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TRANSNATIONAL SALVADORAN MIGRATION AND THE CONSUMPTION
SYSTEM: THE ELUCIDATION OF TENSIONS, INCONSISTENCIES, AND
BURDENS
By

Suzanne Marie Kent

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Anthropology

2008

ABSTRACT
TRANSNATIONAL SALVADORAN MIGRATION AND THE CONSUMPTION
SYSTEM: THE ELUCIDATION OF TENSIONS, INCONSISTENCIES, AND
BURDENS
By
Suzanne Marie Kent
In this dissertation I explore consumption in San Salvador, El Salvador in the
context of ongoing high rates of transnational migration and neoliberalizing economies.
Through documentation of characteristics of the consumption system, I identify critical
parallels between San Salvador and the US. As part of my effort to deconstruct patterns
in both contexts, I consider the hegemonic processes that undergird consumption beliefs
and behaviors. This approach provides a unique lens for considering the position of
transnational migrants and their family members who remain in San Salvador. These
Salvadorans bear and negotiate a series of contradictions and tensions that arise from
complex interrelationships between consumption, migration, and neoliberal economies.
High numbers of Salvadorans have migrated to the US; perhaps as much as one
ﬁfth of the population has left the country. Economics play a fundamental role in these
patterns of transnational migration. A key component of the economic explanation is
consumption. In this dissertation, I deconstruct this explanation by considering relevant
mechanisms of social reproduction, the circulation of complex and powerful symbols,
and the beneﬁts promised by the consumption system.
Consumption-related patterns and processes play out in speciﬁc ways for migrants

and their families. First, this group is one of many caught between the power and

promises of the consumption system and the numerous obstacles that hamper

engagement. Low wages, underemployment, a high cost of living, and other factors all
limit participation in the system. Yet messages about the beneﬁts of inclusion are
rampant and convincing. Transnational migration, in particular to the US, has become a
popular means of accessing the consumption system.

Second, Salvadoran families carry the burden of choosing between maintaining
the uniﬁcation of their family and meeting their economic needs and wants. While
migrating improves household ﬁnances, most Salvadorans argue that the principle
repercussion is familial disintegration. This discrepancy is complicated by the symbolic
functions of consumables. The ability to engage in the consumption system is also the
capacity to meet emotional needs. Economic and emotional needs intersect in complex,
dynamic, and seemingly contradictory ways. Migrants and non-migrants alike are left to
negotiate the resulting tensions.

Third, migrants and their families are criticized and made into scapegoats in both
their home communities and destination countries. The values and behaviors of migrants
and their families are criticized by numerous groups in both societies. Analysis of
negative discourses regarding labor mobility and remittances reveals problematic
contradictions and the diversion of attention away from fundamental overarching issues.
In particular, these discourses distract from the failures of the neoliberal model and the

accompanying consumption system.

Copyright by
SUZANNE MARIE KENT
2008

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are a number of people who I would like to acknowledge for their
contributions to this endeavor. To begin, I am grateful to the people who make up the
Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University. The department created a site
for potentialities and opportunities, and fostered my intellectual development. My
graduate committee members deserve special recognition for encouraging my regional
and topical interests as well as my academic development. Additionally, in varying
ways, these faculty members have modeled and demonstrated kindness, compassion, and
dedication. Dr. Andrea Louie, my advisor, has provided me with excellent guidance and
motivated my academic and professional growth. Dr. Scott Whiteford, who also served
as my advisor for several years, gave me invaluable support and encouragement. Dr.
Adan Quan regularly provided me with helpful input and advice. The constructive
contributions of Dr. Brandt Peterson make me grateful that he generously agreed to join
the committee late in the process. And Dr. Anne Ferguson provided feedback and
assistance on countless occasions. From the Department of Sociology, Dr. Steve Gold
also shared his insights and encouragement with me. As a committee, this group
challenged and encouraged me to excel, despite distractions and potential roadblocks. I
am also grateful to Dr. Lynne Goldstein, who was chair of the Department of
Anthropology for most of my time there, for her advice and support. Nancy Smith, Gail
Barricldow, and Peggy Medler, also in the anthropology department, deserve my heartfelt
gratitude as well.

Several Michigan State University ofﬁces and programs were also instrumental to

my academic and professional development. In various ways, I am grateful to the Center

for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), the Center for Advanced Study of
International Development (CASID), the Women and International Development
Program (WID), the Ofﬁce of International Studies and Programs (ISP), the Graduate
School at MSU, and the folks that make up these ofﬁces. Their work inspired and
provided me with valuable opportunities, including ﬁnancial assistance. I am grateful for
the Doctoral Dissertation Completion Fellowship, conference travel funding, the Tinker
Field Research Grant and other awards that provided invaluable help.

I am also grateful to the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad
program as well as the people who enable it to function. As a Fulbright recipient, I
appreciate the support and assistance provided to me by the Cultural Affairs staff at the
US. Embassy in El Salvador.

My family and ﬁ'iends deserve the highest of compliments as well. My parents,
Terri and Brian, provided support in more ways than I can count. The same is true of my
sisters, Mary, Roberta, and Megan. Without my family, the mountains obstructing my
path would have been insurmountable instead of mere impediments. Classmates at
Michigan State have also given me support, guidance, and invaluable companionship. I
extend my gratitude to Keri Brondo, Heather Van Wormer, Suzanne Schneider, Megan
Plyler, Karin Rebnegger, Marita Eibl, Mary S. Megyesi, James S. Bielo, Aaron and Jill
Whiteford, and many others. In diverse ways, friends Beth Bacon, Harriet Mullaney,
Brian Loner, Marnie Campanella, Jenny Workman, Amy Clark, Janet Bacon, and Drs.
Mary Alice and David McComb provided support, encouragement, and patience.

I must also recognize my friends and collaborators in El Salvador. While I cannot

mention them by name, I am grateful for their kindness, understanding, and generosity.

vi

Although their names are not here, I appreciate their willingness to allow me to
incorporate their voices and hope that I have done their words, ideas, and experiences
justice.

