Consumer behavior question

Atravesando Fronteras/Border Crossings: A Critical Ethnographic Exploration of the Consumer Acculturation of Mexican Immigrants Author(s): Lisa Peñaloza Source: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Jun., 1994), pp. 32-54 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489739 Accessed: 07-01-2018 20:59 UTC

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Atravesando Fronteras/Border Crossings:

A Critical Ethnographic Exploration

of the Consumer Acculturation

of Mexican Immigrants

LISA PENALOZA*

This article critically examines the consumption experiences of Mexican immigrants in the United States. An empirical model of Mexican immigrant consumer acculturation is derived that consists of movement, translation, and adaptation processes leading to outcomes of assimilation, maintenance, resistance, and segregation. By drawing attention to the ways in which international movements of people, companies, and products intersect within existing subcultural relations, this research provides a more satisfactory account of the complex dynamic processes through which Mexican immigrants adapt to the consumer environment in the United States.

The most potent political force shaping the civilization of the future may well be one that has no place in any ideology: the sheer movement of people from one place to an- other. It is changing the face of the world, rendering old boundaries and policies ob- solete, and laying the foundation for a "new world order" quite unlike anything foreseen by any political leader or theorist-a boundary-less world in which people live where they choose. [WALTER TRUETT AN- DERSON 1992]

I n the United States of America, a nation born of colonial expansion and mass migration, immigrants

have played a key role in the formulation of the national culture and character. The assimilation, or melting pot model, in which people of many different nationalities, colors, and creeds would unite and form one nation, has been the hallmark of this country. In the social sci- ences, the degree to which immigrants have integrated into U.S. society has been of central concern for over

60 years (Park 1928), and the assimilation framework has been predominant in studies of consumer subcul- tures (see, e.g., O'Guinn and Faber 1986; Wallendorf and Reilly 1983).

Yet both similarities and differences are fundamental to the study of immigrant consumer behavior. The construct nation functions as a receptacle that "fills the void left in the uprooting of communities and kin" and "transfers the meaning of home and belonging across those distances and cultural differences that span the imagined community of the nation-people" (Bhabha 1990, p. 291). Yet there is a troublesome unity within the discourse' of the nation as the result of in-group and out-group distinctions that are "as much acts of affiliation and establishment as they are of disavowal, displacement, exclusion and cultural contestation" (Bhabha 1990, p. 5). Mexican immigrant consumer ac- culturation involves both this process of transference and in-group-out-group relations.

In many ways, Mexican immigrants in the United States are the nation's "other." Foreigners, people from another country and another culture who speak another language, Mexican immigrants are outside the "imag- ined community of the nation people" (Chavez 1991). Yet Mexican immigrants share a number of funda-

*Lisa Pefialoza is assistant professor, Department of Advertising, College-of Communications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham- paign, 119 Gregory Hall, 8 10 S. Wright St., Urbana, IL 61820. Support from the Consortium on Mexico and the United States at the Uni- versity of California, from California State University, San Bernar- dino, and from the University of Colorado is gratefully acknowledged. The author thanks R. Belk, R. Faber, M. Gilly, T. O'Guinn, B. Robles, A. Rubel, A. Venkatesh, M. Wallendorf, and the reviewers for their constructive comments. She also thanks her family and the partici- pants in this research and wishes them well in their search for the good life.

'The term "discourse" refers to narratives about the world (Aron- owitz 1988) and draws attention to the way a topic or issue is talked about, its disciplinary location(s), and the way it is defined in terms of the framing of research questions. Foucault (1977) spoke of dis- cursive practices as regimes of truth that both constituted and reg- ulated aspects of the social world.

? 1994 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc. * Vol. 21 0 June 1994 All rights reserved. 0093-5301/95/2101-0002$2.00

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CONSUMER ACCULTURATION 33

mental qualities with the U.S. mainstream population,2 many of whom are the grandsons, granddaughters, sons, and daughters of immigrants. Mexican immigrants are similar to previous immigrants who have come to the United States in search of economic opportunity and to join other family members. They share aspirations for the future and they work hard toward attaining a better way of life, qualities referred to as the "American way."

Despite these similarities, there are a number of dif- ferences that set Mexican migration apart from other migratory movements: the geographical proximity of Mexico, the historical and continued presence of people of Mexican origin in the southwestern United States, constant reinforcing migration, frequent trips between Mexico and the United States, and Spanish-language usage (Gomez-Quin-ones 1984; McCarthy and Valdez 1985). The influence of these factors on the consumer acculturation processes of Mexican immigrants in the United States is discussed in this article.

I began this research with the question, How do Mex- ican immigrants learn to buy products in the United States? Drawing theoretical guidance from the literature on consumer socialization, acculturation, and cross- cultural consumer behavior, I developed an a priori model of immigrant consumer acculturation to guide this research. In the a priori model Mexican immigrants of various demographic and psychographic character- istics come to the United States, where they are influ- enced by dual sets of agents aligned with their culture of origin and of immigration. Through processes of consumer learning, they exhibit consumption patterns associated with the existing culture, their previous cul- ture, or a third, hybrid combination of the two cultures.

A critical ethnographic design was employed in this research. The design consisted of three components: I examined in detail several field sites, conducted inter- views with 23 Mexican immigrants from 14 households, and documented my observations and experiences in the research process. During the course of the study the a priori model was modified to render it more consistent with the ethnographic data. As I spoke with informants, I learned of key similarities and differences between their previous consumption patterns in Mexico and their current consumption patterns in the United States. They spoke of difficulties with the language, the cur- rency, and social relations. As I accompanied infor- mants and spent time at the field sites in the United States, I began to realize that the environment played a critical role in the acculturation process, in that mar-

keting activities targeting the Latino market in the United States, with its annual expenditures of $188.9 billion (Fonseca 1992), influenced Mexican immigrants' consumption patterns.

With these data, I had to rethink the nature of Mex- ican immigrant consumer acculturation. Gradually, the theoretical framework guiding this research shifted in emphasis from the socialization orientation that pre- dominates the consumer learning literature to the transcultural orientation that was more consistent with the data. The constructs consumer movement, trans- lation, and adaptation more accurately described Mex- ican immigrants' consumer acculturation processes.

Regarding outcomes of the consumer acculturation process, there were some paradoxes. Mexican immi- grant informants assimilated consumption patterns as- sociated with U.S. consumer culture, yet they also maintained aspects of the consumption patterns they had acquired in Mexico. At times their consumption patterns suggested assimilation, yet the products and services were used in ways that maintained ties to their previous culture. Informants also expressed concerns about getting caught up in U.S. consumer culture, and they actively resisted its pull, as well as the pull of their previous culture. The majority of informants inhabited sites in the United States that were physically and so- cially segregated from the mainstream.

Crossing borders is a central theme in this research. Mexican immigrants initiated the consumer accultur- ation process by crossing the national border between the United States and Mexico, yet, once here, subcul- tural relations came into play. Intranational boundaries within the United States that delineated Latino and Anglo "market segments" were evident. Yet transna- tional similarities characteristic of a borderless world were also evident in that Mexican immigrants gravitated to physical sites in the United States where there were other Mexican people and a thriving Mexican consumer culture.

Marketers, like Mexican immigrants, were key cul- tural agents whose activities transcended subcultural and national boundaries and who influenced immigrant consumer acculturation processes by stimulating cul- tural contact. Segmentation strategies targeting Mexican immigrants in the United States reproduced subcultural borders in the United States, just as international mar- keting strategies lowered national boundaries between the United States and Mexico.

INTERDISCIPLINARY FOUNDATIONS OF CONSUMER ACCULTURATION

The term "consumer acculturation" is defined as the general process of movement and adaptation to the consumer cultural environment in one country by per- sons from another country. In approaching this topic, this article draws from and contributes to studies of consumer subcultures and consumer learning in the

2The terms "mainstream," "Anglo," and "white" are used inter- changeably to refer to the dominant cultural subgroup within the United States. Currently, whites represent 80.3 percent of the U.S. population (U.S. Department of Commerce 1992b). It is important to note that, while Mexican Americans are officially tabulated in this mainstream, we are considered a minority subculture in the United States.

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34 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

consumer behavior literature, studies of assimilation in anthropology and sociology, and studies of consumer culture in cultural studies.

Consumer researchers have long noted differences between the consumption patterns of Mexican Americans3 and Anglos in the United States. For ex- ample, Sturdivant (1969) reported that Mexican Amer- icans preferred to shop where Spanish was spoken. Hoyer and Deshpande (1982) found that Mexican Americans were more likely to buy the brands their parents bought and brands they perceived to be more prestigious than were Anglos. Saegert, Hoover, and Hilger (1985) reported that Mexican Americans were more price conscious and preferred familiar stores to a greater degree than did Anglos.

Researchers turned to the literature on assimilation to explain these differences. The assimilation frame- work, which examines the degree to which a subcultural group becomes similar to the dominant culture in a nation over time (Gordon 1964), has become the dom- inant conceptual scheme guiding studies of consumer subcultures. Many of these studies have divided Latinos into groups on the basis of their similarity to the Anglo subculture in the United States. For example, O'Guinn and Faber (1985) developed a scale of consumer ac- culturation. In other studies, more assimilated Mexican Americans were found to use less Spanish-language media (O'Guinn and Meyer 1984), to be more inclined to identify themselves as Hispanic (Deshpande, Hoyer, and Donthu 1986), and to accord less importance to product attributes than did less assimilated Mexican Americans (Faber, O'Guinn, and McCarty 1987).

While these studies have documented gradations in differences between the consumption behaviors of An- glos and Latinos, there are some noteworthy limitations. First, researchers have not investigated the nature of the assimilation process, although they have indirectly addressed the process in attempting to explain their findings. For example, Wallendorf and Reilly (1983) compared the consumption patterns of Mexicans in Mexico to Mexican Americans and Anglo-Americans in the southwestern United States and noted that for some products such as meats, white bread, sugared ce- reals, and caffeinated products Mexican Americans' consumption patterns measured well beyond those of Anglo-Americans or Mexicans. The authors concluded that assimilation was not a simple linear progression and attributed their results to a time lag effect in which Mexican immigrants tried to assimilate the consump- tion patterns of Anglo Americans but assimilated an

outdated version that did not reflect contemporary health concerns.

