Los Angeles has one of the most restrictive street vending policies in the country. Despite this, informal street vendors conspicuously and continuously mark the urban landscape. Issues regarding the use of public space and local ordinance enforcement are often complicated by the street vendors' ethnic and racial backgrounds as well as their immigrant status. In the last forty years Los Angeles has seen a surge in the number of immigrant and migrant street vendors. Yet, this phenomenon remains largely unstudied. This dissertation offers an in-depth look at the lives that undocumented migrant fruit vendors lead both on and off the street corners where they work. These vendors sell fruit salads out of pushcarts and can be found under brightly colored umbrellas in nearly every neighborhood of Los Angeles. This dissertation draws upon five years of ethnographic research, participant observation, and interviews with Los Angeles fruit vendors and their families in Mexico. I examine the crafting, strategizing, and deal making that fruit vendors engage in to make a sale, evade officials, and secure a livelihood in a high-risk occupation. I examine how migrant outcomes in the U.S. are tied to families and communities in Mexico. I interview vendors' families in Mexico to assess how life changed for them since their family member's departure and examine the lasting and broken ties between them. The outcomes for this group of undocumented migrant fruit vendors are grim. The main argument of this dissertation is that fruit vendors in Los Angeles lead very precarious lives due to both their undocumented status and their informal work. The prohibition of their presence in the country and as vendors on the street has negatively impacted them. Their lives in the U.S. are structured by limited to no upward mobility; the creation of bounded community and bounded opportunity; the threat and fear of premature voluntary and forced return migration; and strained ties to their sending community.

The practices of Mexican immigrant business owners are well documented in the literature as tailoring to the needs of the surrounding community, emphasizing their central role in customers’ incorporation process (e.g. providing goods/services in customers’ native language). Less is known about producers of goods and services in ethnic communities who are Mexican-American. This study examines the economic development processes of an ethnically branded downtown business improvement district (BID). Data for this study includes forty-six in-depth interviews and three years of ethnographic field work in the downtown business community of a majority-Latino city in Southern California. This study examines the social and cultural motivations that influence Mexican-Americans’ business owning practices. I draw from theories of ethnic destinations, minority entrepreneurship, and identity to assess how business owners perform, curate, and commodify ethnicity in and outside of their establishments. This study demonstrates how Mexican-Americans are involved in the creation of U.S.-based ethnic culture through their business. I find that for Mexican-Americans, business practices become nostalgic for a home country and traditions as a means of maintaining ethnic identity over time. Ultimately business owners in my study facilitate an ethnically curated experience for Mexican-Americans through their business practices and philanthropy that specifically tailored around Mexican ethnicity. The goal of my study is to provide a comprehensive account of how the economic sectors of ethically marketed areas are transformed by Mexicans and Mexican-Americans.

To contribute to broader discussions about how Pentecostalism is expanding in the United States despite a general decline in religiosity, this paper investigates how a Pentecostal church attracts adherents in the religious marketplace of Orange County, California. Based on over 260 hours of participant observation at worship services, small group meetings, Bible classes, volunteer activities, and informal social events, I find that the church helps believers solve three shared problems. First, believers claim that the church promotes a style of prayer that enables them to come into direct contact with the divine, igniting sparks of sacred mystery in an otherwise mundane world. Second, the church encourages congregants to draw on the therapeutic ethic when discussing their intimate relationships, providing them with a tool to work through personal issues. Finally, the church enables congregants to sacralize their occupations, making even the most trivial jobs profoundly meaningful. I contend that addressing each of these shared problems helps congregants adapt to broader changes in society. Prayer helps congregants charge up with emotional energy in an increasingly disconnected world. The therapeutic ethic helps congregants maintain their traditional beliefs while accommodating the growing empowerment women have experienced in the United States over the past 50 years. And sacralizing their occupations allows congregants to persist at jobs amidst deteriorating labor conditions. I conclude that guiding believers through major structural transformations in American society allows the church to effectively compete for adherents in the religious marketplace of Orange County.