Lastly, I wish to note that while these people made this endeavor achievable,

ultimately the work is my own and I accept responsibility for any shortcomings.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................... x
CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1
Consumption in San Salvador......................................... .................................................... 4
Transnationalism ................................................................................................................. 8
Neoliberalism in El Salvador ............................................................................................ 11
Methodological Approach ................................................................................................ 16
Organization of the Dissertation ....................................................................................... 28
CHAPTER 2

TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXTS ................................................................................... 31
Transnational Migration and El Salvador ......................................................................... 42
Conceptualizing Transnationalism ................................................................................... 43
Transnational Migration ................................................................................................... 45
Salvadoran Transnational Migration ................................................................................ 48
El Salvador’s Transnational Economy ............................................................................. 54
Emulating Modernity ........................................................................................................ 60
Transnational Consumption .............................................................................................. 62
Exporting Meaning ........................................................................................................... 65
Development and Migration ............................................................................................. 72
Gendered Processes .......................................................................................................... 73
CHAPTER 3

CONSUMPTION AND MOBILE MEAN INGS ............................................................. 77
Foundations and Mechanisms of Social Reproduction ..................................................... 77
Understanding Consumption ............................................................................................ 87
Consumption and Meaning ............................................................................................... 9O
Consumption, Identity, and Self Esteem .......................................................................... 98
Consumption and Status ................................................................................................. 100
CHAPTER 4

CONSUMPTION RELATED BELIEFS AND BEHAVIORS

IN SAN SALVADOR .................................................................................................... 103
The Salvadoran Consumption System ............................................................................ 103
Dynamic Consumption Patterns ..................................................................................... 106
Advertising in San Salvador ........................................................................................... 108
Consumption Sites in San Salvador ................................................................................ 115
Other Consumables ......................................................................................................... 126
Preferences, Pleasures, and Desires ................................................................................ 133
Well Being and Happiness in San Salvador ................................................................... 140
Salvadorans and the Neoliberal Consumption System ................................................... 148

viii

CHAPTER 5
TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION THROUGH THE LENS

OF CONSUMPTION ..................................................................................................... 152
Consumption and Other Migration Impetuses ................................................................ 152
Consumption and Migration ........................................................................................... 154
Consumption Limits in El Salvador ................................................................................ 160
Limited Access to the Dream .......................................................................................... 163
Fulﬁlling the Dream ........................................................................................................ 167
The ‘Disintegrated Family’ Versus ‘Economic Help’ .................................................... 172
Migration, the Family, and the Consumption System .................................................... 175
Transnational Migration, Consumables, and Love ......................................................... 178
The Family and Migration .............................................................................................. 183
CHAPTER 6

DISCOURSES OF CONSUMPTION, MIGRATION,

AND REMITTANCES ................................................................................................... 189
Interpretations and Implications ..................................................................................... 191
Sources of Criticism ........................................................................................................ 197
Illuminating Inconsistencies ........................................................................................... 1 99
Critiques in the US ......................................................................................................... 205
CHAPTER 7

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ................................................. 208
The Consumption System and Transnational Migration ................................................ 208
The Neoliberal Context ................................................................................................... 212
Consumption and the Family .......................................................................................... 215
Criticisms in Home Countries ......................................................................................... 216
Questions and Concerns .................................................................................................. 220
Concluding Thoughts ...................................................................................................... 223
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 225

ix

ARENA

BCR

CAFTA-DR

CCAA

CEPAL

DIGESTYC

FMLN

FUSADES

GDP

GNP

IFC

IMF

NAFTA

PNUD

TNC

TPS

UCA

U.S. AID

WTO

LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
Alianza Republicana Nacionalista de El Salvador [National
Republican Alliance]
Banco Central de Reserva [Central Reserve Bank]
Central American — Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement
Caribbean Central American Action

ComisiOn EconOmica para América Latina y el Caribe [Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean]

DirecciOn General de Estadistica y Censos [General Council on
Statistics and Census]

Frente Farabundo Marti para la LiberaciOn Nacional [Farabundo
Marti National Liberation Front]

Fundacio’n Salvadoreﬁa para el Desarrollo Econémico [Salvadoran ,
Foundation for Economic Development]

Gross Domestic Product

Gross National Product

International Finance Corporation
International Monetary Fund

North American Free Trade Agreement

Programa de IaS Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo [United
Nations Development Program]

Transnational Corporation

Temporary Protected Status

Universidad de Centroamerica [Central American University]
United States Agency for International Development

World Trade Organization

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

/ This dissegaﬂtign'is congemed with the consumption system in San Salvador, El

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Salvador, in the context of high rates of economically motivated transnational migration
and neoliberalizing economies. The intensity and signiﬁcance of the Salvadoran system
has yet to be traced and theorized in the way that I do here—in part due to the recent
proliferation of consumption sites. In this work, I document characteristics of the
Salvadoran consumption system and Show that there are important parallels between the

neoliberal consumption system in

El Salvador and that of the US. I analyze the hegemonic processes behind these

 

patterns and their signiﬁcance. Through this criﬁticalhanalysis of neoliberal development,
the importance of consumption in that economic framework, and migrations of middle
class Salvadorans, I make more explicit the position of transnational migrants and their
families as negotiators and bearers of a series of contradictions and tensions.

,. Transnational migrants are caught between the promises of the powerful

_/
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neoliberal consumption system and the numerous obstacles that limit participation in the
system. The consumption system in San Salvador is sophisticated. Consumables and
consumption sites are pervasive and messages regarding goods and services circulate
widely. However, low wages, informal labor systems, and both under- and
unemployment severely limit access. Transnational migration has become a popular way
‘in’. Engagement in the consumption system is facilitated by migration in various ways.

Salvadorans are able to change consumption patterns while in the US, send remittances

 

/,--'h/ome, and increase the ability of family members to consume in El Salvador. However,

/

this path towards inclusion comes with costs.

i Salvadoran families carry the burden of choosing between maintaining the

‘ uniﬁcation of their family and meeting their economic and material needs and wants. In
other words, there are two diverging paths to ensuring the happiness and well being of

individuals and the family. In El Salvador, standards of living fall below desired levels;

4

therefore families are limited in their capacity to meet both emotional and ﬁnancial needs

'5)
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and wants. The economic situation prevents parents from providing for children in the
way that they would like, and sons and daughters from caring for elderly parents as they
5. i feel they should. In response to constraints, many elect to migrate. This then creates a
2:... new set of challenges for the family. While migrating may allow for improved economic
situations and a sense of inclusion, most Salvadorans feel that the principle result is
familial disintegration. Improving a family’s ﬁnances can better emotional well being;
however, the physical distance creates new emotional stressors. Research on
transnational migration from El Salvador and elsewhere has examined difﬁculties faced
(‘ by families distanced by transnationalism. I make a unique contribution to this body of

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signiﬁcance of consumption. Analysis of the role of economics in migration needs to

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incorporate concern with the systems of meaning linked to consumables.
The situation in El Salvador is aggravated by the fact that economic power
holders and political power holders are, for the most part, one in the same. Further, at

individual and group levels, these Salvadoran power holders are embedded in

transnational circuits of authority and hegemony. The result is a signiﬁcant conﬂict of

interest because the same individuals and bodies who foster an exclusionary consumption
system are also charged with ensuring the well being of the Salvadoran populace.
Similarly, emigration allows for increasing consumption rates and national efforts to
curtail it, because of its perceived negative effects, conﬂict with the economic incentives
for maintaining or increasing transnational migration rates. Decision making is largely
driven by the goal of strengthening the neoliberal economy and it is implied that these
strategies will beneﬁt much of the population. The ‘good’ of the consumption system
and the ‘good’ of society are largely approached as synonymous. Further, efforts on the
part of power holders to discourage and decrease emigration are thwarted by the intensity
of the consumption system in which these same power holders are key agents.

