Atravesando FronterasBorder Crossings A Critical Ethnog.docx

Atravesando Fronteras/Border Crossings: A Critical
Ethnographic Exploration of the
Consumer Acculturation of Mexican Immigrants
Author(s): Lisa Peñaloza
Source: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Jun.,
1994), pp. 32-54
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489739
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Atravesando Fronteras/Border Crossings:
A Critical Ethnographic Exploration
of the Consumer Acculturation
of Mexican Immigrants
LISA PENALOZA*
This article critically examines the consumption experiences of
Mexican immigrants
in the United States. An empirical model of Mexican immigrant
consumer acculturation
is derived that consists of movement, translation, and
adaptation processes leading
to outcomes of assimilation, maintenance, resistance, and
segregation. By drawing
attention to the ways in which international movements of
people, companies, and
products intersect within existing subcultural relations, this
research provides a
more satisfactory account of the complex dynamic processes
through which Mexican
immigrants adapt to the consumer environment in the United
States.
The most potent political force shaping the
civilization of the future may well be one
that has no place in any ideology: the sheer
movement of people from one place to an-

other. It is changing the face of the world,
rendering old boundaries and policies ob-
solete, and laying the foundation for a "new
world order" quite unlike anything foreseen
by any political leader or theorist-a
boundary-less world in which people live
where they choose. [WALTER TRUETT AN-
DERSON 1992]
I n the United States of America, a nation born of
colonial expansion and mass migration, immigrants
have played a key role in the formulation of the national
culture and character. The assimilation, or melting pot
model, in which people of many different nationalities,
colors, and creeds would unite and form one nation,
has been the hallmark of this country. In the social sci-
ences, the degree to which immigrants have integrated
into U.S. society has been of central concern for over
60 years (Park 1928), and the assimilation framework
has been predominant in studies of consumer subcul-
tures (see, e.g., O'Guinn and Faber 1986; Wallendorf
and Reilly 1983).
Yet both similarities and differences are fundamental
to the study of immigrant consumer behavior. The
construct nation functions as a receptacle that "fills the
void left in the uprooting of communities and kin" and
"transfers the meaning of home and belonging across
those distances and cultural differences that span the
imagined community of the nation-people" (Bhabha
1990, p. 291). Yet there is a troublesome unity within
the discourse' of the nation as the result of in-group
and out-group distinctions that are "as much acts of
affiliation and establishment as they are of disavowal,

displacement, exclusion and cultural contestation"
(Bhabha 1990, p. 5). Mexican immigrant consumer ac-
culturation involves both this process of transference
and in-group-out-group relations.
In many ways, Mexican immigrants in the United
States are the nation's "other." Foreigners, people from
another country and another culture who speak another
language, Mexican immigrants are outside the "imag-
ined community of the nation people" (Chavez 1991).
Yet Mexican immigrants share a number of funda-
*Lisa Pefialoza is assistant professor, Department of
Advertising,
College-of Communications, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Cham-
paign, 119 Gregory Hall, 8 10 S. Wright St., Urbana, IL 61820.
Support
from the Consortium on Mexico and the United States at the
Uni-
versity of California, from California State University, San
Bernar-
dino, and from the University of Colorado is gratefully
acknowledged.
The author thanks R. Belk, R. Faber, M. Gilly, T. O'Guinn, B.
Robles,
A. Rubel, A. Venkatesh, M. Wallendorf, and the reviewers for
their
constructive comments. She also thanks her family and the
partici-
pants in this research and wishes them well in their search for
the
good life.
'The term "discourse" refers to narratives about the world
(Aron-

owitz 1988) and draws attention to the way a topic or issue is
talked
about, its disciplinary location(s), and the way it is defined in
terms
of the framing of research questions. Foucault (1977) spoke of
dis-
cursive practices as regimes of truth that both constituted and
reg-
ulated aspects of the social world.
? 1994 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc. * Vol.
21 0 June 1994
All rights reserved. 0093-5301/95/2101-0002$2.00
32
2018 20:59:35 UTC
CONSUMER ACCULTURATION 33
mental qualities with the U.S. mainstream population,2
many of whom are the grandsons, granddaughters, sons,
and daughters of immigrants. Mexican immigrants are
similar to previous immigrants who have come to the
United States in search of economic opportunity and
to join other family members. They share aspirations
for the future and they work hard toward attaining
a better way of life, qualities referred to as the
"American way."
Despite these similarities, there are a number of dif-
ferences that set Mexican migration apart from other

migratory movements: the geographical proximity of
Mexico, the historical and continued presence of people
of Mexican origin in the southwestern United States,
constant reinforcing migration, frequent trips between
Mexico and the United States, and Spanish-language
usage (Gomez-Quin-ones 1984; McCarthy and Valdez
1985). The influence of these factors on the consumer
acculturation processes of Mexican immigrants in the
United States is discussed in this article.
I began this research with the question, How do Mex-
ican immigrants learn to buy products in the United
States? Drawing theoretical guidance from the literature
on consumer socialization, acculturation, and cross-
cultural consumer behavior, I developed an a priori
model of immigrant consumer acculturation to guide
this research. In the a priori model Mexican immigrants
of various demographic and psychographic character-
istics come to the United States, where they are influ-
enced by dual sets of agents aligned with their culture
of origin and of immigration. Through processes of
consumer learning, they exhibit consumption patterns
associated with the existing culture, their previous cul-
ture, or a third, hybrid combination of the two cultures.
A critical ethnographic design was employed in this
research. The design consisted of three components: I
examined in detail several field sites, conducted inter-
views with 23 Mexican immigrants from 14 households,
and documented my observations and experiences in
the research process. During the course of the study the
a priori model was modified to render it more consistent
with the ethnographic data. As I spoke with informants,
I learned of key similarities and differences between
their previous consumption patterns in Mexico and
their current consumption patterns in the United States.

They spoke of difficulties with the language, the cur-
rency, and social relations. As I accompanied infor-
mants and spent time at the field sites in the United
States, I began to realize that the environment played
a critical role in the acculturation process, in that mar-
keting activities targeting the Latino market in the
United States, with its annual expenditures of $188.9
billion (Fonseca 1992), influenced Mexican immigrants'
consumption patterns.
With these data, I had to rethink the nature of Mex-
ican immigrant consumer acculturation. Gradually, the
theoretical framework guiding this research shifted in
emphasis from the socialization orientation that pre-
dominates the consumer learning literature to the
transcultural orientation that was more consistent with
the data. The constructs consumer movement, trans-
lation, and adaptation more accurately described Mex-
ican immigrants' consumer acculturation processes.
Regarding outcomes of the consumer acculturation
process, there were some paradoxes. Mexican immi-
grant informants assimilated consumption patterns as-
sociated with U.S. consumer culture, yet they also
maintained aspects of the consumption patterns they
had acquired in Mexico. At times their consumption
patterns suggested assimilation, yet the products and
services were used in ways that maintained ties to their
previous culture. Informants also expressed concerns
about getting caught up in U.S. consumer culture, and
they actively resisted its pull, as well as the pull of their
previous culture. The majority of informants inhabited
sites in the United States that were physically and so-
cially segregated from the mainstream.

Crossing borders is a central theme in this research.
Mexican immigrants initiated the consumer accultur-
ation process by crossing the national border between
the United States and Mexico, yet, once here, subcul-
tural relations came into play. Intranational boundaries
within the United States that delineated Latino and
Anglo "market segments" were evident. Yet transna-
tional similarities characteristic of a borderless world
were also evident in that Mexican immigrants gravitated
to physical sites in the United States where there were
other Mexican people and a thriving Mexican consumer
culture.
Marketers, like Mexican immigrants, were key cul-
tural agents whose activities transcended subcultural
and national boundaries and who influenced immigrant
consumer acculturation processes by stimulating cul-
tural contact. Segmentation strategies targeting Mexican
immigrants in the United States reproduced subcultural
borders in the United States, just as international mar-
keting strategies lowered national boundaries between
the United States and Mexico.
INTERDISCIPLINARY FOUNDATIONS
OF CONSUMER ACCULTURATION
The term "consumer acculturation" is defined as the
general process of movement and adaptation to the
consumer cultural environment in one country by per-
sons from another country. In approaching this topic,
this article draws from and contributes to studies of
consumer subcultures and consumer learning in the
2The terms "mainstream," "Anglo," and "white" are used inter-
changeably to refer to the dominant cultural subgroup within
the

United States. Currently, whites represent 80.3 percent of the
U.S.
population (U.S. Department of Commerce 1992b). It is
important
to note that, while Mexican Americans are officially tabulated
in this
mainstream, we are considered a minority subculture in the
United
States.
2018 20:59:35 UTC
34 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
consumer behavior literature, studies of assimilation in
anthropology and sociology, and studies of consumer
culture in cultural studies.
Consumer researchers have long noted differences
between the consumption patterns of Mexican
Americans3 and Anglos in the United States. For ex-
ample, Sturdivant (1969) reported that Mexican Amer-
icans preferred to shop where Spanish was spoken.
Hoyer and Deshpande (1982) found that Mexican
Americans were more likely to buy the brands their
parents bought and brands they perceived to be more
prestigious than were Anglos. Saegert, Hoover, and
Hilger (1985) reported that Mexican Americans were
more price conscious and preferred familiar stores to a
greater degree than did Anglos.
Researchers turned to the literature on assimilation

