Latinos, Inc.: The Marketing and Making of a People

by Arlene Dávila

Both Hollywood and corporate America are taking note of the marketing power of the growing Latino population in the United States. And as salsa takes over both the dance floor and the condiment shelf, the influence of Latin culture is gaining momentum in American society as a whole. Yet the increasing visibility of Latinos in mainstream culture has not been accompanied by a similar level of economic parity or political enfranchisement.
In this important, original, and entertaining book, Arlene Dávila provides a critical examination of the Hispanic marketing industry and of its role in the making and marketing of U.S. Latinos.
Dávila finds that Latinos' increased popularity in the marketplace is simultaneously accompanied by their growing exotification and invisibility. She scrutinizes the complex interests that are involved in the public representation of Latinos as a generic and culturally distinct people and questions the homogeneity of the different Latino subnationalities that supposedly comprise the same people and group of consumers.
In a fascinating discussion of how populations have become reconfigured as market segments, she shows that the market and marketing discourse become important terrains where Latinos debate their social identities and public standing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Academic, Race

308 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2001

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very thin on the ethnography and highly repetitive. But good if you're curious about marketing discourse directed at Latinos, and in the connections between consumerism and the creation and maintenance of different categories of U.S. citizenship.

[Mike Mena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ground breaking book. If you've ever wondered where "Latino" and "Hispanic" came from, this book is for you. How is it that Americans have such consistent ideas about Mexicans and Latinos? Part of the answer is the way media markets what it means to be Latino or Hispanic.

[Jessamyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. Interesting, on marketing and the construction of latino identity in the states.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I've read in a long time about Latino studies.