Finally, migrants and their families are criticized and made into scapegoats in
both their home communities and destination countries. There is a common discourse of
concern regarding the negative impact of migration on the family and value systems.

One source of criticism is a segment of the Salvadoran political and economic elite.
These power holders buttress the intensive links between consumption and both well
being and happiness. At the same time, they engage in discourses that are critical of
migration, consumption, and the lifestyles of remittance receivers. This contradiction is
problematic because it impedes structural change. These discourses sidetrack from
overarching economic, political, and social issues that are more fundamental to some of
the patterns generating concern. They distract from the failures of the neoliberal
development model. Similarly, criticisms and attacks of Salvadoran (and other)
immigrants in the US. foster attitudes and policies that dehumanize and criminalize these

groups. In this and other host contexts there is a consistent lack of attention to the role of

transnational economic forces and the power of consumption systems in shaping patterns

Y of labor mobility.

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I me ﬁrst visit to El Salvador in 2001 , and with each subsequent trip I

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fgugditincreasinglydifﬁcult to avert my ethnographic gaze from the malls and shopping
pimplexes. These sites loomed physically, spatially, and experientially inbtheplives of '
many friends, collaborators, and acquaintances. Two of my earliest contacts, Marisa and
Angela, were university students at the time of this study. Both young women lived in
households that were dependent on remittances. They also spent considerable amounts of

time in malls and fast food restaurants. Marisa would sometimes include me on her

outings; for instance, we saw “The Hulk” at the cinema in Metrocentro, and shopped for

SQ a baby gift in Plaza Merliot. We would travel the Short distance (but long bus ride)

\: together from the village to the city. Once in the malls, we escaped the heat and the

£12 various difﬁculties of life. We found varying degrees of distraction and contentment.

\; \ I Between my second and third trips to El Salvador, Multi Plaza emerged from dirt mounds
s =< I ~— ...-,,...,-..-....

 

and deep chasms to become the fortress-like shopping mall it is today. During my third

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trip in 2005, luxurious La Gran Via opened and Metrocentro added yet another large

 

.1) addition, its tenth one. Initially, I simply joined Salvadorans (and a few gringos) in their
i use of these sites as places to cool off and escape. It became increasingly cleanhowever,
,’ that these sites demanded attention. Consumption thus became a focal point.

p In this dissertation, I describe and explore the system of meaning that undergirds

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consumables (goods, services, and sites such as the malls) and consumption behavior. I

am concerned not only with the seemingly obvious utility of consumables, but also with

their covert functions and associated symbolism.l I argue '—that at both the utilitarian and

 

symbolic levels, to access consumables is to access happiness, well being, and pleasures.
In San Salvador, consumables are sought because of the beneﬁts they promise and the
positive experiences they might deliver.

Consumption-related experiences and expectations are part of a ‘consumption
system’, i.e. the combination of consumption practices, beliefs, and symbols, plus the
sociocultural, economic, and political mechanisms that generate and foster these practices
and beliefs. Humans participate in diverse ways in consumption systems. Today a
dominant consumption system inﬂuences many people in the two contexts on which this
work is focused: the US. and El Salvador. This dominant system is a byproduct of
globalizing neoliberal capitalism. Key elements include: (1) steady increases in the
circulations of consumables; (2) the diffusion of meanings associated with consumables
and consumption; and (3) a growing pattern of consumable insatiability. There are
numerous mechanisms of social reproduction that create and mold consurnption-related
symbols. Of these, several components of the neoliberal system are especially powerful.
Advertising and media in particular, with their transnational and monetary strengths, hold
sway over the form and function of the Salvadoran consumption system. In all, because
of the ties between the US. and El Salvador, and transnational hegemonic processes, the

system in San Salvador parallels that of the US. in a number of ways.

 

1 Examples of inﬂuential works concerned with this topic include: Appadurai I986: Baudrillard 1970: Belk
et al. 1989; Liechty 2003: McCracken I986; Poster 2004; and Sahlins 1976.

Counter Hegemonies

Because of the power of the system, even efforts to resist it often entail some degree of
engagement with the symbols and meaning. While over time, such behaviors may shift
the overall form of the dominant system, for now, they remain options within it. As
Miller articulates, “immateriality can only be expressed through materiality” (2005:28).
Artifacts and symbolisms in all their forms are inherent elements of culture; the dominant
consumption system is, for many in San Salvador, the most readily accessible way to
engage culturally with artifacts and symbols.

Although the overall tone of this work emphasizes the dominance of the
neoliberal consumption system, it is not with a complete disregard for contestations in
San Salvador. Hegemony is “a contested, fragile, and tenuous process, rather than simply
a structure or ediﬁce, involving active struggle between a variety of ‘relations of force’”
(Morton 2007:78). Groups and individuals in San Salvador question and challenge the
system in various ways. Neoliberal development was confronted and critiqued by
university students, faculty members, intellectuals, and organizations. Materialism was
diagnosed and judged by interviewees, local writers, and others. And cultural values,
including criticisms of envy and notions of family unity, countered components of the
consumption system.

However, these contestations were shadowed by the neoliberal consumption
system in a number of ways. To begin, as noted, the bulk of the power holders—not only
in El Salvador but also in transnational spheres—advocated for and contributed to a
neoliberal framework. In general, those who contested held little power. As such, they

held little potential for anything more than subtle counter hegemonic movements. This is

evidenced by the various ways that contestations have been silenced, such as structural
impediments that prevent labor organization. The Salvadoran state simply does not
protect workers (Frundt 2002 and ILRF 2004). Further because of efforts to suppress
organizing (on the part of the government and local and international companies), the
“prospect for signiﬁcant unionization in Central America remains bleak” (Frundt
2002: l 8).

The work of Miller on consumption in Trinidad reveals another important
pattern—one that is also seen in San Salvador. Miller suggests that while many in his
study questioned and critiqued neoliberalism, for instance as it unfolds through the
policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), “their collective actions as shoppers
may do far more to undermine that lobby than support it” (1997:48). He further notes, in
Trinidad “the effect of shopping is to support the hegemonic transnational establishment
against nationalist political concerns” (1997249). Likewise, while some Salvadorans
questioned neoliberalism itself, and perhaps the consumption component of that
framework, shopping and consuming prevailed.

In terms of critiques of materialism as a potential starting point for counter
hegemony, these were often criticisms of types of consumption, rather than of
consumption itself. Individuals and groups held ideas about appropriate and
inappropriate consumables. They had rules about who can consume and what they
Should consume. With some exceptions, criticisms of consumption tended not to be
criticisms of the neoliberal consumption system, but instead judgments arising from

lifestyles preferences and class distinctions.

