My research for my master’s thesis focuses on the area of Highlandtown in relation to cultural identity, expression, and performance. What I noticed about the space of Highlandtown is there are key markers that indicate you’ve entered the space. I want to further explore this topic of space by posing the general question “What makes up Highlandtown?” to consider another question “What makes a space a space”? These general questions allowed me to develop my research questions "What does the space in the neighborhood of Highlandtown mean for the Latine community?" and "What are the indicators that let someone know they entered Highlandtown?" To answer these questions, I plan to study the actual space of Highlandtown through reviewing what are the physical borders of Highlandtown i.e. street signs to the more hidden borders i.e. appearance and disappearance of Latine stores. To consider how a space is make up of numerous elements not present in a physical map for instance, sights, sounds, smells, and visuals, I will conduct an auto-ethnographic research study. This type of methodology allows for the complexity of the space and the individuals within the space to emerge as the inner thoughts of the researcher can be use to understand how one’s navigates Highlandtown (Kasnitz 2020). The auto-ethnography also allows me to expand on language in the form of sounds heard for example music, people talking, nosies, etc. To capture these language that is unique to Highlandtown I will choose specific locations I consider to be high foot traffic areas and place myself there and document what I observe and hear. This way I can better understand “language in particular settings”, in this case Highlandtown (Kaplan-Weinger and Ulman 2015:18). This help me understand what does Highlandtown as a space represent for the Latine community?