Second, previous work has conflated the study of im- migrant and subcultural consumers. While subcultural consumers may reside next to immigrants, as in the case of Latinos, their consumer adaptation is markedly different as the result of international migration. There have been few studies of immigrant consumers. One exception is Mehta and Belk's (1991) examination of the favorite possessions of Indian immigrants in the United States. Many of these items were brought from India and served to symbolically affirm ties to home- land, family, and culture, which was very important in a land where their culture was less prevalent. The maintenance of Indian culture took place primarily in homes, religious and social clubs, specialty stores, and national publications.

Mexican immigrants differ from Indian immigrants in their social class, geographical proximity, and mi- gration history. Whereas Indian immigrants' consumer acculturation processes reflect their upper- to middle- class background and relatively small numbers, Mexi- can immigration has been characterized as primarily working-class,4 and represents the single largest group of people legally admitted to the United States. From 1971 to 1990, 438,700 Indian immigrants were legally admitted to the United States, representing 3.7 percent of the 11.8 million legal admissions, while 2.3 million Mexican immigrants were legally admitted to the United States during this same time, representing 23.1 percent of legal admissions (U.S. Department of Com- merce 1992a). In addition, the southwestern United States was once part of Mexico and to this day has a strong Mexican cultural tradition (Acufia 1988; Massey 1987). In the state of California, Mexican Americans represent one-third of the population (Strategy Research Corporation 1991). The presence of Mexican Ameri- cans and a discernible Latino consumer culture in the United States may offer structural reinforcement to Mexican immigrant consumers, which would enable them to continue consumption patterns acquired in Mexico.

Finally, previous research has not investigated the influence of marketing strategies on this process, al- though O'Guinn and Meyer (1984) suggested that Spanish-language media may offer Latinos a validation of their ethnicity and cultural heritage. By targeting La- tinos with specially tailored products and services, marketers not only offer Mexican immigrants a poten- tially powerful validation of their culture, but also may facilitate the maintenance of consumption patterns as- sociated with Mexican culture in the United States.

Assimilation studies have been based on a modernist view of the nation that was socially integrated and ho- mogeneous with discrete national boundaries and cul-

3Mexican Americans include Mexican immigrants and people born in the United States of Mexican descent. Of the 24.9 million Latinos in the United States, 58.9 percent are Mexican American (Strategy Research 1991, p. 59). The term Latino is used in this article to refer to persons from Central and South America. the Caribbean, and Spain, because it is the preferred term of members of this group (de la Garza 1992).

4There has been a brain drain in the past decade (Vernez and Ronfelt 1991).

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CONSUMER ACCULTURATION 35

tures. These are not accurate characteristics of the con- temporary United States (Jackson 1992; Lamphere 1992), nor was this an accurate characterization at the time of the classic assimilation studies.5 Marketers' ac- commodation of cultural difference in the United States may well be linked to its increasing heterogeneity and diversity.

In conceptualizing consumer acculturation processes, I turned to the literature on consumer socialization be- cause it explicitly focuses on processes of consumer learning (Moschis 1987). Modeling, reinforcement, and social interaction were identified as the central behav- ioral processes through which consumer skills, knowl- edge, and behaviors were transferred by acculturation agents, which include family, friends, and institutions, such as schools and churches.

The extrapolation of this work to a transnational context required modifications, however. Immigrants may have two conflicting sets of consumer acculturation agents: one corresponding to their culture of origin and one corresponding to the existing culture. Previous work has suggested that minority consumers may experience the competing pulls of two cultures (O'Guinn and Faber 1986). Further, consumer acculturation processes are not limited to the actions of immigrants; also important are the ways immigrants are viewed and treated by the U.S. mainstream (Berry 1980). Thus, in addition to the importance of immigrants' attitudes toward the culture of origin and immigration, the degree to which the im- migrant group was accepted by the existing culture was anticipated to play an important role in their accultur- ation.

The previously mentioned dual pull, situated in the context of mainstream/immigrant social relations, po- tentially impacts immigrant consumer acculturation processes and outcomes in several ways. Mexican im- migrants may internalize the stigma of being main- stream's "other." They may denounce themselves and

their culture, decreasinA their differences by assimilating products in an attempt to fit in. They may ignore or reject pressure to assimilate, instead cultivating social' structures within which aspects of their previous culture are maintained (Gordon 1964; Padilla 1980). They may reject aspects of the culture of origin and/or immigra- tion (Berry 1990), and they may express combinations of these strategies.

On the basis of a critical review of this literature, I developed a conceptual model to guide this research (Fig. 1). I use the term consumer acculturation rather than assimilation in an attempt to advance this research stream beyond the question of the degree to which im- migrants validate American culture. The model begins with individual differences likely to be factors differ- entiating immigrants' acculturation processes. Demo- graphic differences in age, social class, and gender were

anticipated to be relevant, along with Spanish- and En- glish-language ability, recency of arrival, ethnic identity, and the nature of the environment. Two groups of con- sumer acculturation agents that consist of family, friends, media, and social and religious institutions were featured in the model, one aligned with the culture of origin, and the other aligned with U.S. culture. Con- sumer acculturation processes included modeling, re- inforcement, and social interaction. In regard to out- comes of the consumer acculturation process, Mexican immigrants were anticipated to either assimilate U.S. culture, maintain their previous culture, or express a hybrid combination of the two cultures.

ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

Ethnographic research techniques were selected for this research because of their long-standing tradition of studying "other" cultures and cultural phenomena (Clifford 1988). In recent years ethnographic studies have made significant headway in the field of consumer research as researchers have gone to the field to inves- tigate consumers' experiences and to explore the social significance of consumption (see, e.g., Arnould 1989; Belk 1991; Belk, Wallendorf, and Sherry 1988; Hill 1991).

This research is positioned in the emerging tradition of critical ethnography (Clifford and Marcus 1986; Rosaldo 1989; Thomas 1993). Critical ethnography, like more traditional forms of ethnography, is characterized by the use of participant observation data collection techniques and interpretive analysis. It differs in its concern with issues of subjectivity and relationships of power affecting both the researcher(s) and those under investigation. Concerns of critical ethnographers in- clude (1) relations between the researcher and the re- searched, (2) the agency of those being investigated, that is, how people were treated during the course of the study, how they were represented in the written account, and whether the study incorporated their interests, and (3) the importance of situating our work within the global economy.

Researcher Subjectivity

Let me begin by saying I am not a Mexican immi- grant, I am a tenth-generation Mexican American from San Antonio, Texas. I differ from informants in my color, gender, class, and residence in relation to that imaginary line, the United States-Mexico border. In my family I am called giiera, a Spanish term for women who can pass as white. Because I do not physically re- semble Mexican Americans, I am seldom identified as a member of this group, yet this is the group with which I identify. I grew up in an Anglo neighborhood and learned Spanish in graduate school.

I approached this work with the desire to access and portray the consumption patterns and adaptation ex-

5See Glazer and Moynihan (1963) and Gordon (1964) for discus- sions of ethnicity as a persistently divisive feature of American life.

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36 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

FIGURE 1

AN A PRIORI MODEL OF CONSUMER ACCULTURATION

Antecedent Consumer Consumer Consumer Variables Acculturation Acculturation Acculturation

Agents Processes Outcome

Dimensions

1. Demographic variables

Culture of Origin

Family Assimilate

Friends Culture

2. Language Media of Origin Spanish/English Institutions

3. Recency of _ Modeling Maintain Reinforcement Culture Social Interaction of Immigration

Identity amily Express l Friends Hybrid Media Culture

5. Environmental Institutions/ factors

periences of Mexican immigrants from their perspec- tive. I went to the field to investigate the environment inhabited by Mexican immigrants and to learn what their lives were like in the United States. For the first six months, I found it difficult to establish rapport. In- hibited by doubts about my appearance and my ability to speak Spanish, I kept my distance, observing and cataloging the people, the stores, and the merchandise. I was mostly ignored, except by those who offered as- sistance in the stores or those who whistled at me or offered to sell me illegal merchandise. After a few months I began to initiate conversations, to meet peo- ple, and to request interviews. The interviews provided further opportunities to develop rapport. Speaking Spanish was instrumental but did not ensure trustwor- thiness. I had to prove that my intentions were earnest, which I did by sustained contact, focused interest, and by doing things for informants, such as providing trans- portation and translations.

Evidence of increasing trust included referrals and invitations to accompany informants in their daily lives. Alma, Rene, Maria Inez, Carolina, Gloria, and Rolando allowed me to see them in various encounters with the new culture. On these occasions my involvement was not limited to observation; I took an active role where

appropriate, conversing, eating, praying, and playing. This work has been challenging and rewarding. During its course my experiences ranged from awe and respect at informants' courage and hope for the future, to anger at the inferior treatment I observed and heard them relate, to amusement and joy at their accomplishments, their stories, and the times we shared. I reexamined my relation to my culture, noting that my claims to our common cultural heritage gave me an advantage in es- tablishing trust yet invoked in me a sense of responsi- bility to represent informants accurately and to integrate their concerns.

Emergent Design

The research design was adapted during the course of the study (Belk et al. 1988). This involved an iterative process of reading and conceptualizing the "issues," collecting and analyzing data, reconceptualizing, col- lecting and analyzing additional data, writing, and re- writing. As previously mentioned, I began this work by developing an a priori model. I then went to the field to become familiar with the marketplace. After two months of recording field observations of people, stores, and merchandise, I began to develop and pretest the

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CONSUMER ACCULTURATION 37

interview guide. In the three pretests, informants jumped spatially and temporally as they spoke of their lives on this side and that side of the border between the United States and Mexico. I modified the interview guide to distinguish more carefully people's previous consumption patterns in Mexico from their current consumption patterns in the United States. Questions were added to investigate more directly behavioral pro- cesses linking the two consumption patterns. I went back to the field for more fieldwork and to initiate for- mal interviews.

The first phase of interviews began in the fifth month of fieldwork and consisted of six households; the re- maining eight interviews were conducted over the next year and a half of fieldwork. Interviews averaged an hour and 15 minutes to complete and all interviews were transcribed verbatim. In analyzing these interviews together with the field data, I began to appreciate the many differences and similarities between the United States and Mexico and the influences of marketing strategies and others' immigration on acculturation processes.

