Latino/a Immigrant Street Vendors in Los Angeles: Photo-Documenting Sidewalks from ‘Back-Home’

Abstract

Street vending in Los Angeles is reconfigured, organized, and supported through the daily practices of Latina/o immigrants. Vendors physically transform the streets into public markets, utilizing sidewalks, fences, walls, parking lots, and benches in immigrant receiving neighbourhoods in Los Angeles. Street vending, as the most visual occupation of the informal economy, vendors depend on their visibility to be successful entrepreneurs, while as immigrants negotiate on going surveillance and policing of their bodies by the state and its apparatus. In this paper, I explore how the informal landscapes inhabited by Latina/o immigrants can be better understood through a process of visualisation. It is my argument that through the use of still photography as part of the research process, we can comprehend more fully how Latino immigrant's racialized bodies and their use of public space are visual processes integral to the production of ephemeral street vending landscapes in Los Angeles.

Keywords

Visual Ethnography Street Vendors Informal Economy Informal Labour Photo-Documentation Latino Immigrants

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Banks

(2001) Visual Methods in Social Research. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi: SAGE Publication.

Becker

H. S

(1974) ‘Photography and Sociology’, Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication, Vol. 1, pp. 3–26. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1525/var.1974.1.1.3]

Biles

(2009) ‘Informal Work in Latin America: Competing Perspectives and Recent Debates’, Geography Compass, Vol. 3, No. 1 pp. 214–36. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00188.x]

Bromley

and Mackie

(2009) ‘Displacement and the new spaces for informal trade in the Latin America city center’, Urban Studies, Vol. 46, No. 7 pp. 1485–506. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1177/0042098009104577]

Chaplin

(1994) Sociology and Visual Representation. London, New York: Routledge. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.4324/9780203416723]

Chen

M. A

(2001) ‘Women in the Informal Sector: A Global Picture, The Global Movement’, SAIS Review, Vol. 21, No. 1 pp. 71–82. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1353/sais.2001.0007]

Coletto

(2010) The Informal Economy and Employment in Brazil: Latin America Modernization and Social Change. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1057/9780230113992]

Cross

and Morales

(eds.) (2007) Street Entrepreneurs: People, Place, & Politics in Local and Global Perspective. London: Routledge.

Emmison

and Smith

(2000), Researching the Visual: Images, Objects, Contexts and Interactions in Social and Cultural Inquiry. London, Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

10.

Fernandez-Kelly

M. P.

and Garcia

(1989) ‘Informalization at the Core: Hispanic Women, Homework and the Advanced Capital State’, in Portes

, Castells

, Benton

(eds.), The Informal Economy Studies in Developed and Less Developed Countries. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

11.

Flick

(1998) An Introduction to Qualitative Research. London: Sage.

12.

Gasparini

, Gutierrez

and Tornarilli

(2007) ‘Growth and Income Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean: Evidence from Household Surveys’, Review of Income and Wealth, Vol. 53, No. 2 pp. 209–45. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1111/j.1475-4991.2007.00231.x]

13.

Gershuny

J. I

(1979) ‘The Informal Economy: Its Role in Post-Industrial Society’, Futures, Vol. 11, No. 1 pp. 3–15. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1016/0016-3287(79)90065-X]

14.

Gilbert

(1994) ‘The Politics of Location: Doing Feminist Research at “Home”’, The Professional Geographer, Vol. 46, No. 1 pp. 90–95. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1111/j.0033-0124.1994.00090.x]

15.

Gold

S. J.

(2007) ‘Using Photography in Studies of Immigrant Communities: Reflecting Across Projects and Populations’, in Gregory

C. S

(ed.), Visual Research Methods: Image, Society, and Representations. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi: SAGE Publications.

16.

Hamilton

and Chinchilla

Norma

(2001), Seeking Community in a Global City: Guatemalans and Salvadorans in Los Angeles. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

17.

Harvey

(1989) The Urban Experience. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University.

18.

Henry

(1982) ‘The Working Unemployed: Perspectives on the Informal Economy and Unemployment’, The Sociological Review, Vol. 30, No. 3 pp. 460–77. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1982.tb00663.x]

19.

Katz

(1994), ‘Playing the Field: Questions of Fieldwork in Geography’, The Professional Geographer, 46 (1), 67–72. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1111/j.0033-0124.1994.00067.x]

20.

Leonard

(1994), Informal Economy in Belfast. Avebury: Aldershot.

21.

Marcoullier

and Young

(1995) ‘The Black Hole of Graft: The Predatory State and the Informal Economy’, American Economic Review, Vol. 85 pp. 630–46.

22.

Matless

David

(2003), ‘Gestures Around the Visual’, Antipode, Vol. 35, No. 2 pp. 222–26. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1111/1467-8330.00318]

23.

