The unique New Deal planned communities were designed to address DC’s acute housing shortage in the 1930s and uplift the virtue of residents, but ultimately failed to live up to their full promise.
Despite significant progress to better living conditions in colonias over the last four decades, these settlements are still defined by their worst moments. While the public’s attention on colonias has largely centered on squalor and societal neglect, Francisco Guajardo says there’s more to the story.