to explain these differences. The assimilation frame-
work, which examines the degree to which a subcultural
group becomes similar to the dominant culture in a
nation over time (Gordon 1964), has become the dom-
inant conceptual scheme guiding studies of consumer
subcultures. Many of these studies have divided Latinos
into groups on the basis of their similarity to the Anglo
subculture in the United States. For example, O'Guinn
and Faber (1985) developed a scale of consumer ac-
culturation. In other studies, more assimilated Mexican
Americans were found to use less Spanish-language
media (O'Guinn and Meyer 1984), to be more inclined
to identify themselves as Hispanic (Deshpande, Hoyer,
and Donthu 1986), and to accord less importance to
product attributes than did less assimilated Mexican
Americans (Faber, O'Guinn, and McCarty 1987).
While these studies have documented gradations in
differences between the consumption behaviors of An-
glos and Latinos, there are some noteworthy limitations.
First, researchers have not investigated the nature of
the assimilation process, although they have indirectly
addressed the process in attempting to explain their
findings. For example, Wallendorf and Reilly (1983)
compared the consumption patterns of Mexicans in
Mexico to Mexican Americans and Anglo-Americans
in the southwestern United States and noted that for
some products such as meats, white bread, sugared ce-
reals, and caffeinated products Mexican Americans'
consumption patterns measured well beyond those of
Anglo-Americans or Mexicans. The authors concluded
that assimilation was not a simple linear progression
and attributed their results to a time lag effect in which
Mexican immigrants tried to assimilate the consump-
tion patterns of Anglo Americans but assimilated an

outdated version that did not reflect contemporary
health concerns.
Second, previous work has conflated the study of im-
migrant and subcultural consumers. While subcultural
consumers may reside next to immigrants, as in the
case of Latinos, their consumer adaptation is markedly
different as the result of international migration. There
have been few studies of immigrant consumers. One
exception is Mehta and Belk's (1991) examination of
the favorite possessions of Indian immigrants in the
United States. Many of these items were brought from
India and served to symbolically affirm ties to home-
land, family, and culture, which was very important in
a land where their culture was less prevalent. The
maintenance of Indian culture took place primarily in
homes, religious and social clubs, specialty stores, and
national publications.
Mexican immigrants differ from Indian immigrants
in their social class, geographical proximity, and mi-
gration history. Whereas Indian immigrants' consumer
acculturation processes reflect their upper- to middle-
class background and relatively small numbers, Mexi-
can immigration has been characterized as primarily
working-class,4 and represents the single largest group
of people legally admitted to the United States. From
1971 to 1990, 438,700 Indian immigrants were legally
admitted to the United States, representing 3.7 percent
of the 11.8 million legal admissions, while 2.3 million
Mexican immigrants were legally admitted to the
United States during this same time, representing 23.1
percent of legal admissions (U.S. Department of Com-
merce 1992a). In addition, the southwestern United
States was once part of Mexico and to this day has a
strong Mexican cultural tradition (Acufia 1988; Massey

1987). In the state of California, Mexican Americans
represent one-third of the population (Strategy Research
Corporation 1991). The presence of Mexican Ameri-
cans and a discernible Latino consumer culture in the
United States may offer structural reinforcement to
Mexican immigrant consumers, which would enable
them to continue consumption patterns acquired in
Mexico.
Finally, previous research has not investigated the
influence of marketing strategies on this process, al-
though O'Guinn and Meyer (1984) suggested that
Spanish-language media may offer Latinos a validation
of their ethnicity and cultural heritage. By targeting La-
tinos with specially tailored products and services,
marketers not only offer Mexican immigrants a poten-
tially powerful validation of their culture, but also may
facilitate the maintenance of consumption patterns as-
sociated with Mexican culture in the United States.
Assimilation studies have been based on a modernist
view of the nation that was socially integrated and ho-
mogeneous with discrete national boundaries and cul-
3Mexican Americans include Mexican immigrants and people
born
in the United States of Mexican descent. Of the 24.9 million
Latinos
in the United States, 58.9 percent are Mexican American
(Strategy
Research 1991, p. 59). The term Latino is used in this article to
refer
to persons from Central and South America. the Caribbean, and
Spain,
because it is the preferred term of members of this group (de la
Garza

1992).
4There has been a brain drain in the past decade (Vernez and
Ronfelt
1991).
2018 20:59:35 UTC
tures. These are not accurate characteristics of the con-
temporary United States (Jackson 1992; Lamphere
1992), nor was this an accurate characterization at the
time of the classic assimilation studies.5 Marketers' ac-
commodation of cultural difference in the United States
may well be linked to its increasing heterogeneity and
diversity.
In conceptualizing consumer acculturation processes,
I turned to the literature on consumer socialization be-
cause it explicitly focuses on processes of consumer
learning (Moschis 1987). Modeling, reinforcement, and
social interaction were identified as the central behav-
ioral processes through which consumer skills, knowl-
edge, and behaviors were transferred by acculturation
agents, which include family, friends, and institutions,
such as schools and churches.
The extrapolation of this work to a transnational
context required modifications, however. Immigrants
may have two conflicting sets of consumer acculturation
agents: one corresponding to their culture of origin and

one corresponding to the existing culture. Previous work
has suggested that minority consumers may experience
the competing pulls of two cultures (O'Guinn and Faber
1986). Further, consumer acculturation processes are
not limited to the actions of immigrants; also important
are the ways immigrants are viewed and treated by the
U.S. mainstream (Berry 1980). Thus, in addition to the
importance of immigrants' attitudes toward the culture
of origin and immigration, the degree to which the im-
migrant group was accepted by the existing culture was
anticipated to play an important role in their accultur-
ation.
The previously mentioned dual pull, situated in the
context of mainstream/immigrant social relations, po-
tentially impacts immigrant consumer acculturation
processes and outcomes in several ways. Mexican im-
migrants may internalize the stigma of being main-
stream's "other." They may denounce themselves and
their culture, decreasinA their differences by assimilating
products in an attempt to fit in. They may ignore or
reject pressure to assimilate, instead cultivating social'
structures within which aspects of their previous culture
are maintained (Gordon 1964; Padilla 1980). They may
reject aspects of the culture of origin and/or immigra-
tion (Berry 1990), and they may express combinations
of these strategies.
On the basis of a critical review of this literature, I
developed a conceptual model to guide this research
(Fig. 1). I use the term consumer acculturation rather
than assimilation in an attempt to advance this research
stream beyond the question of the degree to which im-
migrants validate American culture. The model begins
with individual differences likely to be factors differ-

entiating immigrants' acculturation processes. Demo-
graphic differences in age, social class, and gender were
anticipated to be relevant, along with Spanish- and En-
glish-language ability, recency of arrival, ethnic identity,
and the nature of the environment. Two groups of con-
sumer acculturation agents that consist of family,
friends, media, and social and religious institutions were
featured in the model, one aligned with the culture of
origin, and the other aligned with U.S. culture. Con-
sumer acculturation processes included modeling, re-
inforcement, and social interaction. In regard to out-
comes of the consumer acculturation process, Mexican
immigrants were anticipated to either assimilate U.S.
culture, maintain their previous culture, or express a
hybrid combination of the two cultures.
ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY
Ethnographic research techniques were selected for
this research because of their long-standing tradition of
studying "other" cultures and cultural phenomena
(Clifford 1988). In recent years ethnographic studies
have made significant headway in the field of consumer
research as researchers have gone to the field to inves-
tigate consumers' experiences and to explore the social
significance of consumption (see, e.g., Arnould 1989;
Belk 1991; Belk, Wallendorf, and Sherry 1988; Hill
1991).
This research is positioned in the emerging tradition
of critical ethnography (Clifford and Marcus 1986;
Rosaldo 1989; Thomas 1993). Critical ethnography, like
more traditional forms of ethnography, is characterized
by the use of participant observation data collection
techniques and interpretive analysis. It differs in its

concern with issues of subjectivity and relationships of
power affecting both the researcher(s) and those under
investigation. Concerns of critical ethnographers in-
clude (1) relations between the researcher and the re-
searched, (2) the agency of those being investigated, that
is, how people were treated during the course of the
study, how they were represented in the written account,
and whether the study incorporated their interests, and
(3) the importance of situating our work within the
global economy.
Researcher Subjectivity
Let me begin by saying I am not a Mexican immi-
grant, I am a tenth-generation Mexican American from
San Antonio, Texas. I differ from informants in my
color, gender, class, and residence in relation to that
imaginary line, the United States-Mexico border. In
my family I am called giiera, a Spanish term for women
who can pass as white. Because I do not physically re-
semble Mexican Americans, I am seldom identified as
a member of this group, yet this is the group with which
I identify. I grew up in an Anglo neighborhood and
learned Spanish in graduate school.
I approached this work with the desire to access and
portray the consumption patterns and adaptation ex-
5See Glazer and Moynihan (1963) and Gordon (1964) for
discus-
sions of ethnicity as a persistently divisive feature of American
life.
2018 20:59:35 UTC

FIGURE 1
AN A PRIORI MODEL OF CONSUMER ACCULTURATION
Antecedent Consumer Consumer Consumer
Variables Acculturation Acculturation Acculturation
Agents Processes Outcome
Dimensions
1. Demographic
variables
Culture of Origin
Family Assimilate
Friends Culture
2. Language Media of Origin
Spanish/English Institutions
3. Recency of _ Modeling Maintain
Reinforcement Culture
Social Interaction of Immigration
Identity amily Express l
Friends Hybrid
Media Culture