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Contestations in San Salvador were also counteracted by a characteristic of the
consumption system. Part of the power of the neoliberal consumption system rests in the
potential for consumables to improve well being and contentment. As I explore in later
sections, in some cases the relationship between consumption and happiness has validity.
Efforts to challenge the neoliberal system run up against what appears to be a measurable
beneﬁt of that system. As an example, some left-leaning individuals in San Salvador
openly expressed concern with certain forms of consumption. One former guerilla,
German, lamented growth, land development, and associated environmental degradation,
in particular as generated by two powerful conglomerates, Siman and Grupo Roble. He
argued that Siman is like the Wal-Mart of El Salvador, and that the government awards
them many construction contracts. German is part of a cooperative organic coffee
plantation, which they hope to eventually make an ecotourism site. While his words
reveal a dislike of the neoliberal development and consumption-oriented model, as well
as the individuals and groups that advocate it, the model his group is drawing on is one
that also relies on consumption—speciﬁcally the consumption of a good (coffee) and a
service (travel and tourism). AS this example demonstrates, survival, success, and
happiness are difﬁcult to achieve without engaging at some level in the dominant

consumption system.

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\While the consumption system in El Salvador is growing in complexity, there is also an

extremely high rate of U.S.-bound migration. The importance of this is augmented by the

large amount of money that is remitted to El Salvador. In considering this, I draw on

works concerned with transnationalism and transnational migrations because they help to
illuminate connections that exist across borders.2 The transnational lens is fundamental
to the topics addressed in this dissertation because of the many intensive connections
between the US. and El Salvador. The political, economic, and social ties are many and
interlaced.

For decades, Salvadoran migrants have been establishing networks that bridge the
two countries. The implications of these connections are many; of particular interest for
this research is the position of migrants within the consumption system. Salvadoran
migrants are agents in the transnational movement of consumption-related beliefs and
practices. As Bhachu states, diasporic lives and products are “based on constant
improvisation and co-construction” (2006:66). Through monetary remittances
Salvadorans increase the ability of family members to consume in El Salvador.
Transmigrants participate in the US. consumption system and also remit consumption
behaviors and values. San Salvador increasingly mirrors US. cities in terms of the
number and sophistication of consumption sites and the availability of consumables; in
varied ways, transnational migrants and their families are central ﬁgures in this context,
and therefore essential to this effort to document and analyze it.

There is a fairly rich literature regarding Salvadoran transnational migration.3

However, gaps exist on the topic of consumption and migration linkages (Pessar and

 

2 Examples of works inﬂuencing my approach include: Appadurai I991: Basch et al. 1994: Chamberlain
and Leydesdorff 2004; Georges 1990: Click Schiller et al. 1992. I995; Goldin 1999; Goldring I999: Levitt
2001; Louie 2001. 2004; Mahler 2000: Mato 2000; Orozco et al. 2005: Parreflas 2005; Portes et al. 1999:
Robinson 2003; Rouse 1992; Silvey 2006; Sklair 2001.

3 Relevant examples include: Andrade-Eekhoff 1997: Bailey et al. 2002: Baker-Cristales 2004: Benitez
2006: Coutin 1998: Hamilton and Chinchilla 1999 and 200l: Jones I989; Landolt 2001; Landolt and Wei
Wei Ba 2005; Mahler 1995a. 1999; Marroquin Parducci 2005; Mason 1999; Menjivar 1994, 2000; Mixco
2007: Montes Mozo, et al. 1988; Pedersen 2004: Popkin 2003.

Mahler 2003). Until recently, the relationships between migration and consumption have
been largely under theorized and to some extent, under documented. Some research has
recorded general data and patterns (for instance, Massey 1987); however this dissertation
moves beyond such work to deconstruct consumption ideologies and practices. Blanket
statistical categories are informative, but do not adequately capture consumption
complexities. We can gain greater insights by more directly linking the rich literatures on
consumption with works on migration.

The concept of transnationalism provides an important lens for considering
migration; I also use it as a tool to consider other processes. Of particular importance are
the economic and political mechanisms that facilitate the transnationalization of
consumption systems. The US. has along history of political, economic, and
sociocultural insertion in El Salvador. This often-hegemonic presence has played out in
various ways, including via international institutions such as the International Monetary
Fund. Similarly, multinational or transnational corporations (TNCS), including powerful
conglomerates based in El Salvador, play critical roles in the Shaping of El Salvador. The
movement of consumables and consumption-related beliefs and practices, for example, is
mediated by both Salvadoran- and U.S.—based TNCS. Further, through transnationél ties,
both the Salvadoran and the US. governments have facilitated Salvadoran transnational
migration. As an example, the government of El Salvador has regularly and successfully
petitioned the US. government to renew Temporary Protected Status (TPS)4 for

qualifying Salvadorans living in the US.

 

4 . . . . .

The US. government grants TPS In cases of ongomg armed conﬂict. envrronmental disasters. or other
extraordinary and temporary conditions. The status is granted for a period of 6 to 18 months. Most
recently, some Salvadoran migrants qualiﬁed for TPS because of a series of earthquakes in El Salvador.

10

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I (Neoliberalism in El Salvador

\\

Due to its transnational or ‘global’ nature, as well as the importance of consumption in
the neoliberal economic model, neoliberalism is a fundamental theme in this work.5 As is
the case in the majority of the world, the economic development model being adopted in
El Salvador is neoliberal. The government has taken the requisite steps to open their
market to regional, transnational, and global trade. This is well exempliﬁed by the
Central American - Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), which the
government of El Salvador put into effect in March of 2006. CAFTA-DR is modeled on
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). These agreements require the
implementation and maintenance of neoliberal structures in participating countries. The
trade arrangements facilitate a number of economic processes, including the increased
ﬂuidity of imports and exports between participating countries. For instance, Salvadoran
cheeses (a popular nostalgic product) are expected to arrive quickly and easily to the
US, while at the same time, US. products, such as pork, should enter the Salvadoran
market and bring down consumer costs.

The implications of shifts in tariffs and other ‘trade barriers’ under CAFTA-DR
are complex and cannot be easily measured until time has passed. However, a number of
concerns have been raised regarding CAFTA-DR, which are based on the outcomes of
NAFTA and El Salvador’s own experiences under the Structures of the World Bank, the
IMF, and other similar institutions. Issues that have generated anxiety include the
potential for monopolies to evolve from the privatization of public sector service

agencies. Another concern is with the disadvantaged position of states in arbitration as

 

The roots of neOIIberalIsm are found In “the Washington Consensus. which encouraged deregulation. the
downsizing of governments. and opening of markets in poor countries.

