Reimagining the Latinx Experience in America  | Rocío Rosales, Fruteros: Street Vending, Illegality, and Ethnic Community in Los Angeles ♥ 

Rocío Rosales

Fruteros:

Street Vending, Illegality, and Ethnic Community in Los Angeles 

A presentation of the Reimagining the Latinx Experience in America book talk series

Fruteros: Street Vending, Illegality, and Ethnic Community in Los Angeles 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. Known as fruteros, they sell fruit salads out of pushcarts throughout Los Angeles and are part of the urban landscape.

Drawing on six years of fieldwork, Rocío Rosales offers a compelling portrait of their day-to-day struggles. In the process, she examines 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. Rosales 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.

Rocío Rosales is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Prior to this appointment she was a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego. She completed her PhD in Sociology at UCLA in 2012 and received her AB in Sociology (cum laude) with a certificate in Latin American Studies from Princeton University. Her research interests include international migration, immigrant and ethnic economies, race and ethnicity, law and society, Latinas/os in the US, and qualitative research methods. Her work has been funded by the American Philosophical Society (2011), John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation (2010), Ford Foundation (2005-2008), and Mellon Mays Foundation (2003-2012). Her research appears in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Ethnic and Racial Studies. Her book, Fruteros: Street Vending, Illegality, and Ethnic Community, was published by University of California Press.

Thursday, February 25, 2021

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Zoom details will be sent to those who register.

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The Reimagining the Latinx Experience in America book talk series is part of The Future of Latinos in the United States: Law, Opportunity, and Mobility initiative. This series will push attendees to think about the realities––past and present––of Latinx people in the U.S. and how the future may look different, including better access to justice, resources, and opportunities. UCI Law is thrilled to spotlight these scholars and to provide an opportunity to learn from them and host a dialogue on their important work!

January – April 2021

Select Thursdays, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.