5. Environmental Institutions/
factors
periences of Mexican immigrants from their perspec-
tive. I went to the field to investigate the environment
inhabited by Mexican immigrants and to learn what
their lives were like in the United States. For the first
six months, I found it difficult to establish rapport. In-
hibited by doubts about my appearance and my ability
to speak Spanish, I kept my distance, observing and
cataloging the people, the stores, and the merchandise.
I was mostly ignored, except by those who offered as-
sistance in the stores or those who whistled at me or
offered to sell me illegal merchandise. After a few
months I began to initiate conversations, to meet peo-
ple, and to request interviews. The interviews provided
further opportunities to develop rapport. Speaking
Spanish was instrumental but did not ensure trustwor-
thiness. I had to prove that my intentions were earnest,
which I did by sustained contact, focused interest, and
by doing things for informants, such as providing trans-
portation and translations.
Evidence of increasing trust included referrals and
invitations to accompany informants in their daily lives.
Alma, Rene, Maria Inez, Carolina, Gloria, and Rolando
allowed me to see them in various encounters with the
new culture. On these occasions my involvement was
not limited to observation; I took an active role where
appropriate, conversing, eating, praying, and playing.
This work has been challenging and rewarding. During
its course my experiences ranged from awe and respect
at informants' courage and hope for the future, to anger
at the inferior treatment I observed and heard them
relate, to amusement and joy at their accomplishments,

their stories, and the times we shared. I reexamined my
relation to my culture, noting that my claims to our
common cultural heritage gave me an advantage in es-
tablishing trust yet invoked in me a sense of responsi-
bility to represent informants accurately and to integrate
their concerns.
Emergent Design
The research design was adapted during the course
of the study (Belk et al. 1988). This involved an iterative
process of reading and conceptualizing the "issues,"
collecting and analyzing data, reconceptualizing, col-
lecting and analyzing additional data, writing, and re-
writing. As previously mentioned, I began this work by
developing an a priori model. I then went to the field
to become familiar with the marketplace. After two
months of recording field observations of people, stores,
and merchandise, I began to develop and pretest the
2018 20:59:35 UTC
interview guide. In the three pretests, informants
jumped spatially and temporally as they spoke of their
lives on this side and that side of the border between
the United States and Mexico. I modified the interview
guide to distinguish more carefully people's previous
consumption patterns in Mexico from their current
consumption patterns in the United States. Questions
were added to investigate more directly behavioral pro-

cesses linking the two consumption patterns. I went
back to the field for more fieldwork and to initiate for-
mal interviews.
The first phase of interviews began in the fifth month
of fieldwork and consisted of six households; the re-
maining eight interviews were conducted over the next
year and a half of fieldwork. Interviews averaged an
hour and 15 minutes to complete and all interviews
were transcribed verbatim. In analyzing these interviews
together with the field data, I began to appreciate the
many differences and similarities between the United
States and Mexico and the influences of marketing
strategies and others' immigration on acculturation
processes.
Over time, field activities and objectives shifted from
observation to participation, from describing the sites,
agents, and activities to accompanying informants as
they negotiated the new culture. Participant-observation
activities with informants included sharing meals, going
shopping, going to the beach, making a court appear-
ance, aiding a release from the hospital, and conversing
with an employer, legal counsel, and several hospital
administrators. In addition, informants invited me to
some of their cultural activities. I attended church with
Rene, went to the rodeo with Maria and Gloria and
their families, and celebrated cinco de mayo (May 5)
and dieciseis de septiembre (September 16) festivals.6
-These activities were instrumental in providing me with
a sense of their values and of what being a Mexican
immigrant in the United States entailed.
Mexican Immigrant Informants
Mexican immigrants are not a known population in

the United States.7 According to the 1990 census, 13.5
million persons reported being of Mexican descent or
origin in the United States (U.S. Department of Com-
merce 1992b). These figures do not include undocu-
mented immigration, which has been estimated to ac-
count for two-thirds of all Mexican immigration since
1980 (Warren and Passel 1987). In the state of Califor-
nia, where this study was conducted, estimates of the
number of Mexican people range from 2 million to 4
million persons (McCarthy and Valdez 1985; Strategy
Research Corporation 1991).
Informants were purposely selected, with variety and
contrast used as criteria (Miles and Huberman 1984),
to yield a varied perspective on the experiences of Mex-
ican immigrant consumers in the United States. I met
some informants while doing fieldwork. I met Melinda
and Lucia on separate occasions when I stopped to buy
from the grocery vans where they worked in the neigh-
borhoods. I met Emir while walking down the street,
and I met Rene on the bus. Referrals were also impor-
tant in enabling me to identify and access informants
with target characteristics. I met Victor and Graciela
with help from one of the local retailers. Rene, a key
informant, introduced me to Carolina and her husband
Alberto, Maria Inez, Jorge, Sra. Marta, and Sr. Adan.
As a result, subgroups of informants reflected their ac-
tual social support networks.
I interviewed 23 individuals from 14 households, at
times speaking with multiple members of the house-
holds, those who were present at the time and agreed
to do the interview. Informants varied in their age, gen-
der, social class, English- and Spanish-language ability,
recency of arrival, and household composition (Table

1).8 Eight households were interviewed entirely in the
Spanish language, four predominantly in Spanish, and
two predominantly in the English language, as deter-
mined by informants' preferences. Sixteen informants
were interviewed in their homes, five informants were
interviewed at their workplace, one informant was in-
terviewed at the home of his friends, and one interview
took place at a local fast-food restaurant.
In the interviews informants were asked to describe
their experiences crossing borders and getting settled,
and to describe and compare their consumption pat-
terns and the consumer environments in the United
States and in Mexico. Questions regarding consumption
of food, clothing, the telephone, an automobile, finan-
cial services, and media were included to address a wide
array of market offerings (i.e., durable and nondurable
products and services). Questions regarding social ac-
tivities were used to assess informants' contact with
Anglo-Americans and how they were treated by others
in the United States.
6Cinco de mayo commemorates the victory of Mexican troops
led
by General Ignacio Zaragosa over an occupying army of French
troops
led by Emperor Maximilian Hapsburg in Puebla, Mexico, on
May
5, 1862. While this holiday is seldom celebrated in Mexico, it
is cel-
ebrated by Mexican Americans in the United States and
receives
tremendous corporate sponsorship. Dieciseis de septiembre
com-
memorates Father Miguel Hidalgo's oration, the Grito de
Dolores,

on September 16, 1810, which marked the beginning of the
Mexican
Revolution for independence from Spain. This holiday is
celebrated
in both Mexico and the United States (Acufia 1987, 1988).
7There are currently no accurate, verifiable data on the total
number
of Mexican immigrants currently in the United States or on
those
who enter this country every year. All figures are estimates
because
of a number of data collection problems, which include
multiple
trips between the United States and Mexico, fear of
deportation, mis-
trust of social scientists, illiteracy, use of Spanish language,
and in-
consistent use of terminology (Penialoza and Gilly 1986).
8All informant names appearing in this work are pseudonyms
in
order to maintain informants' confidentiality and anonymity.
2018 20:59:35 UTC
TABLE 1
INFORMANT CHARACTERISTICS

Household
and Mexican Arrival Years in U.S. household
pseudonyms Sex Age Education residence datea Mexico U.S.
occupation compositionb Language ability
1: Alma F 40 Graduate school Rural 1966 17 High school 2,
female roommates Bilingual
teacher
2: Graciela F 35 Universityc Urban 1978 25 Travel agent 6,
extended family, Bilingual
boarder
3: Victor M 33 Three years of Urban 1989 18 Travel agent 4,
male roommates Bilingual
college
4: Emir M 24 Sixth grade Rural 1985 20 Yard worker 5, male
roommates Spanish
5: Genaro M 40 High school Urban 1978 17 Manager, 1, single
Spanish
fast-food (some English)
restaurant
6: Ignacio M 26 High school Urban 1988 24 Cosmetology 5,
female and male Spanish
Enrique M 24 Veterinary Urban 1988 22 Cosmetology
roommates
Josefina F 20 Business school Urban 1987 18 Secretary
Samanta F 27 University' Urban 1987 25 Teacher
Joel M 21 High school Urban 1987 19 Student
7: Melinda F 22 Sixth grade Rural 1989 15 Grocery van 7, two

extended Spanish
attendant families
8: Chela F 34 University Urban 1989 25 Gas station 4, nuclear
family Bilingual
cashier
9: Rene M 45 First grade Rural 1988 42 Woodworker 9, one
extended, one Spanish
Miguel M 18 High school Rural 1990 17 Student nuclear family
10: Lucia F 11 Sixth grade Rural 1987 8 Grocery van 9, nuclear
family Bilingual
attendant
1 1: Maria Inez F 36 Sixth grade Urban 1987 32 Seamstress 9,
two nuclear Spanish
Gloria F 28 Eighth grade Urban 1990 27 Seamstress families,
boarder
Rolando M 30 Sixth grade Urban 1990 29 Welder
12: Marta F 58 Third grade Rural 1989 58 None 9, extended
family Spanish
Adan M 60 Second grade
13: Carolina F 26 University Urban 1987 20 Woodworker 4,
nuclear family, Spanish
Alberto M 25 High school Urban 1985 19 Welder boarder
(some English)
14: Jorge M 40 Ninth grade Rural 1988 39 Mechanic 12, three
families Spanish
aWhen they came to live in the United States.
bTotal number of persons, type of household.
'Graduate.

Field Settings
Field sites consisted of an urban shopping street, two
neighborhoods where informants lived, and informants'
dwellings. These particular sites were selected on the
basis of four factors: (1) the presence of a large number
of Mexican immigrants, (2) an urban area, since 88
percent of Latinos reside in urban areas in the United
States (Strategy Research Corporation 1991), (3) the
centrality of these sites to the lives of Mexican immi-
grants in the United States, and (4) the existence of a
wide variety of commercial ventures and activities.
Objectives varied by site. In the neighborhoods, I fo-
cused on their density, the type of dwellings, the people
in the area, and their activities. In the dwellings, I ex-
amined furnishings and personal space. At the mar-
ketplace site I investigated the types of stores, their
clientele, the products and services offered, and mar-
keting practices. In addition to these main field sites, I
accompanied informants to peripheral field sites that
included two churches, the beach, a rod&, the Califor-
nia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the county
courthouse, and local cultural festivals.
Data Analysis
The output of data collection efforts consisted of
maps of the field sites, 300 photographs, 50 artifacts
(brochures, business cards, flyers, and local newspapers),
and 839 pages of text. This included a set of field notes
(311 handwritten pages compiled from 223 hours of
field observation), transcriptions of the tape-recorded
interviews (141 pages typed), and a journal of personal

reflections (387 handwritten pages).
Field notes and journal entries were divided into data
units (i.e., separate pieces of information) and then
classified in an iterative, hierarchical process that in-
volved first dividing the units by data type (e.g., stores
at the site, Latinos at the site, incidents, ongoing activ-
ities, events) and then categorizing units within each
data type. Interview summaries were developed as a
data reduction technique to facilitate comparisons
2018 20:59:35 UTC
across types of informants. Data were analyzed by
means of coding patterns and themes with use of the
constant comparative method (Glaser and Strauss
1967). Findings were triangulated across data types and
sources.
Credibility assessment of this research consisted of
member checking and memoing with informants and
academic colleagues (Wallendorf and Belk 1989). This
involved my providing all or part of the data and interim
research findings to informants and to academic col-
leagues during the project. The task for informants was
to assess whether the findings were consistent with their
experience; colleagues were to ascertain the logic of the
analytical categories and assess whether the findings
were well grounded in the data.

ETHNOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT
Immigration Experiences
Informants were exposed to the idea of living in the
United States before setting foot on its soil. In Mexico,
stories abounded regarding life in the United States,
and seeing people go to the United States to live was a
common occurrence. Noted Sr. Adan, "Alla hay sen-
timientos que mucha gente va a E.U., esta aceptada"
[There are feelings that many people go to the U.S., it
is accepted].9 Yet, at the same time they were told that
jobs that paid better than in Mexico were available in
the United States; they were also told that jobs were
difficult to find and they had to speak English. The sto-
ries changed with changes in the U.S. economy.
For informants, positive expectations regarding their
lives in the United States served as powerful motivators.
Reasons given for moving to the United States included
to take advantage of greater job availability and buying
.power, to reunite family, and, for those with children,
to further their children's education. We came "para
trabajar y comprar" [to work and to buy], explained
Carolina. Chela and Gloria noted that, while it was
cheaper to live in Mexico, it was also more difficult for
people there to "salir adelante" [get ahead, have dis-
cretionary funds for spending or saving]. Jorge recalled
seeing people return to Mexico from the United States
with more possessions than they left with and expected
that he, too, would be able to do so. The difference in
earnings in the two countries is graphically described
by Victor: "Para ganar una persona 250 mil pesos, o
sea 100 dolares en Mexico, tiene que trabajar un mes,
cuando aqui cien dolares en tres dias o dos dias se gana.

Por eso, es que hay un correria para venir, L no?" [To
earn 250,000 pesos, or $ 100 in Mexico, one has to work
a month, when here one earns $100 in two or three
days. That is why so many people come].
Not all informants' expectations or experiences were
positive. Miguel expected to see only Anglo-Americans
in the United States but was comforted to see many
Mexican people on his arrival. Informants' two greatest
fears were that they would not find a job and did not
know what would happen to them.
Yet, while all informants were enthusiastic about
their move to the United States, their feelings about
leaving Mexico are best described as bittersweet. They
had left family and friends behind and related sorrow
at these losses. They also reported missing their lan-
guage, food, holiday celebrations, and, as Victor put it,
"la tranquilidad, la seguridad en el aspecto de que uno
podria caminar conociendo la mayor parte de la gente"
[the tranquility, the security in the sense that one can
walk around knowing most of the people]. Their sorrow
was combined with the uncertainty and difficulty of the
transition.
Informants moved to the United States legally and
illegally. Four informants came to the United States by
airplane, 10 by bus, and four by private car. Samanta
came by train for a vacation that she has extended in-
definitely. Jorge, Sra. Marta and her husband Adan,
and Melinda and her two sons, ages 4 and 6, came over
with the help of a coyote (guide). As was customary,
they paid the going rate of $300 per person after having
arrived in the United States. The coyotes' services var-
ied: Jorge, Sra. Marta, and her husband Adan were
brought to the door of family in the United States, while

Melinda and her sons were merely assisted across the
border. Six informants reported multiple trips to the
United States.
Mexican immigration was described as "una cadena"
[a chain] by Genaro, who explained that one man
comes, then sends for his brother, who sends for his
brother, who sends for his wife. All informants knew
someone already living in the United States when they
arrived, but that didn't necessarily mean they were
helped by these people, although most were. Victor an-
grily recalled a door slammed in his face, "Eran mis
amigos en Mexico, pero aqui no son mis amigos" [They
were my friends in Mexico, but in the U.S. they are not
my friends].
The chainlike social network Genaro described was
consistent with other informants' experiences. Two
general patterns of migration were noted; informants
came to the United States as a part of a group or alone.
Those who made the journey alone were reunited with
family members, friends, or others from Mexico who
are now in the United States. Soon after making their
separate trips to the United States, Alberto was joined
by his wife, Carolina, and Rolando was joined by Maria
Inez. Chela and Graciela, who had come to the United
States as children with their mother and aunt, respec-
tively, returned to Mexico only to come back to the
United States years later with their husbands and chil-
dren. Once in the United States, Emir, a solo traveler,
joined up with four others from his hometown in Mex-
9Excerpts of interviews appearing in this paper reflect the
language
informants used. Translations of Spanish language excerpts are
in-

dicated by brackets and were done by the author with the help
of
bilingual informants.
2018 20:59:35 UTC
ico. In a similar way, Ignacio, Joel, Josefina, Samanta,
and Enrique formed another household in the United
States.
Social networks of family and friends were an integral
part of the consumer acculturation process. These net-
works served as coping social structures in and through
which informants adapted to the consumer environ-
ment in the United States., They facilitated the physical
move and the transition by providing key sources of
information and support, which ranged from advice to
money and places to stay.
On arrival, informants who could not speak or un-
derstand English experienced tremendous problems
with the language. For example, in the following passage
Genaro relates how his first attempts to use the tele-
phone were thwarted because he did not speak English:
Queria marcar de a , y me habia dicho que
costaba quince centavos el telefono-hace pocos afios-
y puse el dime, el nickel, y era larga distancia, y la op-
eradora me decia que pusiera mas dinero, y yo colgaba

el telefono, y iotra vez! Esto hacia como cinco, seis veces,
hasta que le pregunte a una senora que si ese telefono no
funcionaba, y esa sefiora me dijo que si, y salio, y me
dijo que adonde yo queria marcar, entonces, yo le dije
que a Los Angeles, y me dijo que era larga distancia, y
yo no sabia nada de ingles, y por eso no entendia."
[I wanted to call from and I had been told
that it cost fifteen cents to use the phone-this was several
years ago-and I put in a dime, a nickel, and it was long
distance, and the operator told me to put in more money,
and I hung up the telephone and tried again! This hap-
pened like five or six times, until I asked a woman if this
telephone was working, and she said yes, and then asked
me where I wanted to call, and I said -and she told
me it was a long distance call, and because I did not
understand English, I did not understand.]
Of the 23 informants, 19 were monolingual Spanish
speakers. Their language difficulties were lessened in
many areas because of the availability of Spanish lan-
guage materials. Despite English's having been legislated
as the official language in the state of California, Span-
ish-language driving tests, ballots, and income tax forms
were readily available at city and county agencies. Fur-
ther, even at sites where English was prevalent, such as
the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the
courthouse, and the hospital, Spanish translators were
available. Nevertheless, all 19 said they wanted to learn
English because it was a big advantage in the workforce.
However, because of work, family commitments, and
transportation problems, only Genaro, Rene, and Me-
linda reported attending English classes.
Confronting The New Consumer
Environment

Housing. In Mexico, most informants inhabited
single-family dwellings. Informants from rural areas in
Mexico described their homes in Mexico as having dirt
floors, with no electricity or running water. They raised
crops, tended a few animals, and shopped for food daily
by walking to nearby small corner markets. Those from
urban areas were used to cosmopolitan surroundings
and reported shopping at department stores and in the
mercados (markets comprised of shops and stands of
various sizes). In rural and urban areas in Mexico prod-
ucts were also sold door-to-door and on the street.
The neighborhoods where informants lived in the
United States featured a dense array of duplexes and
apartment buildings situated in between older houses
and condominiums. One or two vans were a common
sight parked along the curb or circulating through the
neighborhoods, announcing their arrival with loud
Latin music. These "convenience stores on wheels"
(Fig. 2) offered particular arrays of food and household
items-dried beans and rice, tortillas, chilies, fresh fruits
and vegetables, instant coffee, and personal grooming
supplies.
In these colonias (neighborhoods), the dominant
presence of Mexican people and their use of the Spanish
language were evident. Small groups of young and older
men typically congregated outside the buildings and in
between the cars parked along the street. The cars were
in various states of disarray, and there were bars on
many of the windows and doors of the buildings. Chil-
dren played on patches of dirt for lawns, and tomato
and chili plants grew in between brilliantly colored
flowers in the gardens.