Over time, field activities and objectives shifted from observation to participation, from describing the sites, agents, and activities to accompanying informants as they negotiated the new culture. Participant-observation activities with informants included sharing meals, going shopping, going to the beach, making a court appear- ance, aiding a release from the hospital, and conversing with an employer, legal counsel, and several hospital administrators. In addition, informants invited me to some of their cultural activities. I attended church with Rene, went to the rodeo with Maria and Gloria and their families, and celebrated cinco de mayo (May 5) and dieciseis de septiembre (September 16) festivals.6 -These activities were instrumental in providing me with a sense of their values and of what being a Mexican immigrant in the United States entailed.

Mexican Immigrant Informants

Mexican immigrants are not a known population in the United States.7 According to the 1990 census, 13.5

million persons reported being of Mexican descent or origin in the United States (U.S. Department of Com- merce 1992b). These figures do not include undocu- mented immigration, which has been estimated to ac- count for two-thirds of all Mexican immigration since 1980 (Warren and Passel 1987). In the state of Califor- nia, where this study was conducted, estimates of the number of Mexican people range from 2 million to 4 million persons (McCarthy and Valdez 1985; Strategy Research Corporation 1991).

Informants were purposely selected, with variety and contrast used as criteria (Miles and Huberman 1984), to yield a varied perspective on the experiences of Mex- ican immigrant consumers in the United States. I met some informants while doing fieldwork. I met Melinda and Lucia on separate occasions when I stopped to buy from the grocery vans where they worked in the neigh- borhoods. I met Emir while walking down the street, and I met Rene on the bus. Referrals were also impor- tant in enabling me to identify and access informants with target characteristics. I met Victor and Graciela with help from one of the local retailers. Rene, a key informant, introduced me to Carolina and her husband Alberto, Maria Inez, Jorge, Sra. Marta, and Sr. Adan. As a result, subgroups of informants reflected their ac- tual social support networks.

I interviewed 23 individuals from 14 households, at times speaking with multiple members of the house- holds, those who were present at the time and agreed to do the interview. Informants varied in their age, gen- der, social class, English- and Spanish-language ability, recency of arrival, and household composition (Table 1).8 Eight households were interviewed entirely in the Spanish language, four predominantly in Spanish, and two predominantly in the English language, as deter- mined by informants' preferences. Sixteen informants were interviewed in their homes, five informants were interviewed at their workplace, one informant was in- terviewed at the home of his friends, and one interview took place at a local fast-food restaurant.

In the interviews informants were asked to describe their experiences crossing borders and getting settled, and to describe and compare their consumption pat- terns and the consumer environments in the United States and in Mexico. Questions regarding consumption of food, clothing, the telephone, an automobile, finan- cial services, and media were included to address a wide array of market offerings (i.e., durable and nondurable products and services). Questions regarding social ac- tivities were used to assess informants' contact with Anglo-Americans and how they were treated by others in the United States.

6Cinco de mayo commemorates the victory of Mexican troops led by General Ignacio Zaragosa over an occupying army of French troops led by Emperor Maximilian Hapsburg in Puebla, Mexico, on May 5, 1862. While this holiday is seldom celebrated in Mexico, it is cel- ebrated by Mexican Americans in the United States and receives tremendous corporate sponsorship. Dieciseis de septiembre com- memorates Father Miguel Hidalgo's oration, the Grito de Dolores, on September 16, 1810, which marked the beginning of the Mexican Revolution for independence from Spain. This holiday is celebrated in both Mexico and the United States (Acufia 1987, 1988).

7There are currently no accurate, verifiable data on the total number of Mexican immigrants currently in the United States or on those who enter this country every year. All figures are estimates because

of a number of data collection problems, which include multiple trips between the United States and Mexico, fear of deportation, mis- trust of social scientists, illiteracy, use of Spanish language, and in- consistent use of terminology (Penialoza and Gilly 1986).

8All informant names appearing in this work are pseudonyms in order to maintain informants' confidentiality and anonymity.

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38 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

TABLE 1

INFORMANT CHARACTERISTICS

Household

and Mexican Arrival Years in U.S. household pseudonyms Sex Age Education residence datea Mexico U.S. occupation compositionb Language ability

1: Alma F 40 Graduate school Rural 1966 17 High school 2, female roommates Bilingual teacher

2: Graciela F 35 Universityc Urban 1978 25 Travel agent 6, extended family, Bilingual boarder

3: Victor M 33 Three years of Urban 1989 18 Travel agent 4, male roommates Bilingual college

4: Emir M 24 Sixth grade Rural 1985 20 Yard worker 5, male roommates Spanish 5: Genaro M 40 High school Urban 1978 17 Manager, 1, single Spanish

fast-food (some English) restaurant

6: Ignacio M 26 High school Urban 1988 24 Cosmetology 5, female and male Spanish Enrique M 24 Veterinary Urban 1988 22 Cosmetology roommates Josefina F 20 Business school Urban 1987 18 Secretary Samanta F 27 University' Urban 1987 25 Teacher Joel M 21 High school Urban 1987 19 Student

7: Melinda F 22 Sixth grade Rural 1989 15 Grocery van 7, two extended Spanish attendant families

8: Chela F 34 University Urban 1989 25 Gas station 4, nuclear family Bilingual cashier

9: Rene M 45 First grade Rural 1988 42 Woodworker 9, one extended, one Spanish Miguel M 18 High school Rural 1990 17 Student nuclear family

10: Lucia F 11 Sixth grade Rural 1987 8 Grocery van 9, nuclear family Bilingual attendant

1 1: Maria Inez F 36 Sixth grade Urban 1987 32 Seamstress 9, two nuclear Spanish Gloria F 28 Eighth grade Urban 1990 27 Seamstress families, boarder Rolando M 30 Sixth grade Urban 1990 29 Welder

12: Marta F 58 Third grade Rural 1989 58 None 9, extended family Spanish Adan M 60 Second grade

13: Carolina F 26 University Urban 1987 20 Woodworker 4, nuclear family, Spanish Alberto M 25 High school Urban 1985 19 Welder boarder (some English)

14: Jorge M 40 Ninth grade Rural 1988 39 Mechanic 12, three families Spanish

aWhen they came to live in the United States. bTotal number of persons, type of household. 'Graduate.

Field Settings

Field sites consisted of an urban shopping street, two neighborhoods where informants lived, and informants' dwellings. These particular sites were selected on the basis of four factors: (1) the presence of a large number of Mexican immigrants, (2) an urban area, since 88 percent of Latinos reside in urban areas in the United States (Strategy Research Corporation 1991), (3) the centrality of these sites to the lives of Mexican immi- grants in the United States, and (4) the existence of a wide variety of commercial ventures and activities.

Objectives varied by site. In the neighborhoods, I fo- cused on their density, the type of dwellings, the people in the area, and their activities. In the dwellings, I ex- amined furnishings and personal space. At the mar- ketplace site I investigated the types of stores, their clientele, the products and services offered, and mar- keting practices. In addition to these main field sites, I accompanied informants to peripheral field sites that included two churches, the beach, a rod&, the Califor-

nia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the county courthouse, and local cultural festivals.

Data Analysis

The output of data collection efforts consisted of maps of the field sites, 300 photographs, 50 artifacts (brochures, business cards, flyers, and local newspapers), and 839 pages of text. This included a set of field notes (311 handwritten pages compiled from 223 hours of field observation), transcriptions of the tape-recorded interviews (141 pages typed), and a journal of personal reflections (387 handwritten pages).

Field notes and journal entries were divided into data units (i.e., separate pieces of information) and then classified in an iterative, hierarchical process that in- volved first dividing the units by data type (e.g., stores at the site, Latinos at the site, incidents, ongoing activ- ities, events) and then categorizing units within each data type. Interview summaries were developed as a data reduction technique to facilitate comparisons

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CONSUMER ACCULTURATION 39

across types of informants. Data were analyzed by means of coding patterns and themes with use of the constant comparative method (Glaser and Strauss 1967). Findings were triangulated across data types and sources.

Credibility assessment of this research consisted of member checking and memoing with informants and academic colleagues (Wallendorf and Belk 1989). This involved my providing all or part of the data and interim research findings to informants and to academic col- leagues during the project. The task for informants was to assess whether the findings were consistent with their experience; colleagues were to ascertain the logic of the analytical categories and assess whether the findings were well grounded in the data.

ETHNOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT

Immigration Experiences

Informants were exposed to the idea of living in the United States before setting foot on its soil. In Mexico, stories abounded regarding life in the United States, and seeing people go to the United States to live was a common occurrence. Noted Sr. Adan, "Alla hay sen- timientos que mucha gente va a E.U., esta aceptada" [There are feelings that many people go to the U.S., it is accepted].9 Yet, at the same time they were told that jobs that paid better than in Mexico were available in the United States; they were also told that jobs were difficult to find and they had to speak English. The sto- ries changed with changes in the U.S. economy.

For informants, positive expectations regarding their lives in the United States served as powerful motivators. Reasons given for moving to the United States included to take advantage of greater job availability and buying .power, to reunite family, and, for those with children, to further their children's education. We came "para trabajar y comprar" [to work and to buy], explained Carolina. Chela and Gloria noted that, while it was cheaper to live in Mexico, it was also more difficult for people there to "salir adelante" [get ahead, have dis- cretionary funds for spending or saving]. Jorge recalled seeing people return to Mexico from the United States with more possessions than they left with and expected that he, too, would be able to do so. The difference in earnings in the two countries is graphically described by Victor: "Para ganar una persona 250 mil pesos, o sea 100 dolares en Mexico, tiene que trabajar un mes, cuando aqui cien dolares en tres dias o dos dias se gana.

Por eso, es que hay un correria para venir, L no?" [To earn 250,000 pesos, or $ 100 in Mexico, one has to work a month, when here one earns $100 in two or three days. That is why so many people come].

Not all informants' expectations or experiences were positive. Miguel expected to see only Anglo-Americans in the United States but was comforted to see many Mexican people on his arrival. Informants' two greatest fears were that they would not find a job and did not know what would happen to them.

Yet, while all informants were enthusiastic about their move to the United States, their feelings about leaving Mexico are best described as bittersweet. They had left family and friends behind and related sorrow at these losses. They also reported missing their lan- guage, food, holiday celebrations, and, as Victor put it, "la tranquilidad, la seguridad en el aspecto de que uno podria caminar conociendo la mayor parte de la gente" [the tranquility, the security in the sense that one can walk around knowing most of the people]. Their sorrow was combined with the uncertainty and difficulty of the transition.

