Abstract
Street vending in Los Angeles has been a contested space between local businesses, the public, and police. At the same time, vendors provide a necessary function by offering affordable wares for immigrant co-ethnics and authentic food for both locals and outsiders. As part of the informal economy, street vendors are both public actors and invisible within the formal labor market. As such, the author argues that the youth who participate in these activities with their parents are rendered even more unknown. From the point of view of the youth, Emir Estrada’s research uncovers their economic contributions, how this work transforms their family position, the way gender dynamics are altered and provides a counterargument to the downwardly mobile predictions for undocumented immigrant families. Throughout the book, Estrada utilizes an intersectional lens to understand the experience and outcomes for youth who participate in street vending. Broadly, this approach gives the reader a framework for analyzing various ways children are socialized vis-à-vis economic, political, and institutional structures that intersect with race, class, and gender dynamics. Both in-depth interviews (43 Latinx youth and 23 parents) and participant observation were utilized for this research. Additionally, months were spent with each family. Most of the ethnographic research data were collected in Boyle Heights, an ethnic enclave in Los Angeles.
Street vending parents are toiling within the structural realities of being undocumented, using street vending as a way to escape exploitative and unstable low-paying work. Youth who participate in street vending help with the economic and social incorporation of their families. She frames this dynamic as American generational resources (AGR). Prior research has identified the role that immigrant children play in being translators, but Estrada furthers this point when the youth use not only their language skills but cultural capital and social capital to enhance selling opportunities. Additionally, their citizenship status is a crucial resource when interacting with police which could have serious consequences for their undocumented parents. This close economic partnership leads to two important frameworks, economic empathy and a communal family obligation code. The youth witness the structural inequality, racism, anti-immigrant sentiment endured by their parents. This experience engenders a deep moral obligation that drives their work ethic. Born from this is a communal family obligation code that deepens the bond between parent and child and provides a protective barrier to other undesirable activities elsewhere. Additionally, the author argues that these frameworks uncover resistance to downward mobility often predicted by Segmented Assimilation theory.
Chapters five and six explain how gender dynamics play out, finding that the role of Latinx girls is not one size, but constrains and expands within the spheres of race, class, gender, and public space. First, segregation of household labor holds up in predictable ways. Girls are expected to carry the heaviest load of household work, while boys get more free time for other activities. However, this research uncovers a more nuanced understanding of youth gender dynamics and highlights the invisible advantages that girls have in this work. Her observations flip the assumption that the streets are most dangerous for girls when she finds that boys experience more street violence. In fact, she finds that the presence of women and girls can offer a protective buffer for boys. The street dictates that females should be protected and therefore less violence occurs to boys when women are present. Estrada also points out that racial and gender stereotyping of boys and men of color as suspect, unclean, and less desirable position Latinx girls as able to earn superior wages.
Street Vending in Los Angeles is gendered work where 80 percent of vendors are women (Alzuphar and Beach 2019). More time spent making the connections between street vending being gendered work and the role of Latinx girls would broaden the use of an intersectional lens. By interrogating the structural reasons why women find this work more appealing as a strategy against labor exploitation and gendered poverty, this study could make the case for a framework of female intergenerational agency. In regard to economic empathy, perhaps this empathy is even more gendered given the female-dominated arena in which street vending takes place.
However, this study is an important contribution as it pushes the boundaries of segmented assimilation theory and gender dynamics among Latinx youth and provides diversity in understanding how children are socialized. This work extends our understanding of the role children of immigrants play in the social, institutional, and economic incorporation of immigrant families. Lastly, this research pushes past a deficit perspective of the patriarchal Latinx family without romanticizing the acculturation of Latinx girls.
Academics and others who are interested in urban studies, the sociology of public life, immigration, gender, as well as youth and family studies would find this book valuable. This would also be of interest to those in Latinx studies and ethnic studies.