Informants' household furnishings varied consider-
ably. Carolina and Alberto had a matching sofa and
love seat, coffee table, entertainment center, and a new
dining room set in their new condominium. In Rene's
apartment a detached seat from a car served the dual
purpose of sofa by day and bed by night. A full-size bed
served a similar purpose in the apartment where Maria
Inez and Gloria and their families lived. Household
adornments included family photographs, children's
drawings, religious crosses and candles, promotional
calendars from local retail outlets, and plastic flower
arrangements atop lace doilies.
Informants established their households in the United
States in a highly transitory manner influenced by fam-
ily and friendship ties, the viability of their jobs, and
trips to Mexico. With the exception of Graciela, Car-
olina, and Alberto, all informants lived in rented dwell-
ings in the United States. It was typical that informants
shared less space with more people than in their homes
in Mexico, which partially explains why so many people
were observed in the neighborhoods. Graciela, Melinda,
and Sra. Marta lived in extended-family households.
Chela, Carolina, and Lucia lived in households com-
posed of nuclear families with children, and Alma, Vic-
tor, Emir, and Ignacio shared housing with roommates.
There were multiple families in three of the other
households. Jorge shared a two-bedroom apartment
with three families; he explained that one family oc-
2018 20:59:35 UTC

FIGURE 2
A MOBILE GROCERY STORE
..........
F.i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .......
cupied each of the bedrooms, and the other family slept
in the living area. Two nuclear families lived in Maria
Inez's apartment, each with a full-size refrigerator in
the kitchen, and a single man rented one of two beds
in the living room. Rene shared a two-bedroom apart-
ment with two families; he kept his belongings in the
hall closet and slept on a couch in the living area. Only
Genaro lived alone.
The household served as an important social context
and agent of consumer acculturation. Here informants
displayed artifacts of Mexican and U.S. culture. The
household also brought together individuals of various
characteristics, resources and skills, who provided each
other with social support and some tensions. House-
holds composed of mixed levels of English facilitated
their members' efforts to learn English; those whose
members spoke only Spanish reinforced the sole use of
Spanish. Chela reported tensions in her family because
her teenage daughter resented being less able to speak
English than her four-year-old sister. Because these

children learned English at school and were generally
better able to use English than their parents, they were
relied on to help negotiate U.S. culture-which they
resented at times. Finally, whether informants' families
were united in the United States influenced the length
of their stay. Informants whose families were in Mexico
gave that as one of the reasons they returned to Mexico.
During the two. and one-half year period in which this
work was done, seven households moved; three returned
to Mexico.
Shopping. At the marketplace site two-hour parking
spaces lined the urban shopping street, a four-block
plaza of various types of retail stores and city offices,
including the Mexican consulate. There were jewelry
and pawn shops, clothing and shoe stores, restaurants,
and two discount stores. Some of the retail establish-
ments were from Mexico, including a bank, two shoe
stores and two electronics stores. One store featured
Mexican curios (souvenirs). Many of the products were
also from Mexico and included cassette tapes, foods,
soaps, and laundry detergents. Services offered included
travel arrangements, money orders, formal-dress and
tuxedo rental, rental videotapes, photocopies, income
tax preparation, and check cashing. Here, retail em-
ployees handing out flyers competed with sidewalk dis-
plays of merchandise and street vendors for the money
and attention of the many people walking by. Spanish
was the lingua franca. Store names and advertisements
were prevalent in Spanish, although many signs were
bilingual and some were in English.
In describing their first shopping experience in the
United States, informants noted the larger quantity,

2018 20:59:35 UTC
greater variety, and lower prices. Alberto recalled, "Me
sentia como que iba entrado a una pelicula, ,no? Y yo
iba hacer el protogonista y yo iba a los Estados Unidos
y yo iba hacer lo que queria . . . y a mi me sentia bien,
es bonito conocer un pais tan fuerte, tan potente, ,no?
tan avanzado y tantas cosas" [I felt like I'd entered a
movie, you know. And I was the main character and
I'd come to the United States, and I could do what I
wanted. I felt good. It is good to know a country so
strong and powerful, you know, so advanced with so
many things]. Maria Inez described the merchandise as
beautiful, while Marta noted how clean and orderly the
stores were.
At the marketplace, the problems informants expe-
rienced with language were rare. Not knowing English
was of little consequence for informants shopping at
the field sites because most retailers accommodated
their Spanish-speaking customers by maintaining a
Spanish-speaking workforce. This is not to suggest that
language was not an issue in Mexican immigrants' con-
sumer acculturation. Inability to speak English affected
informants' selection of stores and purchase and use of
products and services in the United States. It precluded
them from using some products and services and more
favorably disposed them to shop at stores, such as those
at the site, where employees spoke Spanish and that
carried products and services they had purchased and

used in Mexico.
Informants also reported experiencing difficulties
with U.S. currency that were not so easily overcome.
The exchange rate was 3,000 Mexican pesos to the dollar
at the time of this research. In the following passage,
Joel related his initial experience with U.S. currency:
"No conocia la moneda, el cambio, y entonces, para
mi, era muy difilcil cuando me decia son tanto por tanto,
a mi, me parecia muy barato realmente, porque decia
dos cinquenta, uno cincuenta, cincuenta centavos.
6Que es eso, no? Porque en Mexico se habla de miles"
[I was not familiar with the money, the change, so for
me it was very difficult when someone would say how
much things cost, prices appeared really cheap to me,
because they would say $2.50, $1.50, 50 cents. What is
this? Because in Mexico one speaks in thousands].
Gloria reported problems shopping and taking the
bus because she was confused by U.S. coins, and re-
mained so a year after her arrival. Exasperation was
heavy in her voice as she said, "In Mexico, well, I don't
know, the money goes in order," and, "Who would
think that the little one (a dime) would be worth more
than a nickel?" When her heuristic assigning greater
value to larger coins failed, she concluded that it was
"un sistema bien estrania" [a very strange system].
In the next passage, where he recalls a trip to a large
shopping mall in the United States, Joel articulates how
he learned to decipher the new code. He established a
standard of conversion in terms of the amount of time
he would have to work at his pay rate in the United
States to buy a particular item, yet added that this
translation was not really meaningful to him until he

had begun to save some of his earnings and had gained
an understanding of the cost of living in the United
States. "Este mall era muy grande . . . , entonces entra
uno y se queda fascinado de ver todo eso. . . y, a mi,
se me ocurre imposible decir cuando yo podria comprar
una camisa . . . si yo ganaba tres trienta y cinco la
hora, L,como iba a gastar uno la mitad del sueldo de
una semana en comprar una camisa? ,verdad? En-
tonces, es una cosa que uno va viendo hasta que la
persona empieza a trabajar, empieza a organizarse de
tal manera de vivir, y de ser, cuando ya empiezas a
agarrar de lo que estas haciendo" [This mall was very
big, and when someone entered, they would be fasci-
nated to see all this . . . as for me, it struck me as im-
possible to say when I would be able to buy a shirt .
if I was earning $3.35 an hour, how would anyone be
able to spend half their weekly salary on a shirt? True?
These are the things one begins to see when a person
begins to work, begins to organize one's way of life and
oneself, when you begin to save some of your earnings].
These vignettes highlight the tremendous amount of
translations that immigrants make as they move from
one consumer culture to another. Learning the new
consumer culture involved becoming adept at both its
elements and relational rules. Cultural signs and heu-
ristics drawn from the previous system were applied
logically to the new system through a process of trans-
lation. Informants learned to render intelligible signs
inscribed in the new cultural code by first resituating
them within the previous code with which they were
familiar and then by returning their equivalent to the
terms of the new code. When the application of previous
rules to the new system did not work, as illustrated in
Gloria's experience of deciphering the currency, the

rules were modified in an iterative process of repetition
and retrial. Over time, informants began to learn what
many cultural signs meant and their value in the United
States.
This experiential consumer learning was a difficult
process compounded by the social pressure to perform
in any given moment. To be wrong risked personal em-
barrassment, as avoided by Miguelito, Alma's nephew,
who was visibly uncomfortable at the ice cream counter
when his turn came to order. He quickly asked me to
order vanilla for him.
Particular Products and Services
Food. Food is more than a means of nourishment
and sustenance; it is also a key cultural expression. For
informants, eating the foods they ate in Mexico in the
United States provided them with a taste of home and
served to reaffirm ties to their culture of origin. Infor-
mants from small villages in Mexico reported shopping
for food daily by walking to small corner markets or
buying from vendors. Many had no refrigeration and
would grow their own food-corn, beans, chilies, and
2018 20:59:35 UTC
melons. Informants from the city reported shopping
for food once a week or so at large supermarkets and/
or the central market, where they compared prices and

looked for the best deals. Despite these apparent dif-
ferences between rural and urban residents, all infor-
mants reported that food cost less in Mexico and that
they preferred fresh produce and freshly cut meat.
In the United States, informants noted similarities
in the ways they shopped for food in the United States
as compared to Mexico. Informants reported shopping
mainly at large supermarkets for the prices and at small
corner stores (Fig. 3) and vans (Fig. 2) for convenience.
As in Mexico, large grocery stores and small corner
markets in the United States included a carniceria
(butcher shop) where meat was specially cut to order,
thinly sliced, with all of the visible fat removed.
Yet informants also noted differences in the ways
people shopped for groceries in the United States. They
rejected some of the consumption patterns associated
with U.S. culture, particularly packaged, prepared, and
frozen foods. They simply could not understand why
Americans bought produce in cans and meat that was
already packaged and frozen since "you don't know
when," as Graciela described it. Informants consistently
said they had not changed their food consumption very
much since they had moved to the United States, with
the exception of Alma, who said she no longer ate beans.
Victor noted that he and his roommates took turns pre-
paring "comida tipica mexicana, un carne de puerco
en chile" [typical Mexican food, pork cooked with chili].
Even working mothers Marla Inez and Gloria continued
to shop daily for meat and produce.
Their statements were consistent with my observa-
tions. Stores at the site offered many products from
Mexico in anticipation of and in response to the pref-
erences of their Mexican clientele, items such as fresh

meat and produce, canned chilies and salsas, spices,
cookies, and soft drinks. Many of the products directed
to this group were produced and supplied by U.S. firms.
In the neighborhoods, the grocery vans also provided
Mexican immigrants with ready access to "Mexican"
foods. These "convenience stores on wheels" were typ-
ically run by other Mexican people and catered to a
Mexican clientele. In my journal I wrote, "here you
don't have to go to the products, they come to you."
Because so many of the foods eaten in Mexico were
available in the United States, Mexican immigrants did
not have to change their food consumption very much.
Their accommodation by marketers both validated the
presence of Mexican immigrants and legitimized Mex-
ican culture in the United States.
Clothing. Clothing serves as bodily protection, but
it is also a means of cultural expression that imperfectly
indicates style, gender, social class, and even nationality.
Informants uniformly reported that clothing sold in
Mexico was of less variety, lower quality, and higher
prices than clothing sold in the United States. Infor-
mants from small towns and villages noted that in
Mexico people would go door-to-door with clothing for
sale, and they would accept partial payments over time.
This manner of doing business was described by Alma,
who lived in a small village in Mexico until she was 17:
"People would come and bring us things, people would
go house to house with clothes to sell, you could buy a
dress with payments, every week this woman would
come, she carried stuff in a plastic bag. . . and people
would tell her, yes, that is what I need, and they knew
each other."
Door-to-door clothing sales were also described by

