Street Vending & Illegality in Los Angeles

Please join us for a talk by Dr. Rocío Rosales (Associate Professor of Sociology & Vice Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Diversity, UC Irvine), author of Fruteros: Street Vending, Illegality, and Ethnic Community in Los Angeles.

Fruteros examines the social worlds of young Latino street vendors as they navigate the complexities of local and federal laws prohibiting both their presence and their work on street corners. Drawing on six years of fieldwork, Dr. Rosales offers a compelling portrait of their day-to-day struggles, examining how their paisano (hometown compatriot) social networks both help and exploit them. Much of the work on newly arrived Latino immigrants focuses on the ways in which their social networks allow them to survive. She argues that this understanding of ethnic community simplifies the complicated ways in which social networks and social capital work. Fruteros sheds light on those complexities and offers the concept of the “ethnic cage” to explain both the promise and pain of community.

Host or Publisher UCR Presley Center of Crime and Justice Studies