|
|
|
 The peripheral economies that have emerged around popular artistic and cultural activities have had an important economic ripple effect, both locally and transnationally. Live performance venues, such as large theaters or summer festivals, support a related service economy that provides goods (food, such as elotes, a corn-on-the-cob snack, popsicles, t-shirts) and services (cell phones and calling cards) to those in attendance. This also is true of churches and a few non-profit organizations and schools hosting popular Mexican artistic and cultural activities. Some of these institutions now charge for access to their patrons. For example, some churches require vendors to buy a permit and pay a monthly fee to operate their carts on church property. These institutions have been besieged by businesses eager for access to their parishioners, and often heavily monitored businesses that wished to market their services. Vendors interviewed during the study reported supporting family members both in the U.S. and Mexico off their vending sales, evidence of the local and transnational impact of these peripheral economies.
Vendors provide more than just merchandise to the immigrant community. One owner of a licuado stand explained to a researcher how he had recently helped a pregnant diabetic woman get a sugar substitute. She had asked him where she could purchase artificial sweeteners like the ones he kept out—he usually had such things on hand his because his wife also had diabetes. According to the researcher’s field notes, “He figured she was new to town and was probably from some rancho in Mexico and didn’t know where to go for these supplies so he gave her (his) entire box.” This example suggests that Mexican vendors—whose vocation requires them to be highly accessible to the general public—might serve as important social network nodes for recent Mexican immigrants in the Chicago area as they dispense information and, in some cases, material resources, along with ice cream bars.
Continue to New Technologies >>
|
|
 |