informants from urban areas in Mexico. Joel added that
U.S. brands were available in Mexico, but you had to
look closely because people would sew the tags of name
brands into items of clothing prior to their sale. In ad-
dition, Ignacio noted that clothing was brought from
the United States to people in Mexico to help them
enter this country.
I observed door-to-door clothing sales similar to those
described in Mexico in the United States. During my
interview with Sra. Marta, she was describing her pre-
vious purchase of T-shirts for $5 from a door-to-door
salesperson, when a young woman came to the door
selling pots and pans. Marta welcomed her inside, we
looked at the pots, chatted with her a short while, and
then continued the interview. Marta explained, "Aqui
se vende y se puede pagar poco a poco . . . o luego, si
no tenemos dinero" [Here one sells and one can pay a
little at a time . . . or later, if we do not have money].
Informants readily assimilated clothing in the United
States, especially where compatible with their previous
styles of dress. Yet style and brand awareness were more
pronounced for the young. Few of the adults, as com-
pared to most of the young people, reported a favorite
brand of clothing. Apparently, brand awareness and
discrimination are skills acquired more rapidly by the
younger adults than by their elders.
For adult men, similar styles were worn in the United
States and Mexico, although there were some genera-
tional differences noted in informant reports and in my
observations. Older men wore western-style polyester
slacks or jeans, boots, and wide leather belts with big
buckles, while younger men wore jeans or shorts, high-
top sneakers, and T-shirts.

For adult women, the incidence of wearing pants was
reported to be much less prevalent in Mexico than in
the United States. Some Mexican women informants
retained the more traditional female attire of dresses
and skirts in the United States, while others wore pants
and even shorts. But even in the United States many
considered women's wearing of pants socially unac-
ceptable. Jorge lamented that Mexican women who
wore pants in public in the United States were "sin
vergiienza" [without shame]. The younger women in
his household giggled at his criticism. I noticed they
were wearing pants.
2018 20:59:35 UTC
FIGURE 3
A SMALL CORNER MARKET
._1 .. rS.gS........
, ... .... .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.s.g._........... ' ' , ,'.. ... .~ ,4 .
Because clothing was sold at a cheaper price in the
United States than in Mexico, and because informants
made more money here, clothing was quite a bargain
for them. More importantly, by literally putting on this

aspect of U.S. culture or by refusing to do so, informants
assumed and asserted their place in this country.
Automobile. The automobile is a powerful symbol
of status and success in Mexico, where they are expen-
sive and few people have one. Informants reported that
a car was a luxury in Mexico, where automobile prices
were almost double prices in the United States and fi-
nancing was not available. Only two of the 14 house-
holds reported having a car when they lived in Mexico.
In contrast, 10 of 14 households reported having cars
in the United States. In addition to using their cars for
local transportation, informants used them to bring
others to and from Mexico. Further, most informants
linked their ability to purchase autos in the United
States to a secondary market for used cars. In this mar-
ket, one person sells his/her car to another and, not
infrequently, accepts monthly or weekly payments, such
as those reported by Carlos Velez-Iban-ez (1983). Rene
paid $50 a week for seven weeks for his 1977 Mustang.
While this informal market rendered the auto more
accessible, and driving manuals and written tests were
available in Spanish, language barriers still existed for
informants operating an automobile. Language prob-
lems triggered the following incident in which Rene re-
ceived an $80 traffic citation. Infuriated, he explained
to the officer-a translator was called to the scene-
that he had received permission from the California
DMV to move his car. Unfortunately, that officer and
a clerk at the DMV agreed that this permission did not
serve as a valid California driver's license, which he did
not have. A few weeks later I gave Rene a ride home
from the DMV; he had just received his license.

For informants, the automobile was a powerful sym-
bol of success in the United States. Here, the automobile
offered autonomy and mobility to people no longer de-
pendent on a bike, the bus, or other people to get
around. Yet, while the auto has been credited with less-
ening our reliance on others and enabling individuality
(Glasser 1967), because the automobile was a resource
shared among immigrant household members, it par-
adoxically furthered their interdependence.
Telephone. The telephone is a lifeline that enabled
and maintained important social contacts, including
ties to loved ones and job prospects. Yet the telephone
was not just a means of communication; its cost struc-
ture affected the way informants communicated and
2018 20:59:35 UTC
changed the makeup of their social networks. In Mex-
ico, the telephone was a luxury, according to infor-
mants. There it cost as much as $800 to get connected,
which could take years, yet informants reported that
the telephone was relatively cheaper to use. Four
households had a telephone in Mexico.
Twelve of 14 households reported having a telephone
in the United States. Here the phone was described as
"una necesidad" [a necessity]. The telephone enjoyed
this high rate of assimilation among informants in the

United States because of the high value of the connec-
tions it enabled among family, friends, and job pros-
pects, and its relatively lower connection costs, which
were rendered even less expensive when shared among
multiple household members.
As with the automobile, language barriers rendered
use of the telephone difficult at times for informants.
Yet, counter to Genaro's experience over 15 years ago,
virtually all of the language barriers have been over-
come. Telephone companies now provided Spanish-
fluent operators to accommodate their Spanish-speak-
ing customers. For informants, the telephone was a vital
means of communication, given their distance from
loved ones, and significant amounts of money were
spent to maintain ties to people in Mexico. Informants
reported that they tried to minimize their bills by calling
at off-peak hours and on weekends, but that their calls
in the United States were expensive, especially when
they called Mexico. Informants' monthly telephone bills
ranged from a low of $30 in Graciela's household to a
high of over $500 in the household Miguel Concepcion
shared with two other families.
Financial Services. For informants, discussing their
use of financial services raised issues regarding their
ability to make ends meet, their values and priorities,
and their degree of experience and trust regarding fi-
nancial institutions. In Mexico seven of 14 households
reported having either a checking or savings account
when they lived in Mexico. Informants noted that, while
they did not have much money in Mexico, the cost of
living there was also much lower.
At the time of the interview, seven households main-
tained a bank account in the United States, and three

households maintained accounts in Mexican banks to
take advantage of higher interest rates there. While in-
formants were involved with informal credit networks
in the form of loans and financing sales of products in
the United States and in Mexico, few had become a
part of the formal credit system in the United States.
Only Genaro and Alma had major credit cards. While
their limited income was a factor, the fact that infor-
mants with stable work histories and steady jobs that
paid well (e.g., Graciela, Chela, and Carolina) did not
have credit cards or interest in getting them suggests
that other issues were operating.
Factors influencing use of financial services in the
United States included level of discretionary income,
spending patterns (including sending money to Mexico),
and perceptions of lower interest rates paid by financial
institutions in the United States. Informants noted with
disappointment that, while they made more money and
had more possessions in the United States, they also
had more expenses here and experienced pressure to
pay bills. All informants reported sending money to
family members in Mexico and/or sending money to
help others come to the United States at one time or
another.
Knowledge of financial options and terms, and trust
with regard to financial institutions, also affected their
use of financial services. There was much confusion
between bank and retail store credit cards. With the
exception of Graciela, who had left Mexico during the
peso devaluations of the 1980s and expressed her dis-
trust of financial institutions, informants did not express
concern about the impact of inflation. In addition, Alma
expressed a very negative attitude toward commercial-

ized credit, which may also explain its low rate of adop-
tion. Although she had two credit cards, Alma typified
credit as the "American way" and did not like to use
it. She explained, "You owe something to someone,
and I don't like it." Alma associated credit with Amer-
ican materialism, of which she disapproved. Alma was
not the only informant concerned with resisting aspects
of U.S. culture. Joel, Genaro, Ignacio, and Rolando
shared Alma's anxiety about impending materialism
and debt.
Media. In Mexico, media broadcast in Spanish, and
many programs were produced in Mexico and Central
and South America, although many American programs
were also broadcast on privately owned Mexican sta-
tions. Graciela noted that advertisements were more
indirect in Mexico, where they "rodean para llegar a
punto que tiene que anunciar" [go around before ar-
riving at the point one has to announce]. This is con-
sistent with previous research comparing Spanish and
English languages (Hall 1977).
In the United States, the media served as a bicultural
lifeline for Mexican immigrant informants, enabling
them to "plug into" U.S. or Mexican culture with the
turn of a dial. Informants noted that there were more
television stations in the United States than in Mexico.
English-language media provided low-risk access to the
mainstream, even for those not fully bilingual. Yet, as
Lee (1989) noted, televised images provided immigrants
somewhat distorted lifestyle and behavioral information
on U.S. culture. Spanish-language media offered infor-
mants reinforcement and validation of their culture.
Television programs, music, movies, and advertise-
ments in Spanish, especially those using recognized ce-
lebrities and other cultural signs, were a reassuring dose

of the familiar that welcomed Mexican people to the
United States.
Informants' media use in the United States could not
be cleanly divided into English or Spanish formats, and
2018 20:59:35 UTC
varied with age and across generations. Combinations
of English and Spanish were exhibited. For example,
bilingual Graciela preferred Spanish-language television
programs but listened regularly to "easy listening" En-
glish-language radio, while Spanish speakers Maria Inez
and Melinda expressed their preferences for Spanish
and English television and radio. Lucia and her six
brothers, all bilingual, preferred English-language top-
forty radio, while their parents, Spanish speakers, pre-
ferred Spanish-language media. These findings, while
generally consistent with those of O'Guinn and Meyer
(1984), suggest some limitations to the use of general-
ized media preference and language ability as indicators
of media use.
Intercultural Contact
Informants were first exposed to the idea of life in
the United States while they were still in Mexico through
word of mouth, media, international trade, and tourism.
This preimmigration contact, much of which was com-
mercial in nature, is contrasted with my observations

