E-Book Overview
Both Hollywood and corporate America are taking note of the marketing power of the growing Latino population in the United States. And as salsa takes over both the dance floor and the condiment shelf, the influence of Latin culture is gaining momentum in American society as a whole. Yet the increasing visibility of Latinos in mainstream culture has not been accompanied by a similar level of economic parity or political enfranchisement. In this important, original, and entertaining book, Arlene D?vila provides a critical examination of the Hispanic marketing industry and of its role in the making and marketing of U.S. Latinos. D?vila finds that Latinos' increased popularity in the marketplace is simultaneously accompanied by their growing exotification and invisibility. She scrutinizes the complex interests that are involved in the public representation of Latinos as a generic and culturally distinct people and questions the homogeneity of the different Latino subnationalities that supposedly comprise the same people and group of consumers. In a fascinating discussion of how populations have become reconfigured as market segments, she shows that the market and marketing discourse become important terrains where Latinos debate their social identities and public standing.
E-Book Content
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Latinos, Inc.
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Latinos, Inc. The Marketing and Making of a People
Arlene Dávila
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley
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Los Angeles
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London
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University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2001 by the Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dávila, Arlene M., 1965– Latinos, Inc. : the marketing and making of a people / Arlene Dávila. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-520-22669-0 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn 0-520-22724-7 (paper : alk. paper) 1. Hispanic American consumers. 2. Market segmentation—United States. 3. Hispanic Americans—Ethnic identity. I. Title. hf5415.33.u6 d38 2001 658.8'34'08968073—dc21 2001016206 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 10
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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z9.48-1992(r 1997) (Permanence of Paper).8
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To Laura Feliciano, in honor of her strength and ingenuity
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Latinos are changing the way the country looks, feels, and thinks, eats, dances, and votes. From teeming immigrant meccas to small-town America, they are filling churches, building businesses, and celebrating this Latin heritage. . . . In America, a country that constantly redefines itself, the rise of Latinos also raises questions about race, identity, and culture—and whether the United States will ever truly be one nation. Brook Larmer, in Newsweek, July 12, 1999
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Contents
List of Illustrations
xi
Acknowledgments
xiii
Introduction
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Mediating Identities, 5. Advertising: The Privilege of Commercial Discourse, 9. Hispanic/Latino, 15. Following the Corporate Intellectual: Doing Fieldwork on a Fieldless Site, 17.
Chapter 1 “Don’t Panic, I’m Hispanic”: The Trends and Economy of Cultural Flows
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Shaping Hispanidad from Latin America, 24.