Atravesando Fronteras/Border Crossings: A Critical Ethnographic Exploration of the Consumer Acculturation of Mexican Immigrants

Abstract

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.