Informants moved to the United States legally and illegally. Four informants came to the United States by airplane, 10 by bus, and four by private car. Samanta came by train for a vacation that she has extended in- definitely. Jorge, Sra. Marta and her husband Adan, and Melinda and her two sons, ages 4 and 6, came over with the help of a coyote (guide). As was customary, they paid the going rate of $300 per person after having arrived in the United States. The coyotes' services var- ied: Jorge, Sra. Marta, and her husband Adan were brought to the door of family in the United States, while Melinda and her sons were merely assisted across the border. Six informants reported multiple trips to the United States.

Mexican immigration was described as "una cadena" [a chain] by Genaro, who explained that one man comes, then sends for his brother, who sends for his brother, who sends for his wife. All informants knew someone already living in the United States when they arrived, but that didn't necessarily mean they were helped by these people, although most were. Victor an- grily recalled a door slammed in his face, "Eran mis amigos en Mexico, pero aqui no son mis amigos" [They were my friends in Mexico, but in the U.S. they are not my friends].

The chainlike social network Genaro described was consistent with other informants' experiences. Two general patterns of migration were noted; informants came to the United States as a part of a group or alone. Those who made the journey alone were reunited with family members, friends, or others from Mexico who are now in the United States. Soon after making their separate trips to the United States, Alberto was joined by his wife, Carolina, and Rolando was joined by Maria Inez. Chela and Graciela, who had come to the United States as children with their mother and aunt, respec- tively, returned to Mexico only to come back to the United States years later with their husbands and chil- dren. Once in the United States, Emir, a solo traveler, joined up with four others from his hometown in Mex-

9Excerpts of interviews appearing in this paper reflect the language informants used. Translations of Spanish language excerpts are in- dicated by brackets and were done by the author with the help of bilingual informants.

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40 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

ico. In a similar way, Ignacio, Joel, Josefina, Samanta, and Enrique formed another household in the United States.

Social networks of family and friends were an integral part of the consumer acculturation process. These net- works served as coping social structures in and through which informants adapted to the consumer environ- ment in the United States., They facilitated the physical move and the transition by providing key sources of information and support, which ranged from advice to money and places to stay.

On arrival, informants who could not speak or un- derstand English experienced tremendous problems with the language. For example, in the following passage Genaro relates how his first attempts to use the tele- phone were thwarted because he did not speak English:

Queria marcar de a , y me habia dicho que costaba quince centavos el telefono-hace pocos afios- y puse el dime, el nickel, y era larga distancia, y la op- eradora me decia que pusiera mas dinero, y yo colgaba

el telefono, y iotra vez! Esto hacia como cinco, seis veces, hasta que le pregunte a una senora que si ese telefono no funcionaba, y esa sefiora me dijo que si, y salio, y me dijo que adonde yo queria marcar, entonces, yo le dije que a Los Angeles, y me dijo que era larga distancia, y yo no sabia nada de ingles, y por eso no entendia."

[I wanted to call from and I had been told that it cost fifteen cents to use the phone-this was several years ago-and I put in a dime, a nickel, and it was long distance, and the operator told me to put in more money, and I hung up the telephone and tried again! This hap- pened like five or six times, until I asked a woman if this telephone was working, and she said yes, and then asked me where I wanted to call, and I said -and she told me it was a long distance call, and because I did not understand English, I did not understand.]

Of the 23 informants, 19 were monolingual Spanish speakers. Their language difficulties were lessened in many areas because of the availability of Spanish lan- guage materials. Despite English's having been legislated as the official language in the state of California, Span- ish-language driving tests, ballots, and income tax forms were readily available at city and county agencies. Fur- ther, even at sites where English was prevalent, such as the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the courthouse, and the hospital, Spanish translators were available. Nevertheless, all 19 said they wanted to learn English because it was a big advantage in the workforce. However, because of work, family commitments, and transportation problems, only Genaro, Rene, and Me- linda reported attending English classes.

Confronting The New Consumer Environment

Housing. In Mexico, most informants inhabited single-family dwellings. Informants from rural areas in

Mexico described their homes in Mexico as having dirt floors, with no electricity or running water. They raised crops, tended a few animals, and shopped for food daily by walking to nearby small corner markets. Those from urban areas were used to cosmopolitan surroundings and reported shopping at department stores and in the mercados (markets comprised of shops and stands of various sizes). In rural and urban areas in Mexico prod- ucts were also sold door-to-door and on the street.

The neighborhoods where informants lived in the United States featured a dense array of duplexes and apartment buildings situated in between older houses and condominiums. One or two vans were a common sight parked along the curb or circulating through the neighborhoods, announcing their arrival with loud Latin music. These "convenience stores on wheels" (Fig. 2) offered particular arrays of food and household items-dried beans and rice, tortillas, chilies, fresh fruits and vegetables, instant coffee, and personal grooming supplies.

In these colonias (neighborhoods), the dominant presence of Mexican people and their use of the Spanish language were evident. Small groups of young and older men typically congregated outside the buildings and in between the cars parked along the street. The cars were in various states of disarray, and there were bars on many of the windows and doors of the buildings. Chil- dren played on patches of dirt for lawns, and tomato and chili plants grew in between brilliantly colored flowers in the gardens.

Informants' household furnishings varied consider- ably. Carolina and Alberto had a matching sofa and love seat, coffee table, entertainment center, and a new dining room set in their new condominium. In Rene's apartment a detached seat from a car served the dual purpose of sofa by day and bed by night. A full-size bed served a similar purpose in the apartment where Maria Inez and Gloria and their families lived. Household adornments included family photographs, children's drawings, religious crosses and candles, promotional calendars from local retail outlets, and plastic flower arrangements atop lace doilies.

Informants established their households in the United States in a highly transitory manner influenced by fam- ily and friendship ties, the viability of their jobs, and trips to Mexico. With the exception of Graciela, Car- olina, and Alberto, all informants lived in rented dwell- ings in the United States. It was typical that informants shared less space with more people than in their homes in Mexico, which partially explains why so many people were observed in the neighborhoods. Graciela, Melinda, and Sra. Marta lived in extended-family households. Chela, Carolina, and Lucia lived in households com- posed of nuclear families with children, and Alma, Vic- tor, Emir, and Ignacio shared housing with roommates.

There were multiple families in three of the other households. Jorge shared a two-bedroom apartment with three families; he explained that one family oc-

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CONSUMER ACCULTURATION 41

FIGURE 2

A MOBILE GROCERY STORE

..........

F.i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .......

cupied each of the bedrooms, and the other family slept in the living area. Two nuclear families lived in Maria Inez's apartment, each with a full-size refrigerator in the kitchen, and a single man rented one of two beds in the living room. Rene shared a two-bedroom apart- ment with two families; he kept his belongings in the hall closet and slept on a couch in the living area. Only Genaro lived alone.

The household served as an important social context and agent of consumer acculturation. Here informants displayed artifacts of Mexican and U.S. culture. The household also brought together individuals of various characteristics, resources and skills, who provided each other with social support and some tensions. House- holds composed of mixed levels of English facilitated their members' efforts to learn English; those whose members spoke only Spanish reinforced the sole use of Spanish. Chela reported tensions in her family because her teenage daughter resented being less able to speak English than her four-year-old sister. Because these children learned English at school and were generally better able to use English than their parents, they were relied on to help negotiate U.S. culture-which they resented at times. Finally, whether informants' families were united in the United States influenced the length of their stay. Informants whose families were in Mexico

gave that as one of the reasons they returned to Mexico. During the two. and one-half year period in which this work was done, seven households moved; three returned to Mexico.

Shopping. At the marketplace site two-hour parking spaces lined the urban shopping street, a four-block plaza of various types of retail stores and city offices, including the Mexican consulate. There were jewelry and pawn shops, clothing and shoe stores, restaurants, and two discount stores. Some of the retail establish- ments were from Mexico, including a bank, two shoe stores and two electronics stores. One store featured Mexican curios (souvenirs). Many of the products were also from Mexico and included cassette tapes, foods, soaps, and laundry detergents. Services offered included travel arrangements, money orders, formal-dress and tuxedo rental, rental videotapes, photocopies, income tax preparation, and check cashing. Here, retail em- ployees handing out flyers competed with sidewalk dis- plays of merchandise and street vendors for the money and attention of the many people walking by. Spanish was the lingua franca. Store names and advertisements were prevalent in Spanish, although many signs were bilingual and some were in English.

In describing their first shopping experience in the United States, informants noted the larger quantity,

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42 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

greater variety, and lower prices. Alberto recalled, "Me sentia como que iba entrado a una pelicula, ,no? Y yo iba hacer el protogonista y yo iba a los Estados Unidos y yo iba hacer lo que queria . . . y a mi me sentia bien, es bonito conocer un pais tan fuerte, tan potente, ,no? tan avanzado y tantas cosas" [I felt like I'd entered a movie, you know. And I was the main character and I'd come to the United States, and I could do what I wanted. I felt good. It is good to know a country so strong and powerful, you know, so advanced with so many things]. Maria Inez described the merchandise as beautiful, while Marta noted how clean and orderly the stores were.

At the marketplace, the problems informants expe- rienced with language were rare. Not knowing English was of little consequence for informants shopping at the field sites because most retailers accommodated their Spanish-speaking customers by maintaining a Spanish-speaking workforce. This is not to suggest that language was not an issue in Mexican immigrants' con- sumer acculturation. Inability to speak English affected informants' selection of stores and purchase and use of products and services in the United States. It precluded them from using some products and services and more favorably disposed them to shop at stores, such as those at the site, where employees spoke Spanish and that carried products and services they had purchased and used in Mexico.

Informants also reported experiencing difficulties with U.S. currency that were not so easily overcome. The exchange rate was 3,000 Mexican pesos to the dollar at the time of this research. In the following passage, Joel related his initial experience with U.S. currency: "No conocia la moneda, el cambio, y entonces, para mi, era muy difilcil cuando me decia son tanto por tanto, a mi, me parecia muy barato realmente, porque decia dos cinquenta, uno cincuenta, cincuenta centavos. 6Que es eso, no? Porque en Mexico se habla de miles" [I was not familiar with the money, the change, so for me it was very difficult when someone would say how much things cost, prices appeared really cheap to me, because they would say $2.50, $1.50, 50 cents. What is this? Because in Mexico one speaks in thousands].

