Se venden aqui: Phoenix's Latino retail landscape, urban change, and Hispanic identity

The proliferation of Hispanic-oriented businesses is a visible example of how burgeoning Latino populations are rapidly transforming the local geographies of cities across the United States. Latinos are a diverse group who often exhibit much internal heterogeneity: immigrant and second generation, resident and itinerant, Mexican and non-Mexican. In addition, Hispanic identities are fluid and vary from local/regional identities such as “Sonoran,” to national identities like “Mexican” or “Salvadoran,” to pan-ethnic self-identification such as “Latino” or “Hispanic.” Hispanic diversity is also evident in the changing places and spaces where Latinos choose to live, such as in many metropolitan areas where Latinos have begun to settle in the suburbs rather than the central city.;This research reveals the relationship between select Hispanic-oriented business types and the characteristics of neighborhoods where they locate, the ability of the Latino retail landscape to assist in distinguishing various subgroups and identities among Phoenix's larger Hispanic community, and the capacity of Hispanic-oriented businesses to expose underlying discourses that shape their very own landscape. Landscape observations, interviews, and field/census mapping form the primary data collection methods for this research. Ultimately, this dissertation uncovers how two discourses—transnationalism and consumption—strongly shape the Latino-retail landscape and influence its formation and evolution.