Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the social worlds of young Latino street vendors as they navigate the complexities of local and federal laws prohibiting both their presence and their work on street corners. Known as fruteros, they sell fruit salads out of pushcarts throughout Los Angeles and are part of the urban landscape. Drawing on six years of fieldwork, Rocío Rosales offers a compelling portrait of their day-to-day struggles. In the process, she examines how their paisano (hometown compatriot) social networks both help and exploit them. Much of the work on newly arrived Latino immigrants focuses on the ways in which their social networks allow them to survive. Rosales argues that this understanding of ethnic community simplifies the complicated ways in which social networks and social capital work. Fruteros sheds light on those complexities and offers the concept of the ethnic cage to explain both the promise and pain of community.
Trade Review"Intimately and beautifully captures the lives of street vendors in Los Angeles." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *
"
Fruteros: Street Vending, Illegality, and Ethnic Community in Los Angeles makes a great contribution to the literature of ethnic economies, social networks, labor movements, immigrant communities, transnational studies, and other fields of study."
* American Journal of Sociology *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
1. Introduction
2. Becoming a
Frutero 3. Managing Risk on the Street
4. Personal and Professional Entanglements
5. Ethnic Ties in Crisis
6. Dos Mundos Transformed
7. Conclusion
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Appendix: A Personal Note on Research
Notes
References
Index