and informants' reports of little personal contact with
Anglo-Americans in the United States.
At the marketplace and in the neighborhoods, Mex-
ican immigrants were the dominant presence. Mexican
retailers and clientele easily outnumbered the sprinkling
of Anglos I observed at the marketplace. Spanish lan-
guage was dominant on store signs, in the newspapers
and magazines circulated there, in the music, and in
conversations in the stores and on the street. In the
neighborhoods, Mexican people and other signs of
Mexican culture, including the grocery vans, the music,
and use of the Spanish language, were readily visible.
Whites were so noticeable by their absence that I was
stopped by police on suspicion of possession of illegal
drugs. '
Mexican culture was also evident in the households
in the language spoken, the food, the customs, and the
decor. All household members were from Mexico, with
two exceptions, a Cuban woman who shared an apart-
ment with Alma and a Puerto Rican man who rented
space in Gloria and Maria Inez's household. Exposure
to U.S. culture through the children in the household
was a primary, although indirect, source of contact with
U.S. culture for informants with children. As previously
mentioned, informants' children learned English
through the schools, which they attended with Anglo
children, whereas adults tended to have more problems
with the English language. Melinda admitted that she
and her brothers would speak English whenever they
wanted to keep things from their parents.
All informants reported that their friends were from
Mexico, except Chela and Alma, who claimed both An-

glo-American and Mexican friends. That most of their
friends were also Mexican helped reinforce ties to Mex-
ican culture. It is likely that these friendships were based
on shared experiences of distance from home and family
and adaptation to U.S. culture.
The job site was also an important source of contact
with mainstream American culture, and working im-
migrants initially appeared to have greater contact with
the mainstream than their nonworking counterparts.
However, informants' jobs varied in the degree to which
they provided such contact. Only Alma, a high school
Spanish teacher, Chela, a cashier at a gas station, and
Genaro, manager of a fast-food restaurant, had sus-
tained contact with Anglo-Americans at their job sites.
While language ability was an issue, it did not determine
the extent of their contact. Both Chela and Alma were
bilingual, yet Genaro was Spanish dominant. Maria
Inez acknowledged that she was learning some English
at work, but it was mostly work related.
Given the nominal contact with U.S. culture and the
predominant contact with others from Mexico de-
scribed by informants, together with my observations
of their physical separation in the neighborhoods and
at the marketplace, it was evident that Mexican im-
migrant informants inhabited a marginalized consumer
culture in the United States. At these sites, Mexican
culture was strongly present in the United States but
was segregated from the mainstream.
Individual Subjectivity
Informants reported a number of changes they had
noticed in themselves since moving to the United States.
In general, rural informants experienced more changes

than did urban informants, yet all reported some
changes, such as working harder and having more
money and more possessions, while also having less
time, experiencing more financial pressure, and be-
coming more self-centered and less trusting of others.
Overall, Mexican immigrants spoke about their lives
in the United States very positively. Graciela com-
mented about living here, "Trabajando bastante es
agradable porque uno alcanza lo que uno desea"
[Working so hard is agreeable because one achieves what
one desires]. She spoke with pride about her house and
the travel business she and her husband had started here,
yet admitted that she had much less recreation time
than when she lived in Mexico.
While moving to the United States offered informants
many benefits, it fell short of expectations. Miguel,
Juan's brother, poetically described life in the United
States as "una jaula de oro" [a golden cage]. He ex-
plained that, while Mexicans had more money and pos-
sessions in the United States, they were not free to go
101 had just taken Rene home from the hospital. We had
stopped
by his house before going to fill his prescriptions when a police
car
pulled up behind us. The officer asked what I was doing there,
he had
seen me quickly leave the apartment. I handed him my
university
card and explained my work. He told me there had been some
com-
plaints about drugs in the neighborhood and counseled me to be
careful.

2018 20:59:35 UTC
back and forth to Mexico because the trip was dangerous
and expensive. Informants also expressed surprise that
they worked so much in the United States. They com-
pared this to a way of life in Mexico that was more
relaxed and enjoyable, with more time to go out with
family and friends to dance or to see a movie, in spite
of having less money. Victor tellingly described the
faster pace of life in the United States, noted by many
informants, in the following passage: "Pues, aqui la vida
es rapida, muy exitada-nada mas que tengo cinco
minutos para ir a comer, cinco minutos para esperar
mi camion, cinco minutos para entrar a trabajar, es
cuestion de estar moviendose y de estar mirando el reloj
ante todo . . . y corre, jcorre!" [Well, here the life is
very fast paced, very agitated-nothing more than I
have five minutes to eat, five minutes to wait for the
bus, five minutes to get to work, it is a matter of always
moving and always looking at the clock before you do
anything . . . and run, run!].
Informants acknowledged the pulls of both countries.
They expressed nostalgia for their past and their pre-
vious culture, such as that observed by Lowenthal
( 1985). They missed knowing people and being known,
and having more time to spend with loved ones, as well
as the food, and the fiestas. Yet, informants also criti-
cized their previous culture. All lamented their coun-

try's economy. Informants also noted cultural limits on
their autonomy, such as traditional family roles and
limits on women's attire. Genaro remarked that he
could not get ahead because he felt obligated to take
his family to dinner every Sunday, while Rene was crit-
ical of the large amounts of money spent on quincianera
celebrations. "
Informants reported conflict and pressure to adjust
to the way of life in the United States. In the following
passage, Victor described his adaptation to the individ-
ualism of U.S. culture:
Aqui tengo que ser ma's egoista, tengo que cambiar, y a
mi, no me gustaba este tipo de si stema, de ser egoista,
pero aqui la gente es asi, nada m'as que yo, yo, yo, y iyo!
Y es todo. Nadie le ayuda a la gente por lo cual, y tambien
tengo que cambiar de esa manera . . . pienso que es ne-
cesario cambiar, estoy viendo las cosas de otro punto de
vista, y ahora si que no voy a preocuparme con un vecino,
me voy a preocuparme con nada mas que mi mismo.
[Here, I have to be more egocentric, I have to change.
As for me, I have never liked this kind of system, to be
egocentric, but here people are like that, nothing else but
me, me, me and me! And that is all. Nobody helps each
other, and I, too, have to change like this . . . I think it
is necessary to change, I'm seeing things from another
point of view now, and from now on I'm not going to be
concerned with a neighbor, I'm going to be concerned
with myself.]
Informants only reluctantly described incidents of
bad treatment they had experienced in the United
States. For example, Gloria recalled being humiliated

at work by co-workers because she did not speak En-
glish. When these incidents were reported, they were
often rationalized. Maria and Victor quickly explained,
"Living in the U.S. is like everywhere else, there are
good and bad people." Yet other informants linked the
discrimination they experienced to their status as Mex-
ican immigrants in the United States. Rolando noted
that many Americans did not "see Mexicans well."
Rene explained, "Te ven bien mientras de que tu. est'as
haciendo sus servicios . . . pero cuando t(u te reclamas
algun interes que te pertenese, entonces, ya no te ven
bien" [They see you well when you are doing work for
them, but when you try to claim rights that belong to
you, then they do not see you so well].
Informant identity was another important part of
their subjectivity. Informants identified themselves on
the basis of their Mexican nationality, and this desig-
nation was attributed to them by others. Notably, only
five of 23 informants responded when asked their eth-
nicity; they were not familiar with the Spanish equiv-
alent for this word. Alma identified herself as Latino.
Alma, Genaro, Josefina, and Graciela accepted the term
Hispanic but noted that they did not use it and identified
it as a term used in the United States.
It is significant that informants identified themselves
as Mexicans. They were expressing their identification
with their country and culture of origin, both of which
were outside the U.S. mainstream. Informants' difficulty
answering the ethnic identity question likely stemmed
from differences in the social categories used in the two
countries. Alma insightfully described the differences
between the two cultures in the following passage, "I
didn't know I wasn't Caucasian until I came here (to
the U.S.) . . . In Mexico I was Caucasian, in the U.S.

I am brown."'2 While ethnicity was not a familiar con-
cept for most informants, they soon learned that it was
a fundamental distinction in the United States.
Reviewing the testimony of informants revealed a
third important translation in addition to the language
and the currency. Learning one's place in society, that
is, how people see each other and attribute membership
in particular social categories, was an integral part of
consumer acculturation. The assimilation model has
simplified the complex experience of cultural difference,
especially the recognition and management of the
stigma of otherness. Mexican immigrant informants
experienced cultural difference in their relation to
themselves, to others, and to their culture, as they
learned that being Mexican meant being part of a stig-
matized, subordinated group in the United States. These
were the sentiments expressed by Rolando when he said
that Mexican people were not "seen well" in the United
States.
"The quiincianiera is a coming-of-age ritual for young women
that
is celebrated on their fifteenth birthday. '2Technically, Alma is
both (see n. 2).
2018 20:59:35 UTC
FIGURE 4

AN EMPIRICAL MODEL OF CONSUMER
ACCULTURATION
Individual Consumer Consumer Consumer
Differences Acculturation Acculturation Acculturation
Agents Processes Outcomes
1. Demographic Culture of Origin
1.Deoriaphic Family variables l ll | Friends
Media
Institutions f
Commercial Assimilation
2. Language Educational
Spanish/English Religious
Maintenance
l3. Recency of / | Movennent | p R
| | { ~~~~~~~~~~~~Adaptation 1| Rssac
4. Ethnic Culture of
4.dEnthity Immigration
Identity ~~~Family
Friends Segregation
Media
Informants' subjective experience of cultural differ-
ence influenced their identity and shopping patterns.
On one hand, informants in the United States had
"made it." Those with jobs earned more money than
they had in Mexico, and they were active consumers

here, buying food, clothing, cars, and telephones. Yet
informants' words and actions belied the conviction that
they were part of the U.S. mainstream. For informants,
the stigma of being Mexican in the United States pre-
sented a double bind that was not easily reconciled, for,
as Belk (1988) noted, to a certain degree people are
their culture.
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
An Empirical Model of Immigrant
Consumer Acculturation
Individual Differences. Mexican immigrant con-
sumer acculturation was not a monolithic experience;
informants were a diverse group of people who came
to the United States with a wide range of resources and
skills (Fig. 4). Demographic differences in age, social
class, rural/urban residence, gender, work status, and
length of stay in the United States provided informants
with differential skills to adapt to the consumer envi-
ronment in the United States. In terms of age, older
informants were more habituated to their previous cul-
ture and had more difficulties in the United States, while
younger informants appeared to adapt more readily.
Those of middle-class backgrounds seemed to have an
advantage over those with working-class backgrounds;
however, many professional credentials were not valued
in the United States, and social class overlapped with
English-language ability and rural-urban status.
Informants from urban areas experienced fewer dif-
ficulties than did their rural counterparts because they
had inhabited a consumption environment in Mexico
that more closely resembled that in the United States.