Gloria reported problems shopping and taking the bus because she was confused by U.S. coins, and re- mained so a year after her arrival. Exasperation was heavy in her voice as she said, "In Mexico, well, I don't know, the money goes in order," and, "Who would think that the little one (a dime) would be worth more than a nickel?" When her heuristic assigning greater value to larger coins failed, she concluded that it was "un sistema bien estrania" [a very strange system].

In the next passage, where he recalls a trip to a large shopping mall in the United States, Joel articulates how he learned to decipher the new code. He established a standard of conversion in terms of the amount of time he would have to work at his pay rate in the United States to buy a particular item, yet added that this

translation was not really meaningful to him until he had begun to save some of his earnings and had gained an understanding of the cost of living in the United States. "Este mall era muy grande . . . , entonces entra uno y se queda fascinado de ver todo eso. . . y, a mi, se me ocurre imposible decir cuando yo podria comprar una camisa . . . si yo ganaba tres trienta y cinco la

hora, L,como iba a gastar uno la mitad del sueldo de una semana en comprar una camisa? ,verdad? En- tonces, es una cosa que uno va viendo hasta que la persona empieza a trabajar, empieza a organizarse de tal manera de vivir, y de ser, cuando ya empiezas a agarrar de lo que estas haciendo" [This mall was very big, and when someone entered, they would be fasci- nated to see all this . . . as for me, it struck me as im- possible to say when I would be able to buy a shirt . if I was earning $3.35 an hour, how would anyone be able to spend half their weekly salary on a shirt? True? These are the things one begins to see when a person begins to work, begins to organize one's way of life and oneself, when you begin to save some of your earnings].

These vignettes highlight the tremendous amount of translations that immigrants make as they move from one consumer culture to another. Learning the new consumer culture involved becoming adept at both its elements and relational rules. Cultural signs and heu- ristics drawn from the previous system were applied logically to the new system through a process of trans- lation. Informants learned to render intelligible signs inscribed in the new cultural code by first resituating them within the previous code with which they were familiar and then by returning their equivalent to the terms of the new code. When the application of previous rules to the new system did not work, as illustrated in Gloria's experience of deciphering the currency, the rules were modified in an iterative process of repetition and retrial. Over time, informants began to learn what many cultural signs meant and their value in the United States.

This experiential consumer learning was a difficult process compounded by the social pressure to perform in any given moment. To be wrong risked personal em- barrassment, as avoided by Miguelito, Alma's nephew, who was visibly uncomfortable at the ice cream counter when his turn came to order. He quickly asked me to order vanilla for him.

Particular Products and Services

Food. Food is more than a means of nourishment and sustenance; it is also a key cultural expression. For informants, eating the foods they ate in Mexico in the United States provided them with a taste of home and served to reaffirm ties to their culture of origin. Infor- mants from small villages in Mexico reported shopping for food daily by walking to small corner markets or buying from vendors. Many had no refrigeration and would grow their own food-corn, beans, chilies, and

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CONSUMER ACCULTURATION 43

melons. Informants from the city reported shopping for food once a week or so at large supermarkets and/ or the central market, where they compared prices and looked for the best deals. Despite these apparent dif- ferences between rural and urban residents, all infor- mants reported that food cost less in Mexico and that they preferred fresh produce and freshly cut meat.

In the United States, informants noted similarities in the ways they shopped for food in the United States as compared to Mexico. Informants reported shopping mainly at large supermarkets for the prices and at small corner stores (Fig. 3) and vans (Fig. 2) for convenience. As in Mexico, large grocery stores and small corner markets in the United States included a carniceria (butcher shop) where meat was specially cut to order, thinly sliced, with all of the visible fat removed.

Yet informants also noted differences in the ways people shopped for groceries in the United States. They rejected some of the consumption patterns associated with U.S. culture, particularly packaged, prepared, and frozen foods. They simply could not understand why Americans bought produce in cans and meat that was already packaged and frozen since "you don't know when," as Graciela described it. Informants consistently said they had not changed their food consumption very much since they had moved to the United States, with the exception of Alma, who said she no longer ate beans. Victor noted that he and his roommates took turns pre- paring "comida tipica mexicana, un carne de puerco en chile" [typical Mexican food, pork cooked with chili]. Even working mothers Marla Inez and Gloria continued to shop daily for meat and produce.

Their statements were consistent with my observa- tions. Stores at the site offered many products from Mexico in anticipation of and in response to the pref- erences of their Mexican clientele, items such as fresh meat and produce, canned chilies and salsas, spices, cookies, and soft drinks. Many of the products directed to this group were produced and supplied by U.S. firms. In the neighborhoods, the grocery vans also provided Mexican immigrants with ready access to "Mexican" foods. These "convenience stores on wheels" were typ- ically run by other Mexican people and catered to a Mexican clientele. In my journal I wrote, "here you don't have to go to the products, they come to you." Because so many of the foods eaten in Mexico were available in the United States, Mexican immigrants did not have to change their food consumption very much. Their accommodation by marketers both validated the presence of Mexican immigrants and legitimized Mex- ican culture in the United States.

Clothing. Clothing serves as bodily protection, but it is also a means of cultural expression that imperfectly indicates style, gender, social class, and even nationality. Informants uniformly reported that clothing sold in Mexico was of less variety, lower quality, and higher prices than clothing sold in the United States. Infor-

mants from small towns and villages noted that in Mexico people would go door-to-door with clothing for sale, and they would accept partial payments over time. This manner of doing business was described by Alma, who lived in a small village in Mexico until she was 17: "People would come and bring us things, people would go house to house with clothes to sell, you could buy a dress with payments, every week this woman would come, she carried stuff in a plastic bag. . . and people would tell her, yes, that is what I need, and they knew each other."

Door-to-door clothing sales were also described by informants from urban areas in Mexico. Joel added that U.S. brands were available in Mexico, but you had to look closely because people would sew the tags of name brands into items of clothing prior to their sale. In ad- dition, Ignacio noted that clothing was brought from the United States to people in Mexico to help them enter this country.

I observed door-to-door clothing sales similar to those described in Mexico in the United States. During my interview with Sra. Marta, she was describing her pre- vious purchase of T-shirts for $5 from a door-to-door salesperson, when a young woman came to the door selling pots and pans. Marta welcomed her inside, we looked at the pots, chatted with her a short while, and then continued the interview. Marta explained, "Aqui se vende y se puede pagar poco a poco . . . o luego, si no tenemos dinero" [Here one sells and one can pay a little at a time . . . or later, if we do not have money].

Informants readily assimilated clothing in the United States, especially where compatible with their previous styles of dress. Yet style and brand awareness were more pronounced for the young. Few of the adults, as com- pared to most of the young people, reported a favorite brand of clothing. Apparently, brand awareness and discrimination are skills acquired more rapidly by the younger adults than by their elders.

For adult men, similar styles were worn in the United States and Mexico, although there were some genera- tional differences noted in informant reports and in my observations. Older men wore western-style polyester slacks or jeans, boots, and wide leather belts with big buckles, while younger men wore jeans or shorts, high- top sneakers, and T-shirts.

For adult women, the incidence of wearing pants was reported to be much less prevalent in Mexico than in the United States. Some Mexican women informants retained the more traditional female attire of dresses and skirts in the United States, while others wore pants and even shorts. But even in the United States many considered women's wearing of pants socially unac- ceptable. Jorge lamented that Mexican women who wore pants in public in the United States were "sin vergiienza" [without shame]. The younger women in his household giggled at his criticism. I noticed they were wearing pants.

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44 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

FIGURE 3

A SMALL CORNER MARKET

._1 .. rS.gS........

, ... .... .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.s.g._........... ' ' , ,'.. ... .~ ,4 .

Because clothing was sold at a cheaper price in the United States than in Mexico, and because informants made more money here, clothing was quite a bargain for them. More importantly, by literally putting on this aspect of U.S. culture or by refusing to do so, informants assumed and asserted their place in this country.

Automobile. The automobile is a powerful symbol of status and success in Mexico, where they are expen- sive and few people have one. Informants reported that a car was a luxury in Mexico, where automobile prices were almost double prices in the United States and fi- nancing was not available. Only two of the 14 house- holds reported having a car when they lived in Mexico.

In contrast, 10 of 14 households reported having cars in the United States. In addition to using their cars for local transportation, informants used them to bring others to and from Mexico. Further, most informants linked their ability to purchase autos in the United States to a secondary market for used cars. In this mar- ket, one person sells his/her car to another and, not infrequently, accepts monthly or weekly payments, such as those reported by Carlos Velez-Iban-ez (1983). Rene paid $50 a week for seven weeks for his 1977 Mustang.

While this informal market rendered the auto more accessible, and driving manuals and written tests were

available in Spanish, language barriers still existed for informants operating an automobile. Language prob- lems triggered the following incident in which Rene re- ceived an $80 traffic citation. Infuriated, he explained to the officer-a translator was called to the scene- that he had received permission from the California DMV to move his car. Unfortunately, that officer and a clerk at the DMV agreed that this permission did not serve as a valid California driver's license, which he did not have. A few weeks later I gave Rene a ride home from the DMV; he had just received his license.

For informants, the automobile was a powerful sym- bol of success in the United States. Here, the automobile offered autonomy and mobility to people no longer de- pendent on a bike, the bus, or other people to get around. Yet, while the auto has been credited with less- ening our reliance on others and enabling individuality (Glasser 1967), because the automobile was a resource shared among immigrant household members, it par- adoxically furthered their interdependence.

Telephone. The telephone is a lifeline that enabled and maintained important social contacts, including ties to loved ones and job prospects. Yet the telephone was not just a means of communication; its cost struc- ture affected the way informants communicated and

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CONSUMER ACCULTURATION 45

changed the makeup of their social networks. In Mex- ico, the telephone was a luxury, according to infor- mants. There it cost as much as $800 to get connected, which could take years, yet informants reported that the telephone was relatively cheaper to use. Four households had a telephone in Mexico.

Twelve of 14 households reported having a telephone in the United States. Here the phone was described as "una necesidad" [a necessity]. The telephone enjoyed this high rate of assimilation among informants in the United States because of the high value of the connec- tions it enabled among family, friends, and job pros- pects, and its relatively lower connection costs, which were rendered even less expensive when shared among multiple household members.