11

 

 

has played out in a series of NAFTA Chapter 11 cases based on the ‘loss’ of unrealized
proﬁts. Other aspects of the agreement stimulated more immediate and measurable
concerns. For instance, at the time of the ratiﬁcation of CAFTA—DR, fears were raised
regarding the competitiveness of Salvadoran goods on the local market upon the entry of
subsidized U.S. goods. The pork industry, for example, seemed likely to suffer. CEPAL
(Comisién Econémica para América Latina y el Caribe), predicts another likely
repercussion of CAFTA-DR is that as El Salvador links itself more directly to the global
economy, it increases its vulnerabilities to recessions and other external problems.
Downsizing national governments and privatizing public services are additional
demands of the neoliberal model. Salvadoran banks, telecommunications, and pensions
systems have already been privatized. In 1996, El Salvador had also partially privatized
the governmental bodies that manage hydroelectric services. Social services in El
Salvador that could fall under the jurisdiction of government ministries are in the hands
of non-govemmental organizations. For instance, ‘Homies Unidos’ is an organization
that aims to address the issue of gang violence. The organization works to provide gang
members with alternatives to violent lives through workshops, training, and the
establishment of small enterprises (Hamilton and Chinchilla 1999). Numerous other
organizations have been established to meet community needs. Recently, the country
nearly privatized their healthcare system, in part as a response to its history with the
World Bank, the IMF, and the Inter-American Development Bank.6 Municipal water
systems are currently under threat of “concessioning,” i.e. privatizing community by

community, rather than the entire country concurrently. These privatization processes

 

Haglund 2006 explores Important themes on the topic of privatIzatIon In El Salvador and discusses
evidence regarding the beneﬁts and problems.

12

shape the consumption system. The availability and price of goods (such as water) and
services (such as telecommunications) Shift in various ways when they enter the private
sector.

The power of trade agreements and international trade and lending bodies,
combined with the preferences of local power holders regarding economic approaches,
have led El Salvador to adopt many tenets of the neoliberal model. This in turn has
shaped the country’s approach to development and modernization. Under the neoliberal
framework, consumption is both a driving force and an end result. Neoliberal
development efforts in San Salvador foster the entry of consumption sites and
consumables and cultivate the mechanisms that link them to well being, happiness, and
status. Because shopping malls, super sized stores, and US. chains are equated
positively with development, they are overwhelmingly sought and celebrated. An
exponential increase in the availability of goods and services is occurring in San
Salvador. An array of electronics, clothing, toiletries, and alcoholic beverages are
available, as are services from salons, lntemet cafes, restaurants, and movie theatres.

Also important is that in varying ways, the neoliberal market encourages
transnational migration. Under this model, components of economies (capital, goods,
and labor) should ﬂow unfettered. Simultaneously, migrants are ﬁgures in the
transnationalization of consumption beliefs and behaviors. Their experiences lead to
changes in micro ﬁnances and individual and familial practices, which in turn inﬂuence
changes in sending communities. In San Salvador, as in many locales, transnational

migration is one of very few ways to engage in consumption and its promises. Migration

13

is an avenue to participate in the American dream that may play out in either El Salvador
or the US.

Transnational migration is a response to ‘underdevelopment’, which includes the
absence of consumption access points. Thus transnational migration is a pragmatic
behavior within the neoliberal, globalizing, and developing economy. As Douglas
Massey argues, we need to shift from viewing migration “as a pathological product of
rampant poverty and rapid population growth,” to its actuality as “a natural byproduct of
economic development” (2005:A23). The widespread tendency to criticize and
criminalize migrants (in both sending and receiving contexts) ignores the importance and
power of messages regarding the beneﬁts of consumption, the neoliberal development
structure, and transnational powers. This work situates migrants within the dominant,
socially constructed consumption system, one that exerts considerable, albeit differing,
pressures on many humans.

In approaching these issues, I draw on a Grarnscian conceptualization of
hegemony and the work of David Morton regarding Gramsci and his writings.
Hegemony is an inherent element of neoliberalism and its derivative consumption
patterns. And as Gramsci states, the capitalist enterprise is a “reﬂection of international
developments which transmit their ideological currents to the periphery—currents born of
the productive development of the more advanced countries” (1971:116-117).

My concern with hegemony is a concern with the mechanisms that shape and
diffuse ideologies. More speciﬁcally, with the hegemonic forces that mold the
consumption system explored here. It is through hegemonic processes that consumption-

related symbols and meanings are generated, circulated, and propagated. As part of these

14

processes, a number of mechanisms forge and present links between consumption and
well being, pleasure, identity, and other symbols and beneﬁts. These instruments are
fundamental elements in the production of culture (e. g., Kemper 200724). The key
mechanisms discussed here are advertising, ﬁlms, television, lntemet, consumption
models, and consumption sites.

The power of this hegemonic force lies not in any individual message or
mechanism, but in their cumulative inﬂuence on values, beliefs, meanings, and priorities.
Regarding advertisements, for example, Jean Kilbourne argues: “There is no way to tune
out this much information, especially when it is designed to break through the ‘tuning
out’ process” (2006:10). The cumulative impact of ads, she argues, affects our
relationships with each other and our perceptions of the way our lives (fail to) measure
up. Taken together, these hegemonic mechanisms shape dominant societal expectations
regarding appearances, roles, lifestyles, pains, and pleasures. Advertising, media, and so
on thus contribute to the construction of knowledge in El Salvador. Over the course of
time, such knowledge becomes “taken for granted” (Berger and Luckman 1967:104).
Certainly there are other mechanisms that conﬁrm or counter hegemonic messages;
however, jointly, marketing, media, and the other forces explored in this work form a
system with incomparable power and breadth. As Kemper succinctly states, for example,
“ordinary people lack the mechanical power and distributional range of electronic and
print media” (2007:4).

In addition to the validation of ideas and practices, these processes also legitimate
the institutions from which they emerge. In this way, the power of hegemonic agents

augments over time. Key agents behind mechanisms of reproduction include elites and

15

power holders in both El Salvador and the US. Together they form a complex web of
private and public institutions—at the base of which, in the neoliberal context, are
corporations. As an example, the Democratic Party of the US, which has traditionally
advocated for labor, has been hegemonized by multinational corporations (Jones 2006).
The Party is an agent of dominant and neoliberal hegemonic processes. Another
example, which is detailed in this dissertation, is the Salvadoran Foundation for
Economic Development (FUSADES). The hegemonic power of this institution arises
from the complex melding of transnational Salvadoran elites, power holders, and the
Salvadoran state. The interests of corporations inﬂuence and often dictate the priorities
and agendas of individuals and bodies that hold power in both the US. and El Salvador.
Hegemonic processes relevant to a concern with consumption are thus derivatives of the

neoliberal market.

Methodological Approach

This dissertation is based on research conducted in San Salvador over a cumulative
period of one year, the bulk of which occurred in 2005. It is an ethnography of people,
places, cultures, societies, politics, and economics. I utilized three primary approaches to
obtain data. First, I carried out participant observation, second, I conducted interviews,
and third, I accessed locally produced research and writings. This etlmographic approach
enabled me to collect the spoken and written voices of Salvadorans, as well as to map out
important processes and patterns. The ﬁndings presented here are based on a single case
study and a non-statistically signiﬁcant sample. However, 1 also draw on a range of other

studies, thereby increasing the scope. For example, most of my interviewees were

16

female, but in varying ways other aspects of the work reﬂect the voices and experiences

of men.