Women informants generally had to work to help pro-
vide for their households in the United States, which
created some role tension for men and women accus-
tomed to men being the sole provider in Mexico. Work
status provided some opportunity for contact with An-
glos, although jobs differed in the degree to which they
facilitated such contact. Those with longer tenure in
the United States appeared to have less difficulty adapt-
ing; however, it is emphasized that, given the degree to
which Mexican culture is present in the United States,
length of stay did not necessarily determine adaptation.
2018 20:59:35 UTC
Contact with and acceptance of Anglo culture were also
factors.
Language ability was also important in distinguishing
informants' abilities to adapt. Both age and generation
were important factors in distinguishing informants'
language experiences in the United States. Informants
who came to the United States as adults were less able
to grasp the new language than those who came as chil-
dren, with the exception of those who had learned En-
glish in school in Mexico. Further, informants with En-
glish skills had an advantage in the workplace, yet this
advantage was leveled in venues where Spanish was the
dominant language.
Agents. Dual sets of consumer acculturation agents

aligned with Mexican and U.S. culture served to me-
diate the two cultures by representing them and helping
to reproduce them in the United States. Agents included
family, friends, media, retail businesses, schools, and
churches. Of these, informants' family, friends, Spanish-
language media, the church, and retail businesses were
primarily aligned with Mexican culture. Informants re-
lied on social networks of family and friends from Mex-
ico to get a job, to find a place to live, to learn their
way around, and to learn English. Spanish-language
media, the church, and retailers catered to Mexican
people with programming, Spanish-language masses
and cultural events, and products and services, respec-
tively. Schools and English-language media were the
predominant sources of informants' contact with Anglo
culture.
Processes. The consumer acculturation process was
initiated by people's movement from one country to
another. Both push and pull factors motivated immi-
gration. Informants left conditions of job scarcity and
low pay in Mexico. They came to the United States to
take advantage of available jobs, higher pay, and an
education for their children. Of most critical impor-
tance, their anticipated earnings and consumption pat-
terns were powerful incentives for immigrating to the
United States.
On arrival, informants experienced some difficulties.
They were accustomed to their previous consumption
patterns, and many of the skills, knowledge, and ex-
periences they had acquired in Mexico no longer were
applicable in the United States. Key translation skills
were required to develop faculties in three new cultural
exchange systems, the language, the currency, and social
relations, with the old systems serving as bridges to the

new systems.
Informants reported their adaptation to the many dif-
ferences between their lives in the United States and
Mexico. Through experiential trial-and-error learning
processes, informants adapted to the new consumer en-
vironment in the United States. They established new
consumption patterns in housing, use of the telephone,
financial services, clothing, food, and media. Informants
also reported that they personally adapted to life in the
United States. They experienced changes in themselves,
in their sense of who they were, in their language, and
in their culture. Yet informants also noted that many
things had not changed. They had moved to a thriving
Latino consumer subculture in the United States that
was similar to their previous consumer culture in Mex-
ico. Similarities were noted in stores, products, ways of
doing business, foods, styles of dress, and media.
Outcomes. Mexican immigrant informants ac-
quired possessions fairly rapidly on their arrival in the
United States. Characteristics of the market offerings
that affected the degree to which they were accepted by
informants included their cost structures, degree of lan-
guage dependence, social visibility, how well they fit
into informants' lives, and product symbolism relative
to both U.S. and Mexican consumer cultures.
Informants assimilated many products and services
associated with U.S. consumer culture. Most readily
adopted were low-cost, high-visibility items, absent of
any language barrier, such as clothing. In addition,
market offerings that maintained social networks and
enabled shared financing among multiple household
members exhibited a high rate of acceptance, particu-

larly the telephone and the automobile.
Yet informants also maintained aspects of Mexican
culture. Many aspects of informants' consumption pat-
terns in the U.S. were linked to the maintenance of ties
to their culture and families. Informants maintained
these ties through telephone contact, the foods they
prepared and ate, their use of Spanish media, and leisure
activities. In addition, analysis revealed that some of
the products and services associated with U.S. culture
that had been adopted by informants (e.g., telephone,
auto, and financial services) were used in ways that par-
adoxically maintained ties to Mexican culture.
The ways in which Mexican immigrants adapted to
the new consumer environment were much more com-
plex than simply buying and using products associated
with American or Mexican culture. Informants also re-
ported experiencing pressure to change, such as that
articulated by Victor, and they resisted the pulls of both
Anglo and Mexican culture. American culture did not
have solely positive value and significance for infor-
mants, and this important critique of U.S. culture from
the immigrants' perspective has been effectively silenced
by the assimilation framework. Informants disliked and
resisted to varying degrees the materialism, time fixa-
tion, isolation, and discrimination they associated with
U.S. culture. Informants also resisted aspects of Mex-
ican culture, such as its limits on individual autonomy
and elements of its holiday traditions. The elements of
Mexican culture informants considered undesirable
were evident in the conflicts they expressed regarding
their spending patterns and priorities.
Finally, informants inhabited sites in the United
States that were physically segregated from the U.S.

mainstream. At the marketplace, and in the neighbor-
2018 20:59:35 UTC
hoods and households, Mexican culture was the dom-
inant presence. At these sites I observed a thriving La-
tino consumer culture, situated apart from mainstream
U.S. culture.
Impact of the Environment
Mexican immigrant consumer acculturation was
profoundly affected by the environment. Environmen-
tal opportunity originally drew informants to the United
States. Once here, informants purchased and used many
products and services associated with American culture
(e.g., clothing, cars, telephones, and money in a bank
account). Yet many aspects of their new consumer en-
vironment in the United States, such as the stores,
products, and ways of doing business, effectively facil-
itated their maintenance of consumption patterns as-
sociated with Mexican culture in the United States.
Crossing borders is a central construct in this re-
search. The consumer acculturation process began with
people crossing the border between the United States
and Mexico. The border also served as a key construct
organizing informant narratives, as they spoke of their
lives on this side and that side of the border. Borders
influencing Mexican immigrant consumer accultura-

tion were not limited to the international border be-
tween the United States and Mexico, however. Mexican
immigrant informants also encountered boundaries in
the United States in a number of aspects of their daily
lives. Intranational borders in the form of subcultural
differences were evident in the segregated neighbor-
hoods where Mexican immigrants lived and at the mar-
ketplace where they shopped in the United States, in
the predominance of Spanish spoken at the various sites,
in informants' consumption patterns, and in their
identities.
Impact of Marketing
Recognizing the direct influence of marketers on
consumer learning processes is a key contribution of
this research, as their influence has been limited to in-
direct, mass-mediated influences in the literature
(Moschis 1987). Marketers were critically important
agents of consumer acculturation, for marketers "saw"
Mexican people in the United States very well, even as
they were invisible in other contexts. Marketers were
shown to impact Mexican immigrants' consumer ac-
culturation processes in two ways, via segmentation
strategies in the United States and international trade
between the United States and Mexico. By targeting
Latinos with market offerings associated with Mexican
culture, marketers facilitated the institutionalization of
Mexican culture in the United States. Informants at the
field sites were met more than halfway by marketers
who provided particular assortments of merchandise
and employed a Spanish-speaking workforce. However,
marketers at the sites did not deal solely with merchan-
dise associated with Mexican culture. Retailers also
made available products and services associated with

U.S. culture. By providing user-friendly access to
mainstream products and services for Mexican immi-
grants in the United States, marketers facilitated their
assimilation of those items.
Nor was consumption of Mexican culture limited to
Mexican people in the United States; it has become
increasingly targeted to and consumed by the U.S.
mainstream. The success of marketing Mexican culture
has become readily discernible in the mainstream con-
sumption of foods, fashions, entertainment, architec-
ture (e.g., "Spanish" tile and adobe), southwestern de-
cor, and in language colloquialisms."3 The influence of
Mexican culture is so notable in the Southwest that
geographers have predicted it will eventually become a
nation in its own right (Wright 1992).
International trade between the United States and
Mexico also influenced Mexican immigrants' consumer
acculturation processes. Informants did not see U.S.
products for the first time on their arrival. They had
become acquainted with American companies and
products in Mexico. Examples of stores included
Woolworth's, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken;
products included Colgate toothpaste, Coca-Cola and
Pepsi sodas, Nike tennis shoes, and Levi's jeans. 14 Thus,
in addition to stories about life in the United States,
another important source of preimmigration contact
for informants was supplied by American companies
doing business in Mexico.
In addition, many of the stores informants had fre-
quented and products they had consumed in Mexico
were readily available in the United States, stores such
as Dos Hermanos and Canada Shoes, Dimex stereo,
Orlandi Valuta monetary exchange house, Don Roberto

Atravesando FronterasBorder Crossings A Critical Ethnog.docx

Atravesando FronterasBorder Crossings A Critical Ethnog.docx

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