As with the automobile, language barriers rendered use of the telephone difficult at times for informants. Yet, counter to Genaro's experience over 15 years ago, virtually all of the language barriers have been over- come. Telephone companies now provided Spanish- fluent operators to accommodate their Spanish-speak- ing customers. For informants, the telephone was a vital means of communication, given their distance from loved ones, and significant amounts of money were spent to maintain ties to people in Mexico. Informants reported that they tried to minimize their bills by calling at off-peak hours and on weekends, but that their calls in the United States were expensive, especially when they called Mexico. Informants' monthly telephone bills ranged from a low of $30 in Graciela's household to a high of over $500 in the household Miguel Concepcion shared with two other families.

Financial Services. For informants, discussing their use of financial services raised issues regarding their ability to make ends meet, their values and priorities, and their degree of experience and trust regarding fi- nancial institutions. In Mexico seven of 14 households reported having either a checking or savings account when they lived in Mexico. Informants noted that, while they did not have much money in Mexico, the cost of living there was also much lower.

At the time of the interview, seven households main- tained a bank account in the United States, and three households maintained accounts in Mexican banks to take advantage of higher interest rates there. While in- formants were involved with informal credit networks in the form of loans and financing sales of products in the United States and in Mexico, few had become a part of the formal credit system in the United States. Only Genaro and Alma had major credit cards. While their limited income was a factor, the fact that infor- mants with stable work histories and steady jobs that paid well (e.g., Graciela, Chela, and Carolina) did not have credit cards or interest in getting them suggests that other issues were operating.

Factors influencing use of financial services in the United States included level of discretionary income,

spending patterns (including sending money to Mexico), and perceptions of lower interest rates paid by financial institutions in the United States. Informants noted with disappointment that, while they made more money and had more possessions in the United States, they also had more expenses here and experienced pressure to pay bills. All informants reported sending money to family members in Mexico and/or sending money to help others come to the United States at one time or another.

Knowledge of financial options and terms, and trust with regard to financial institutions, also affected their use of financial services. There was much confusion between bank and retail store credit cards. With the exception of Graciela, who had left Mexico during the peso devaluations of the 1980s and expressed her dis- trust of financial institutions, informants did not express concern about the impact of inflation. In addition, Alma expressed a very negative attitude toward commercial- ized credit, which may also explain its low rate of adop- tion. Although she had two credit cards, Alma typified credit as the "American way" and did not like to use it. She explained, "You owe something to someone, and I don't like it." Alma associated credit with Amer- ican materialism, of which she disapproved. Alma was not the only informant concerned with resisting aspects of U.S. culture. Joel, Genaro, Ignacio, and Rolando shared Alma's anxiety about impending materialism and debt.

Media. In Mexico, media broadcast in Spanish, and many programs were produced in Mexico and Central and South America, although many American programs were also broadcast on privately owned Mexican sta- tions. Graciela noted that advertisements were more indirect in Mexico, where they "rodean para llegar a punto que tiene que anunciar" [go around before ar- riving at the point one has to announce]. This is con- sistent with previous research comparing Spanish and English languages (Hall 1977).

In the United States, the media served as a bicultural lifeline for Mexican immigrant informants, enabling them to "plug into" U.S. or Mexican culture with the turn of a dial. Informants noted that there were more television stations in the United States than in Mexico. English-language media provided low-risk access to the mainstream, even for those not fully bilingual. Yet, as Lee (1989) noted, televised images provided immigrants somewhat distorted lifestyle and behavioral information on U.S. culture. Spanish-language media offered infor- mants reinforcement and validation of their culture. Television programs, music, movies, and advertise- ments in Spanish, especially those using recognized ce- lebrities and other cultural signs, were a reassuring dose of the familiar that welcomed Mexican people to the United States.

Informants' media use in the United States could not be cleanly divided into English or Spanish formats, and

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46 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

varied with age and across generations. Combinations of English and Spanish were exhibited. For example, bilingual Graciela preferred Spanish-language television programs but listened regularly to "easy listening" En- glish-language radio, while Spanish speakers Maria Inez and Melinda expressed their preferences for Spanish and English television and radio. Lucia and her six brothers, all bilingual, preferred English-language top- forty radio, while their parents, Spanish speakers, pre- ferred Spanish-language media. These findings, while generally consistent with those of O'Guinn and Meyer (1984), suggest some limitations to the use of general- ized media preference and language ability as indicators of media use.

Intercultural Contact

Informants were first exposed to the idea of life in the United States while they were still in Mexico through word of mouth, media, international trade, and tourism. This preimmigration contact, much of which was com- mercial in nature, is contrasted with my observations and informants' reports of little personal contact with Anglo-Americans in the United States.

At the marketplace and in the neighborhoods, Mex- ican immigrants were the dominant presence. Mexican retailers and clientele easily outnumbered the sprinkling of Anglos I observed at the marketplace. Spanish lan- guage was dominant on store signs, in the newspapers and magazines circulated there, in the music, and in conversations in the stores and on the street. In the neighborhoods, Mexican people and other signs of Mexican culture, including the grocery vans, the music, and use of the Spanish language, were readily visible. Whites were so noticeable by their absence that I was stopped by police on suspicion of possession of illegal drugs. '

Mexican culture was also evident in the households in the language spoken, the food, the customs, and the decor. All household members were from Mexico, with two exceptions, a Cuban woman who shared an apart- ment with Alma and a Puerto Rican man who rented space in Gloria and Maria Inez's household. Exposure to U.S. culture through the children in the household was a primary, although indirect, source of contact with U.S. culture for informants with children. As previously mentioned, informants' children learned English through the schools, which they attended with Anglo children, whereas adults tended to have more problems with the English language. Melinda admitted that she

and her brothers would speak English whenever they wanted to keep things from their parents.

All informants reported that their friends were from Mexico, except Chela and Alma, who claimed both An- glo-American and Mexican friends. That most of their friends were also Mexican helped reinforce ties to Mex- ican culture. It is likely that these friendships were based on shared experiences of distance from home and family and adaptation to U.S. culture.

The job site was also an important source of contact with mainstream American culture, and working im- migrants initially appeared to have greater contact with the mainstream than their nonworking counterparts. However, informants' jobs varied in the degree to which they provided such contact. Only Alma, a high school Spanish teacher, Chela, a cashier at a gas station, and Genaro, manager of a fast-food restaurant, had sus- tained contact with Anglo-Americans at their job sites. While language ability was an issue, it did not determine the extent of their contact. Both Chela and Alma were bilingual, yet Genaro was Spanish dominant. Maria Inez acknowledged that she was learning some English at work, but it was mostly work related.

Given the nominal contact with U.S. culture and the predominant contact with others from Mexico de- scribed by informants, together with my observations of their physical separation in the neighborhoods and at the marketplace, it was evident that Mexican im- migrant informants inhabited a marginalized consumer culture in the United States. At these sites, Mexican culture was strongly present in the United States but was segregated from the mainstream.

Individual Subjectivity

Informants reported a number of changes they had noticed in themselves since moving to the United States. In general, rural informants experienced more changes than did urban informants, yet all reported some changes, such as working harder and having more money and more possessions, while also having less time, experiencing more financial pressure, and be- coming more self-centered and less trusting of others.

Overall, Mexican immigrants spoke about their lives in the United States very positively. Graciela com- mented about living here, "Trabajando bastante es agradable porque uno alcanza lo que uno desea" [Working so hard is agreeable because one achieves what one desires]. She spoke with pride about her house and the travel business she and her husband had started here, yet admitted that she had much less recreation time than when she lived in Mexico.

While moving to the United States offered informants many benefits, it fell short of expectations. Miguel, Juan's brother, poetically described life in the United States as "una jaula de oro" [a golden cage]. He ex- plained that, while Mexicans had more money and pos- sessions in the United States, they were not free to go

101 had just taken Rene home from the hospital. We had stopped by his house before going to fill his prescriptions when a police car pulled up behind us. The officer asked what I was doing there, he had seen me quickly leave the apartment. I handed him my university card and explained my work. He told me there had been some com- plaints about drugs in the neighborhood and counseled me to be careful.

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CONSUMER ACCULTURATION 47

back and forth to Mexico because the trip was dangerous and expensive. Informants also expressed surprise that they worked so much in the United States. They com- pared this to a way of life in Mexico that was more relaxed and enjoyable, with more time to go out with family and friends to dance or to see a movie, in spite of having less money. Victor tellingly described the faster pace of life in the United States, noted by many informants, in the following passage: "Pues, aqui la vida es rapida, muy exitada-nada mas que tengo cinco minutos para ir a comer, cinco minutos para esperar mi camion, cinco minutos para entrar a trabajar, es cuestion de estar moviendose y de estar mirando el reloj ante todo . . . y corre, jcorre!" [Well, here the life is very fast paced, very agitated-nothing more than I have five minutes to eat, five minutes to wait for the bus, five minutes to get to work, it is a matter of always moving and always looking at the clock before you do anything . . . and run, run!].

Informants acknowledged the pulls of both countries. They expressed nostalgia for their past and their pre- vious culture, such as that observed by Lowenthal

( 1985). They missed knowing people and being known, and having more time to spend with loved ones, as well as the food, and the fiestas. Yet, informants also criti- cized their previous culture. All lamented their coun- try's economy. Informants also noted cultural limits on their autonomy, such as traditional family roles and limits on women's attire. Genaro remarked that he could not get ahead because he felt obligated to take his family to dinner every Sunday, while Rene was crit- ical of the large amounts of money spent on quincianera celebrations. "

Informants reported conflict and pressure to adjust to the way of life in the United States. In the following passage, Victor described his adaptation to the individ- ualism of U.S. culture:

Aqui tengo que ser ma's egoista, tengo que cambiar, y a mi, no me gustaba este tipo de si stema, de ser egoista,

pero aqui la gente es asi, nada m'as que yo, yo, yo, y iyo! Y es todo. Nadie le ayuda a la gente por lo cual, y tambien tengo que cambiar de esa manera . . . pienso que es ne- cesario cambiar, estoy viendo las cosas de otro punto de vista, y ahora si que no voy a preocuparme con un vecino, me voy a preocuparme con nada mas que mi mismo.