Participant Observation

I conducted participant observation in a range of settings. I frequented consumption
sites, in particular the Metrocentro shopping mall, on my own and with collaborators and
friends. At consumption sites I recorded a range of observations, including
proprietorship, marketing tactics, the behaviors of patrons, as well as my own actions and
thoughts. Examples of observations regarding patrons include indicators of
socioeconomic status, numbers of people carrying shopping bags, and the age and sex of
people who paused to look at displays in storefront windows. I also measured the range
of available consumables and recorded prices. At times I was participating more than
observing. For example, in the grocery store I would get a general sense of the volume of
people around me and sometimes note what they bought, and spatial, visual, or other
aspects of the experience. However, I was often more concerned with my own
purchases. I frequently talked with companions about these sites and about
consumables—sometimes within the context of the research and sometimes as part of
everyday conversation. In addition to shopping centers, I also carried out participant
observation in other types of consumption sites, including restaurants, parks, the
international airport, and educational settings. As part of my efforts to insert myself in
the context of San Salvador, I attended public events and demonstrations, religious

celebrations, ceremonies, and other social events. When possible, I observed and

17

recorded the ways that people interacted with consumables and their discourses regarding
consumption and consumables.

As participant observation was a key element of the research and data collection, I
took daily ﬁeld notes in order to capture experiences and observations. Virtually every
experience in San Salvador was relevant and helped to illuminate the study. Sometimes
the data was general in nature, enhancing my understanding of the context. Often,
however, my experiences and observations related in speciﬁc ways to the research topic.
Because consumption and migration are inextricably linked to many other processes in

San Salvador, 3 great deal of evidence was revealed via participation and observation.

Interviews

I conducted a series of semi-structured interviews primarily with women, but also with a
few men and children.7 There were several motivations for focusing on women.
Migration is a gendered process and a focus on women helps to reveal issues that are
overlooked when gender is not a central concern. A focus on women is also important
because in El Salvador, they are often the primary caretakers of children and the elderly
and therefore experience speciﬁc repercussions of migration. Further, evidence suggests
that women are the principle recipients of remittances (PNUD 2005). With a primarily
female sample, I was able to begin to take the gendered impacts of transnationalism into
account. Similarly, the ways that women experience and engage in the consumption
system can be gender-related. Finally, my own- female sex and gender led me to place

women at the center of my research. In El Salvador, the most appropriate connections

 

7 . . .

In all, I InterVIewed a total of 45 people. of these three were men and three were children or youth. The
Michigan State University Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved the study protocol. including
interviews with children.

18

and relationships for me to form were with women. Prioritizing female interviews was
thus a way for me to respect social norms, protect my reputation, and establish myself as
trustworthy. While the bulk of my interviews were conducted with women, I did capture
important data regarding males through participant observation, informal
communications, and various published sources. At the same time, while I think there is
a probability that my ﬁndings are broad in their applicability, the focus on women in
these interviews is a limitation of the work.

Most interviews lasted, on average, approximately one hour. The questions were
Open ended. In the more extensive interviews with a sub sample of eight, I included
follow-up conversations, as well as interviews and conversations with family members. I
also spent more time with these women—essentially developing friendships and learning
about their daily routines and present and past experiences. Several became key
consultants; they provided general contextual information and data Speciﬁcally relevant
to transnationalism and consumption. Marta, Teresa, Joseﬁna, Rosa, Paula, Carmita,
Andrea, and Leticia are sub sample participants and their voices and experiences (as well
as those of their families and friends) are highlighted in this work. (When referencing
interviewees, I use pseudonyms in order to keep identities conﬁdential.) These women
have experienced a wide range of life events. Several directly experienced the horrors
and violence of the country’s civil war. Many of these women, regardless of age, had
grieved the loss of parents and siblings, in some cases because of the war, but in others
due to illness. Their lives also contained joys, such as Carmita’s completion of her
degree, the ﬁrst communion of Teresa’s daughter, and the visit of Joseﬁna’s migrant

daughter. Marta, Rosa, Leticia and the others were all participants in life’s more

19

mundane daily activities such as attending class and work, readying children for school,
or watching television and ﬁlms. The processes, trials, and joys experienced by these
women—some of which are too personal or too revealing of their identities to be
included in this dissertation—are an important backdrop for this work.

The interviews conducted with the entire sample were designed to yield data
regarding the implications of migration for the women who remain in San Salvador. In
particular, I asked about the economic and emotional ramiﬁcations. On these topics I
also explored the themes of consumption, family structures, and hopes and aspirations.
Interviews were not tape recorded for a number of reasons, which included my
prioritization of the comfort and conﬁdence of the interviewees. Comprehensive notes
were taken during and immediately following interviews. For the most part, interviewee
statements are therefore paraphrased rather than quoted in this dissertation.

All interviewees had family members living in the US. with whom they had
fairly regular contact. Of the total number interviewed, I include 35 Salvadorans with
relatives in the US. in this analysis. The number of people represented by these 35
interviews is greater, however, because often individuals were giving voice not only to
themselves, but to others in their family or to close friends. While I recognize the
resulting chance of inaccuracies in representation, these second-hand stories nevertheless
inform my overall interpretation of the data. This is particularly the case with the more
in-depth interviewing that I conducted with the sub sample. For instance, Andrea
represented her brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. Leticia, although I also interviewed

her sister Ana Maria, was the person in their family with whom I spent the most time.

20

She therefore gave voice to her large family, in particular her parents and three migrant
siblings.

Each interviewee had more than one close relationship transnationalized by
migration. The reference points for discussing migration included immediate and
extended family, in-laws, half siblings, former and current husbands or partners, close
ﬁ'iends, and neighbors. For some, multiple US. ties have resulted from the birth of
children in the US. For instance, Soledad’s oldest brother and his wife gave birth to
three children in the US, so in addition to being distanced ﬁ'om him, Soledad is also far
from her nieces and nephews. For most interviewees (as well as for many Salvadoran
friends and acquaintances) the coming and going of people close to them was very much
a part of their life. All interviewees had family in the US. at the time of the interviews,
but some also had family that had migrated and then returned to El Salvador. Others had
themselves lived in the US. Amelia, for instance, migrated to the US. and lived there
for one year and a half. She returned to El Salvador due to loneliness and homesickness.
A number of other interviewees had studied in the US, attended conferences, or traveled
in the US. for work related reasons or vacations.

The links to the US. range from simple to complex. Carmita’s primary
connection was her son-in-law, who had recently migrated leaving his wife, Carmita’s
daughter, in San Salvador. The father of Carmita’s children migrated in 1990, but she
had lost contact with him. Her brother also migrated, but she no longer communicated
with him either. Thus her son-in-law was her primary focus at the time of the interview.
Pilar, on the other hand, answered the question of who had migrated to the US. by saying

“todo mi farnilia vive alli” or “my whole family lives there.” She found it simpler to list

21

family still living in El Salvador, which included her two sisters and an aunt. Her
grandparents, mother, the father of her children, aunts, uncles, and cousins lived in the
US. Pilar and her two children expected to move to the US. in the near future. Her
sister-in—law, Rosa, left with her two children for New Jersey in late 2005. Rosa’s
husband, Pilar’s brother, was well established in the US, making Rosa’s migration
possible. In J oseﬁna’s case, the father of her children and their three daughters live in
California. Her husband’s family migrated, beginning with his brother and later his
parents. Joseﬁna’s mother-in-law married a US. citizen and obtained citizenship. She
was then able to help the others legalize their residency.

