variety of countries.

Unlike cities like Los Angeles and New York, who’s Latino populations historically come from one country (Mexico and Puerto Rico, respectively), Washington D.C.’s Latino community remained heterogeneous— drawing from Mexico, Domincan Republic, and Bolivia, among other countries.

Until, that is, the ‘80s, when the outbreak of a civil war— driven by U.S. government intervention— pushed the first wave of immigrants from El Salvador.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, the national Salvadoran population increased nearly fivefold between 1980 and 1990 and since then, the numbers have continued to rise, fueled by family reunification and a series of natural disasters in the early 2000’s.

Now the sixth largest immigrant group in the United States, according to the Migrant Policy institute, D.C. and the surrounding area of D.C. home to one of the most concentrated enclaves of Salvadorans in the country— the very center of power that played a catastrophic role in the violence they left.

Many of these immigrants landed in neighborhoods like Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights. Down the road from la Esquina, another understated landmark: the local 7-Eleven.

Left shattered and ransacked in the aftermath of the 1991 “disturbios”— also known as the Mount Pleasant Riots— the store remains a marker of the civil unrest that erupted after police shot a Salvadoran man.

A report commissioned after the violence found the community underserved by government programs, over-policed, and under-represented in government. The findings fueled the creation of committees dedicated to investing in and revitalizing the areas—a turning point, locals say.

But in recent decades, housing prices have increased dramatically across the city. According to multiple studies, Washington, D.C. has one of the highest rates of gentrification— the process of urban change as higher income, often white, residents move in— in the country. And historically Latino neighborhoods, like Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan, are no exemption.

The Mount Pleasant 7-Eleven in 1991

The Mount Pleasant 7-Eleven after the 1991 "disturbios." Photo courtesy Hola Cultura.

Areas that used to be known for as cultural touchstones of the local Latino community are now more widely recognized for their restaurants, retail options, and quiet residential options.

Up the main road, the first signs are clear: local tiendas with the Virgin Mary and Cafe Bustelo proudly displayed in their windows melt away into high priced restaurants.

In the residential neighborhood nearby, pastel little free libraries dot every other corner. A mural— painted in the 1980’s by the local Latin American youth center— now bends out of sight.

Many immigrants now reside outside the city, in nearby Maryland and Virginia suburbs: in neighboring Silver Spring, roughly 25% of the population is Latino, according to The Census Bureau.

Though city’s constantly in flux, the Latino community continues to be one of the largest and rapidly growing demographics in the area.

Mural in Mount Pleasant
El Salvador sticker
Mural in Mount Pleasant

Reminders of Mount Pleasant's history dot the neighborhood. Photo by Carmen Molina Acosta.