[Here, I have to be more egocentric, I have to change. As for me, I have never liked this kind of system, to be egocentric, but here people are like that, nothing else but me, me, me and me! And that is all. Nobody helps each other, and I, too, have to change like this . . . I think it is necessary to change, I'm seeing things from another point of view now, and from now on I'm not going to be concerned with a neighbor, I'm going to be concerned with myself.]

Informants only reluctantly described incidents of bad treatment they had experienced in the United States. For example, Gloria recalled being humiliated at work by co-workers because she did not speak En- glish. When these incidents were reported, they were often rationalized. Maria and Victor quickly explained, "Living in the U.S. is like everywhere else, there are good and bad people." Yet other informants linked the discrimination they experienced to their status as Mex- ican immigrants in the United States. Rolando noted that many Americans did not "see Mexicans well." Rene explained, "Te ven bien mientras de que tu. est'as haciendo sus servicios . . . pero cuando t(u te reclamas algun interes que te pertenese, entonces, ya no te ven bien" [They see you well when you are doing work for them, but when you try to claim rights that belong to you, then they do not see you so well].

Informant identity was another important part of their subjectivity. Informants identified themselves on the basis of their Mexican nationality, and this desig- nation was attributed to them by others. Notably, only five of 23 informants responded when asked their eth- nicity; they were not familiar with the Spanish equiv- alent for this word. Alma identified herself as Latino. Alma, Genaro, Josefina, and Graciela accepted the term Hispanic but noted that they did not use it and identified it as a term used in the United States.

It is significant that informants identified themselves as Mexicans. They were expressing their identification with their country and culture of origin, both of which were outside the U.S. mainstream. Informants' difficulty answering the ethnic identity question likely stemmed from differences in the social categories used in the two countries. Alma insightfully described the differences between the two cultures in the following passage, "I didn't know I wasn't Caucasian until I came here (to the U.S.) . . . In Mexico I was Caucasian, in the U.S. I am brown."'2 While ethnicity was not a familiar con- cept for most informants, they soon learned that it was a fundamental distinction in the United States.

Reviewing the testimony of informants revealed a third important translation in addition to the language and the currency. Learning one's place in society, that is, how people see each other and attribute membership in particular social categories, was an integral part of consumer acculturation. The assimilation model has simplified the complex experience of cultural difference, especially the recognition and management of the stigma of otherness. Mexican immigrant informants experienced cultural difference in their relation to themselves, to others, and to their culture, as they learned that being Mexican meant being part of a stig- matized, subordinated group in the United States. These were the sentiments expressed by Rolando when he said that Mexican people were not "seen well" in the United States.

"The quiincianiera is a coming-of-age ritual for young women that is celebrated on their fifteenth birthday. '2Technically, Alma is both (see n. 2).

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48 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

FIGURE 4

AN EMPIRICAL MODEL OF CONSUMER ACCULTURATION

Individual Consumer Consumer Consumer Differences Acculturation Acculturation Acculturation

Agents Processes Outcomes

1. Demographic Culture of Origin 1.Deoriaphic Family variables l ll | Friends

Media

Institutions f

Commercial Assimilation 2. Language Educational Spanish/English Religious

Maintenance

l3. Recency of / | Movennent | p R | | { \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~Adaptation 1| Rssac

4. Ethnic Culture of 4.dEnthity Immigration

Identity ~~~Family Friends Segregation Media

Informants' subjective experience of cultural differ- ence influenced their identity and shopping patterns. On one hand, informants in the United States had "made it." Those with jobs earned more money than they had in Mexico, and they were active consumers here, buying food, clothing, cars, and telephones. Yet informants' words and actions belied the conviction that they were part of the U.S. mainstream. For informants, the stigma of being Mexican in the United States pre- sented a double bind that was not easily reconciled, for, as Belk (1988) noted, to a certain degree people are their culture.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

An Empirical Model of Immigrant Consumer Acculturation

Individual Differences. Mexican immigrant con- sumer acculturation was not a monolithic experience; informants were a diverse group of people who came to the United States with a wide range of resources and skills (Fig. 4). Demographic differences in age, social class, rural/urban residence, gender, work status, and length of stay in the United States provided informants

with differential skills to adapt to the consumer envi- ronment in the United States. In terms of age, older informants were more habituated to their previous cul- ture and had more difficulties in the United States, while younger informants appeared to adapt more readily. Those of middle-class backgrounds seemed to have an advantage over those with working-class backgrounds; however, many professional credentials were not valued in the United States, and social class overlapped with English-language ability and rural-urban status.

Informants from urban areas experienced fewer dif- ficulties than did their rural counterparts because they had inhabited a consumption environment in Mexico that more closely resembled that in the United States. Women informants generally had to work to help pro- vide for their households in the United States, which created some role tension for men and women accus- tomed to men being the sole provider in Mexico. Work status provided some opportunity for contact with An- glos, although jobs differed in the degree to which they facilitated such contact. Those with longer tenure in the United States appeared to have less difficulty adapt- ing; however, it is emphasized that, given the degree to which Mexican culture is present in the United States, length of stay did not necessarily determine adaptation.

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CONSUMER ACCULTURATION 49

Contact with and acceptance of Anglo culture were also factors.

Language ability was also important in distinguishing informants' abilities to adapt. Both age and generation were important factors in distinguishing informants' language experiences in the United States. Informants who came to the United States as adults were less able to grasp the new language than those who came as chil- dren, with the exception of those who had learned En- glish in school in Mexico. Further, informants with En- glish skills had an advantage in the workplace, yet this advantage was leveled in venues where Spanish was the dominant language.

Agents. Dual sets of consumer acculturation agents aligned with Mexican and U.S. culture served to me- diate the two cultures by representing them and helping to reproduce them in the United States. Agents included family, friends, media, retail businesses, schools, and churches. Of these, informants' family, friends, Spanish- language media, the church, and retail businesses were primarily aligned with Mexican culture. Informants re- lied on social networks of family and friends from Mex- ico to get a job, to find a place to live, to learn their way around, and to learn English. Spanish-language media, the church, and retailers catered to Mexican people with programming, Spanish-language masses and cultural events, and products and services, respec- tively. Schools and English-language media were the predominant sources of informants' contact with Anglo culture.

Processes. The consumer acculturation process was initiated by people's movement from one country to another. Both push and pull factors motivated immi- gration. Informants left conditions of job scarcity and low pay in Mexico. They came to the United States to take advantage of available jobs, higher pay, and an education for their children. Of most critical impor- tance, their anticipated earnings and consumption pat- terns were powerful incentives for immigrating to the United States.

On arrival, informants experienced some difficulties. They were accustomed to their previous consumption patterns, and many of the skills, knowledge, and ex- periences they had acquired in Mexico no longer were applicable in the United States. Key translation skills were required to develop faculties in three new cultural exchange systems, the language, the currency, and social relations, with the old systems serving as bridges to the new systems.

Informants reported their adaptation to the many dif- ferences between their lives in the United States and Mexico. Through experiential trial-and-error learning processes, informants adapted to the new consumer en- vironment in the United States. They established new consumption patterns in housing, use of the telephone, financial services, clothing, food, and media. Informants also reported that they personally adapted to life in the

United States. They experienced changes in themselves, in their sense of who they were, in their language, and in their culture. Yet informants also noted that many things had not changed. They had moved to a thriving Latino consumer subculture in the United States that was similar to their previous consumer culture in Mex- ico. Similarities were noted in stores, products, ways of doing business, foods, styles of dress, and media.

Outcomes. Mexican immigrant informants ac- quired possessions fairly rapidly on their arrival in the United States. Characteristics of the market offerings that affected the degree to which they were accepted by informants included their cost structures, degree of lan- guage dependence, social visibility, how well they fit into informants' lives, and product symbolism relative to both U.S. and Mexican consumer cultures.

Informants assimilated many products and services associated with U.S. consumer culture. Most readily adopted were low-cost, high-visibility items, absent of any language barrier, such as clothing. In addition, market offerings that maintained social networks and enabled shared financing among multiple household members exhibited a high rate of acceptance, particu- larly the telephone and the automobile.

Yet informants also maintained aspects of Mexican culture. Many aspects of informants' consumption pat- terns in the U.S. were linked to the maintenance of ties to their culture and families. Informants maintained these ties through telephone contact, the foods they prepared and ate, their use of Spanish media, and leisure activities. In addition, analysis revealed that some of the products and services associated with U.S. culture that had been adopted by informants (e.g., telephone, auto, and financial services) were used in ways that par- adoxically maintained ties to Mexican culture.

The ways in which Mexican immigrants adapted to the new consumer environment were much more com- plex than simply buying and using products associated with American or Mexican culture. Informants also re- ported experiencing pressure to change, such as that articulated by Victor, and they resisted the pulls of both Anglo and Mexican culture. American culture did not have solely positive value and significance for infor- mants, and this important critique of U.S. culture from the immigrants' perspective has been effectively silenced by the assimilation framework. Informants disliked and resisted to varying degrees the materialism, time fixa- tion, isolation, and discrimination they associated with U.S. culture. Informants also resisted aspects of Mex- ican culture, such as its limits on individual autonomy and elements of its holiday traditions. The elements of Mexican culture informants considered undesirable were evident in the conflicts they expressed regarding their spending patterns and priorities.

Finally, informants inhabited sites in the United States that were physically segregated from the U.S. mainstream. At the marketplace, and in the neighbor-

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50 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

hoods and households, Mexican culture was the dom- inant presence. At these sites I observed a thriving La- tino consumer culture, situated apart from mainstream U.S. culture.

Impact of the Environment

Mexican immigrant consumer acculturation was profoundly affected by the environment. Environmen- tal opportunity originally drew informants to the United States. Once here, informants purchased and used many products and services associated with American culture (e.g., clothing, cars, telephones, and money in a bank account). Yet many aspects of their new consumer en- vironment in the United States, such as the stores, products, and ways of doing business, effectively facil- itated their maintenance of consumption patterns as- sociated with Mexican culture in the United States.

Crossing borders is a central construct in this re- search. The consumer acculturation process began with people crossing the border between the United States and Mexico. The border also served as a key construct organizing informant narratives, as they spoke of their lives on this side and that side of the border. Borders influencing Mexican immigrant consumer accultura- tion were not limited to the international border be- tween the United States and Mexico, however. Mexican immigrant informants also encountered boundaries in the United States in a number of aspects of their daily lives. Intranational borders in the form of subcultural differences were evident in the segregated neighbor- hoods where Mexican immigrants lived and at the mar- ketplace where they shopped in the United States, in the predominance of Spanish spoken at the various sites, in informants' consumption patterns, and in their identities.