While the familial relationships and ties varied, US bound migration had
signiﬁcance for each interviewee. Emotional ties were the most common, and economic
connections were important for some as well. These ties and the impacts of migration
were felt both directly and indirectly. Several young women, for instance, felt the
absence of family; but it was the emotional and economic impact on their parents that
were particularly signiﬁcant. This was the case for 27-year-old Mercedes, whose
paternal grandfather lived in the US with his two daughters. Mercedes spoke of the
implications for her; for example, migrant family members would send Barbie dolls and
other toys to Mercedes and her sister when they were girls. More recently, Mercedes had
experienced the cultural differences that arose between herself and the family members
who were living in Nevada at the time. It was Mercedes’ father, though, who would have
experienced the most direct emotional consequences of the separation. His father and

sisters left El Salvador in the context of the war and have been in the US since then.

22

The interviewees were ‘recruited’ through snowball sampling. This sampling
process was initiated at several different points, yet there were some restrictions on my
ability to diversify the sample. This, therefore, limits the claims that can be made about
the representative nature of these interviews. Further, my own political, cultural, and
other values inevitably impacted how I formed relationships, and with whom I built
friendships. Nevertheless, I was successﬁrl in gathering data that helps to reﬂect various
viewpoints. In all, the sample includes people of varying religions given patterns in El
Salvador, including both Catholic and Protestant faiths. For instance, Teresa and Andrea
are Evangelicals, and Victoria and Priscila identify as Catholics. As in many contexts,
religions and particular churches in El Salvador are tied to politics, power, and
economies. In the aftermath of the civil war (a topic I discuss in the next chapter), in
which liberation theology played a critical role, church afﬁliations are symbolic of much
more than spiritual beliefs. Religious afﬁliation is therefore an important indicator of
sample diversity.

I did not ask explicit questions regarding party afﬁliations and political views, and
therefore do not have a comprehensive tally of these variables. In many cases people’s
views did not fall neatly into rigid and delimited categories. Nevertheless, I am able to
estimate that in all, political perspectives varied and included staunch supporters of the
left leaning political party (FMLN)8, individuals with more conservative views, and some
with moderate outlooks.

Interviewees also represented a range of ages. The youngest, Ernesto, was ﬁve at

the time of the interview. Emesto’s father (Rosa’s husband) had been in the US. Since

 

Farabundo MartI National LIberatIon Front or Frente Farabundo Marti para la LiberaCIon Nacronal.

23

prior to Emesto’s birth. A number of the women were between forty and ﬁfty. Victoria,
who works as a teacher in San Salvador, is 41 years old. Several of her family members
are in the US, including her son’s father. The education levels of interviewees were also
diverse. This is related to age and gender with younger women being more likely to
possess university level education than older women. Carmita, for instance, was
ﬁnishing her undergraduate degree at the Universidad Nacional; Paula was studying
economics at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA); Marta was ﬁnishing her teaching
degree at the Universidad Nacional; and Andrea was working on her teaching degree at
the Universidad Pedagégica. Trini had a Masters in economics, earned at a school in the
US, and both Mercedes and Leticia held law degrees. Several interviewees near the age
of forty had high school diplomas or associates degrees. A few interviewees of varying
ages had gone as far as middle school.

The urban site of San Salvador was an integral and formative part of each
person’s life as they all were living, working, or studying in the metro-San Salvador area
at the time of my research. In many cases the urban context was signiﬁcant in deﬁning
educational and professional opportunities, as well as consumption behaviors. For
instance, Teresa lived in a suburban community and worked in downtown San Salvador.
Andrea worked and studied in the city, but lived with her father in a community outside
of the city. Leticia lived, worked, and studied near the Universidad Nacional in San
Salvador. Because this was a snowball sample, in some cases the interviewees knew
each other. The relationships varied and included connections as neighbors, friends, or

co-workers. A few were relatives of each other and some knew each other through

24

classes or organizations. Some interviewees were outside of the circles and did not have

any connection with the others involved in the study.

The Salvadoran Middle Classes

Relatively limited research has been concerned with migrations of the Salvadoran middle
classes from urban areas. Research and media attention have been directed towards rural
and semi-urban zones, in particular, in the eastern portion of the country. Available
statistics suggest that certain parts of the country are particularly marked by emigration
and remittances. Certainly, the exodus of rural peoples is important and receives a great
deal of attention, in part, because studies conducted in smaller communities can be more
manageable and therefore more measurable. However, Salvadoran transnational
migrants are not just the rural poor; middle class Salvadorans make up an important part
of the migrant population. This dissertation therefore documents some of the issues that
are relevant to Salvadoran groups that have received less attention than have poorer
peoples from rural areas.

An important motivation for attempting to deﬁne characteristics of the elusive
middle class results from my concern with consumption. Class and consumption are
“mutually constitutive cultural processes” —so consumption should be seen as
“involving much more than Simply the act of purchasing some product” (Liechty
2003:30). Or, as Weber states: “‘property’ and ‘lack of property’ are, therefore, the basic
categories of all class situations” (1946: 182). Microeconomics and reference groups
play fundamental roles in the deﬁning of consumption beliefs and practices. Conversely,

consumption patterns can delineate social groups within populations.

25

While class is an important variable in considering consumption and transnational
migration, unfortunately, class categories can be vague, subjective, and broad, and
therefore tempting to discard. However, there are deﬁnite beneﬁts to deﬁning certain
shared characteristics within a sample. As much as any other variable, economics or
micro ﬁnances help to shape life experiences. Likewise, social position and reference
groups (including as they relate to economic position) deﬁne the human experience. The
categories of socioeconomic status and class help to capture the immense importance of
these realities, although this recognition does little to help with conceptualizing them as
research variables. Class categories are not, after all, “empirical conditions” (Liechty
2003:20). I endeavor, nevertheless, to recognize the importance of this variable in the
lived experiences of the Salvadorans in my study. Further, I attempt to consider a cross
section of the Salvadoran population, despite the porous boundaries between segments.

In El Salvador, as in many countries, the concept of ‘middle class’ fails to deﬁne
with any precision a particular socioeconomic group. My focus on the middle class was
an effort to look at a group of people that is not among the country’s very poor,9 nor
among its wealthy elite. I used numerous indicators to categorize people—including
income, education level, employment or profession, and property ownership. For
instance, many interviewees owned homes in the US, El Salvador, or both and some
owned vehicles. I also considered other characteristics, in particular, U.S. residency and
citizenship. About half of the interviewees possessed visas to visit or study in the US,
held U.S. residency, or had some type of paperwork in process. This approach to

conceptualizing the middle class allowed me to help deﬁne what it is that sets the people

 

9 According to DIGESTYC (2005). approximately 65 percent of Salvadorans are above the poverty level.
Of course. as with the US. the poverty line is extremely low and there are people who statistically are not
classiﬁed as impoverished, but who are barely subsisting.