Mcdowell

(1992), ‘Doing Gender: Feminism, Feminists and Research Methods in Human Geography’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 17 pp. 399–416. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.2307/622707]

24.

Menjivar

(2000), Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran immigrant Networks in America. Berkeley, London, Los Angeles: University of California Press.

25.

Moser

C. O

(1994), ‘The Informal Sector Debate in Latin America Part I: 1970-1983’, in Rakowski

C. A

(ed.), Contrapunto: The Informal Sector Debate in Latin America. Albany: State University of New York Press.

26.

MUÑOZ

(2008), ‘Tamales, Elotes, Champurrado: The Production of Latino Vending Street-Scapes in Los Angeles’, Dissertation. University of Southern California.

27.

Oberele

(2006), ‘Latino Business Landscapes and the Hispanic Ethnic Economy’ in Kaplan

D. H.

and Li

Wei

(eds.), Landscapes of the Ethnic Economy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

28.

Pink

(2007), Doing Visual Ethnography. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi: SAGE.

29.

Pink

(2011), ‘Amateur Photographic Practice, Collective Representation and the Construction of Place’, Visual Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2 pp. 179–92. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1080/14725860310001632029]

30.

Portes

(1994), ‘The Informal Economy and Its Paradoxes’, in Smelser

N. J.

and Swedberg

(eds.), The Handbook of Economic Sociology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

31.

Portes

, Castells

and Benton

(eds.) (1989), The Informal Economy: Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press.

32.

Portes

and Tockman

V. E

(1996), ‘Regulation and the Informal Economy: Micro-Enterprises in Chile, Ecuador and Jamaica’, Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 28 pp. 704–06.

33.

Prosser

(1998), Image-Based Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers. London: Falmer Press.

34.

Rakowski

C. A.

(1994), ‘The Informal Sector Debate Part 2: 1984-1993’, in Rakowski

C. A

(ed.), Contrapunto: The Informal Sector Debate in Latin America. Albany: State University of New York Press.

35.

Roberts

(1994), ‘Informal Economy and Family Strategies’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 18, No. 1 pp. 6–12. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1111/j.1468-2427.1994.tb00248.x]

36.

Rose

(1997), ‘Situating Knowledges: Positionality, Reflexivity and other Tactics’, Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 21, No. 3 pp. 305–20. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1191/030913297673302122]

37.

Rose

(2001), Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. London, Thousand Oaks: Sage.

38.

Rose

(2003), ‘Family Photographs and Domestic Spacings: A Case Study’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 28, No. 1 pp. 5–18. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1111/1475-5661.00074]

39.

Sassen-Koob

(1989), The Mobility of Labor and Capital: A Study in International Investment and Labor Flow. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

40.

Sassen

(1998), Globalization and Its Discontents: Essays on the New Mobility of People and Money. New York: The New Press.

41.

Sassen

(1998), ‘The Informal Economy: Between New Developments and Old Regulations’, Yale Law Journal, Vol. 103, No. 8 pp. 2289–304. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.2307/797048]

42.

Schneider

B. R.

and Karcher

(2010), ‘Complementarities and Continuities in the Political Economy of Labour Markets in Latin America’, Socio-Economic Review, Vol. 8, No. 4 pp. 623–51. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1093/ser/mwq022]

43.

Suchar

(2004), ‘Amsterdam and Chicago: Seeing the Macro-Characteristics of Gentrification’, in Knowles

and Sweetman

(eds.), Picturing the Social Landscape: Visual Methods and the Sociological Imagination. London, New York: Routledge.

44.

Taudt

(2001), ‘Informality Knows No Borders? Perspectives from El Paso-Juarez’, SAIS Review, Vo. 21, No. 1 pp. 123–30. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1353/sais.2001.0024]

45.

Thomas

(1992), Informal Economic Activity. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

46.

Thomas

(2000), ‘The Black Economy-Benefits Frauds or Tax Evaders’, World Economics, Vol. 1, No. 1 pp. 167–75.

47.

Thomas

(2001), ‘What is the Informal Economy, Anyway?’, SAIS Review, Vol. 21, No. 1 pp. 1–11. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1353/sais.2001.0025]

48.

Thomas

and Thomas

(1994), ‘The Informal Economy and Local Economic Development Policy’, Local Government Studies, Vol. 20, No. 3 pp. 486–501. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1080/03003939408433740]

49.

Tokman

V. E.

(2001), ‘Integrating the Informal Sector into the Modernization Process’, SAIS Review, Vol. 21, No. 1 pp. 45–60. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1353/sais.2001.0027]

50.

Wagner

(2002), ‘Contrasting Images, Complementary Trajectories: Sociology, Visual Sociology and Visual Research’, Visual Studies, Vol. 17, No 2 pp. 160–171. [doi:://dx-doi-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/10.1080/1472586022000032233]