Impact of Marketing

Recognizing the direct influence of marketers on consumer learning processes is a key contribution of this research, as their influence has been limited to in- direct, mass-mediated influences in the literature (Moschis 1987). Marketers were critically important agents of consumer acculturation, for marketers "saw" Mexican people in the United States very well, even as they were invisible in other contexts. Marketers were shown to impact Mexican immigrants' consumer ac- culturation processes in two ways, via segmentation strategies in the United States and international trade between the United States and Mexico. By targeting Latinos with market offerings associated with Mexican culture, marketers facilitated the institutionalization of Mexican culture in the United States. Informants at the field sites were met more than halfway by marketers who provided particular assortments of merchandise and employed a Spanish-speaking workforce. However, marketers at the sites did not deal solely with merchan-

dise associated with Mexican culture. Retailers also made available products and services associated with U.S. culture. By providing user-friendly access to mainstream products and services for Mexican immi- grants in the United States, marketers facilitated their assimilation of those items.

Nor was consumption of Mexican culture limited to Mexican people in the United States; it has become increasingly targeted to and consumed by the U.S. mainstream. The success of marketing Mexican culture has become readily discernible in the mainstream con- sumption of foods, fashions, entertainment, architec- ture (e.g., "Spanish" tile and adobe), southwestern de- cor, and in language colloquialisms."3 The influence of Mexican culture is so notable in the Southwest that geographers have predicted it will eventually become a nation in its own right (Wright 1992).

International trade between the United States and Mexico also influenced Mexican immigrants' consumer acculturation processes. Informants did not see U.S. products for the first time on their arrival. They had become acquainted with American companies and products in Mexico. Examples of stores included Woolworth's, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken; products included Colgate toothpaste, Coca-Cola and Pepsi sodas, Nike tennis shoes, and Levi's jeans. 14 Thus, in addition to stories about life in the United States, another important source of preimmigration contact for informants was supplied by American companies doing business in Mexico.

In addition, many of the stores informants had fre- quented and products they had consumed in Mexico were readily available in the United States, stores such as Dos Hermanos and Canada Shoes, Dimex stereo, Orlandi Valuta monetary exchange house, Don Roberto jewelry, and products including Ariel and Roma laun- dry detergent, Pefiafiel soda, Gamesa cookies, Herdez salsa, and Tecate beer, to name a few. Mexican com- panies have found a successful extension of their do- mestic marketing strategies targeting Mexican people and other Latinos in the United States. In doing so, these companies helped institutionalize Mexican cul- ture in the United States.

Impact of Immigration

Mexican people have had and continue to have a significant impact on both the U.S. Latino market and on mainstream U.S. culture. The historical legacy of immigration from Mexico, only partly the result of Mexico's proximity, has had a tremendous impact on

'3Mexican art, film, and music have garnered "crossover appeal," that is, support among mainstream U.S. consumers (Lacayo 1988), and in 1991 salsa outsold ketchup in the United States for the first time (O'Neill 1992).

'4Many of these "American" products are increasingly assembled in other countries, including Mexico, yet that does not seem to impact attributions of their country of origin (Han 1989).

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CONSUMER ACCULTURATION 51

U.S. culture, especially in the Southwest. Immigration and birth rates have fueled the development of a thriving Latino consumer culture in the United States, and the growing power and presence of the U.S. Latino con- sumer subculture is changing the face of the U.S. mar- ket. In southern California, where this work was con- ducted, Spanish-language station KLAX recently earned Arbitron's highest rating for that area (Adelson 1993).

Intercultural Contact and Change in the Global Economy

The ethnographic data did not support a clean na- tional distinction within individual or collective con- sumption patterns. Instead, a complex overdetermined combination emerged for each individual and for each product/service category, in which market offerings took on different meanings when situated relative to the dual consumer cultures. Informants' consumption patterns were inherently eclectic, drawn from both U.S. and Mexican cultures, and are more accurately viewed as the result of rather complex dynamics of cultural influences, marketing strategies, and individual agency than as culturally determined or determining.

Mexican consumers not only crossed the border be- tween two nations, they were border consumers, as are many consumers in a global economy. People are will- ing and able to move to enhance the quality of their lives, yet, as this work demonstrated, they experience many trade-offs when doing so. In the global, post- modern era consumer behaviors increasingly presup- pose border crossings as consumers, products, and marketers transcend national boundaries (Featherstone 1990). Further, given the increasing occurrence of in- ternational trade, it is increasingly difficult to speak of the United States and Mexico as independent, auton- omous cultures.

More and more, consumer behavior involves ele- ments of strategic cultural display within an environ- ment characterized by interdependent, overlapping cultural domains. For informants, consumer accultur- ation entailed the performance of appropriate signs, such as language, clothing, and foods, tailored to the particular situational contexts of their homes, work- places, schools, and shopping centers. Thus, cultural influences on consumers' behaviors were more than a link between informants' subjective cultural identities and the cultural identities ascribed to various products and services. Culture was a variable commodity that was exchanged-divorced from previous referential cultural domains and reattached to new ones.

These findings suggest important extensions to McCracken's (1986) theoretical framework of the movement of cultural meaning of consumer products. As McCracken noted, consumption patterns are not ends in and of themselves, but take on meaning depen- dent on their cultural context. However, extensions of

his model are required to reflect multiple cultural groups, interrelations between them, and contestations of cultural presence and meanings in an increasingly global arena.

This research also sheds light on global dynamics of cultural interpenetration (Andreason 1990). The dy- namics of intercultural contact and change observed in my research were not satisfactorily addressed in terms of generalizations of either increasing cultural homo- geneity (Levitt 1983) or increasing cultural heteroge- neity (Douglas and Wind 1987). Instead, dynamics of intercultural contact and change occurred simulta- neously in both directions and resulted in greater market similarities and differences. The presence of Latinos in the United States, together with marketing strategies targeting us, are changing the character of the U.S. market.

These alignments of national and subcultural do- mains offer marketers attractive economies of scale, yet they entail a serious challenge to consumer researchers. While marketers have exhorted the benefits of tailoring a product or service to a particular group of people on the basis of their unique characteristics for over 20 years (Engel, Fiorillo, and Cayley 1971), the impact of these segmentation strategies on market structure is an im- portant, yet underinvestigated, consumer research issue. Marketing segmentation strategies are not only predi- cated on cultural differences; they can effectively re- produce and/or neutralize them. By targeting Latinos in the United States, marketers helped bring down the border between the United States and Mexico. Yet these same marketing strategies also helped raise cultural borders between Latinos and Anglos in the United States. Thus, the market fragmentation noted by post- modern cultural theorists (Baudrillard 1988; Jameson 1983) is at least partly the result of marketers' zeal to target increasingly specialized market subsegments.

Further, developing international alliances of com- patible subcultural market segments and national mar- kets has been identified as the next frontier in marketing (Hassan et al. 1991). In the global economy, immigra- tion and trade pacts and alliances among nations call into question our traditional unit of analysis, the in- dividual consumer in the nation-state. This research points to the increasing importance of rethinking our categories as we investigate consumer behavior that transcends national borders, as well as our own discur- sive conventions.

In this sense, the persistence of the assimilation model in studies of consumer behavior may disclose more about researchers' assumptions concerning the nature of cultural interpenetration and the important role the immigrant plays in our national ideology than it does about the nature and direction of change in immigrants' consumption patterns. Bhabha (1990) has argued that forgetting the past is not a question of historical memory but rather an intrinsic part of national discourse that functions to smooth over and render historically passe

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52 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

conflicting ideas of national culture and the social cohesion of the many as one. Analogously, the assim- ilation model has been used in ways that have smoothed over options other than assimilation and has rendered unintelligible the increasing heterogeneity of the U.S. market. By attending to similarities and differences within and across national boundaries, this research disrupts totalizations of the U.S. market and interjects in their place a highly differentiated amalgam of con- sumer cultures that are geographically located and in- herently interrelational.

Yet, even as consumer behavior becomes more global, its significance necessarily remains anchored in terms of local codes (Friedman 1990). Particularities will continue to command attention because consump- tion behaviors are unavoidably localized and culturally defined. Thus, situating our research within the partic- ular social and historical context in which it is embed- ded remains crucial to advancing our knowledge of consumer behavior.

This work is not without its limitations. Immigrant consumer acculturation is a phenomenon that occurs over time and spans two nations. The first limitation of this research is its use of informants' testimony to investigate aspects of their lives in their country of or- igin. Ideally, ethnographers draw from events as they occur; that is, I would have lived in the previous country (Mexico), accompanied immigrants to the new country (the United States), and established a life with them here. Recall measures are inherently problematic, yet arguably less so in the case of major life events, such as moving to a new country.

Other limitations of this work stem from the partic- ularities of informants and of the field sites examined. While the 23 Mexican immigrant informants were carefully selected to present a wide and varied range of experience, no claims are made as to their representa- tiveness of all immigrants or all Mexican immigrants in the United States. Southern California remains a fas- cinating area of study, given its history, geography, and demographic patterns, yet events there are not neces- sarily generalizable to other places or peoples.

While this work has shed some light on the consumer adaptation experiences of Mexican people in the United States, it remains a tentative glimpse into its subject matter. Many questions remain. Further research that follows informants over time is necessary. It is likely that immigrants' consumption patterns change over time and with passing generations, and express varying combinations of assimilation, maintenance, resistance and segregation. Further research is also called for that investigates the historical shifts in cultural presence that have occurred in this country. The field sites investi- gated shifted from Mexican to American national status in 1849 (Acufia 1988). Yet, while most of the buildings at the sites were built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the area was a center of Anglo

culture, Mexican immigrants currently maintained a dominant presence here.

Finally, further research is also called for that inves- tigates other immigrant and subcultural groups in the United States and in other nations. Belk (1993) has ar- gued that it is the framework, not the findings, that are generalizable in ethnographic research. Research on various consumer subcultures in multiple nations is crucial to the development of theory pertaining to the nexus of subcultural and international consumer be- havior. It may be that the legacy of postcolonial relations remains in the form of global markets consisting of shared "cultural" traditions and other cultural influ- ences on consumers' behavior.

[Received June 1992. Revised September 1993.]

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