26

in my study apart from groups at the two opposite extremes of the class continuum. The
study included families that were middle class either socially or economically, or

according to both indicators. '0

Local Research and Writings

Another fundamental component of data collection involved the review of locally
conducted research and writings on transnational migration, consumption, and other
relevant issues. Local universities and media were two key sources. Several universities,
including the Universidad Centroamericana and the Universidad Francisco Gavidia,
publish results from research projects. A number of institutions also publish materials
containing relevant statistics and other data. Particularly important for this study was the
2005 release by the United Nations Development Program (PNUD, Programa de las
Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo). This work, titled “Una mirada al nuevo nosotros, el
impacto de las migraciones,” draws on the knowledge and skills of a range of local and
external scholars to form a comprehensive collection of analyses on Salvadoran
migration. Another timely source regarding Salvadoran companies, published in 2005 by
Grupo Maiz (Aguilar and Villalona), helped me to trace more deﬁnitively the links
between the Salvadoran elite and the Salvadoran consumption system. While this
dissertation is an ethnography, I highlight Salvadoran work and research to supplement
and complement my own ﬁndings as part of my effort to corroborate my ideas and data

with locally identiﬁed patterns.

 

10 . . .

By focusmg on the middle class. I do not mean to downplay the breadth and depth of poverty In El
Salvador. In part, I theorize that attention to the elite and middle classes is necessary to truly understand
the complexities involved in the economic inequality.

27

Migration is also a frequent theme of the local press and television networks. I
followed, in particular, the two newspapers with the largest circulation—La prensa
graﬁca and El diario de hoy. These sources helped me to situate migration within current
events in both Central America and the US. In some cases, I compared El Salvador’s
coverage of stories to major US. press sources, in particular the Washington Post, thus
providing a reference point for some consideration of migration discourses. Additionally,
both Salvadoran newspapers periodically published a variety of relevant statistics from a
number of sources. I also noted media coverage of consuming, consumption sites, and
advertising. Data and information collected and compiled by the Salvadoran government
was another important local information resource. The agencies to which I refer in this
work include the Banco Central de Reserva (BCR)ll and Direccién General de

Estadistica y Censos (DIGESTYC)'2, which conducts population censuses.

Organization of the Dissertation

In the next chapter, I introduce the reader to the context of San Salvador, El Salvador. I
present relevant social, economic, historical, and political characteristics. I describe
Salvadoran transnational migration, including both historic patterns and current waves. I
also characterize El Salvador’s transnational economy. In particular, I describe the ties
between the US. and El Salvador and the processes that have diffused elements of the
US. consumption system to El Salvador. I also explore economic development and its

importance to the topics of transnational economics, consumption, and migration.

 

11
Central Reserve Bank
12 . . .
General Councrl on Statistics and Census

28

In chapter three, I describe the mechanisms of social reproduction or the
foundations of the consumption system in San Salvador. I discuss two key groups—
transnational corporations (TNCS) and Salvadoran conglomerates. I Show the importance
of both of these in the Salvadoran neoliberal consumption system. I then detail my
theoretical approach to consumption, including the connections between consuming and
well being, happiness, and status.

I characterize the Salvadoran consumption system in chapter four. 1 document the
parallels between the US. and Salvadoran consumption systems. As such, the
complexity and sophistication of the Salvadoran consumption system is made evident. I
describe the pervasiveness of advertising and the prevalence of malls and other
consumption sites. I document the ways in which Salvadorans, particularly the
individuals and families who were part of this study, were engaged in the consumption
system and the challenges and tension that arose from that engagement.

The focus of chapter ﬁve is on the insights that can be gained by using
consumption as a starting point for considering impetuses for and implications of
transnational migration. I Show how consumption encourages migration, in particular
given economic limitations in San Salvador and societal pressures to consume. I discuss
both the degree to which transnationals have greater access to consumption, and the
perceptions that transnational migrants have regarding their potential to fulﬁll the
‘American dream’. Similarly, I document how it is that transnationalism can translate
into increased status via the heightened capacity to consume. I reveal the ways in which
migration encourages consumption and the ways that consumption encourages migration.

This leads to the topic of “the disintegrated family” versus “economic help” and a

29

discussion of the way that Salvadoran families frequently must choose between these
diverging paths to ensuring familial well being and happiness.

In chapter six I explore the discourses of consumption, migration, and
remittances. This discussion reveals patterns, consistencies, and inconsistencies in
(mis)understandings of Salvadoran transnational migration; in particular it highlights the
incongruity between the promotion and marketing of consumption as a means to
happiness and the discouragement and criticisms of the use of remittances for
‘ostentatious’ consumption. Such opinions and judgments come from across society, but
a critical source is the same elite group involved in encouraging consumption. There is a
tension between the practices (and perhaps ideologies) of elites at corporate and
institutional levels and their critiques of remittance use. Similarly, I consider the
reactions in host contexts towards immigrant labor and the inconsistencies and
contradictions inherent in attitudes and behaviors.

Chapter seven pulls together a number of topics and themes introduced
throughout the dissertation. I review my arguments regarding consumption as it relates to
well being, happiness, and fulﬁllment, and their interrelationships with transnational
processes and neoliberalism. I also summarize my perspectives regarding the position of
transmigrants and their families as bearers of the brunt of a series of tensions and

inconsistencies.

30

CHAPTER 2

TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXTS

A variety of present and past social, economic, and political characteristics of El
Salvador are fundamental to the research I conducted and arguments that I elaborate in
subsequent chapters. Some of these issues are woven throughout the document. Here, I
introduce relevant characteristics of this context in order to situate the research in time
and space.

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America and the most densely
populated. San Salvador is the capital city with a population of about half a million
(digestyc.gob.sv). It is a bustling city, especially during daylight hours, which begin
around 5:00 am. and extend to 6 pm. throughout the year. It possesses the economic
and political extremes seen in many of the world’s cities. One cannot escape evidence of
poverty, violence, and gangs. But just as prevalent are the indicators of more mundane,
moderate, or everyday activities. Children come and go from school. Parents and
domestic help drop younger ones at preschool and daycare centers. The Salvadoran
National Anthem resonates from inside school walls. Men push ice-cream carts with
ringing bells. Fruit and vegetable vendors drive trucks up and down streets and announce
the prices of waterrnelons, tomatoes, oranges, and plantains. Other vendors walk the
streets selling lottery tickets, breads, and the occasional household good. Large trucks
pass through neighborhoods carrying ﬁve-gallon jugs of puriﬁed Agua Cristal. The men
ring bells, and for US$1.83, customers can exchange an empty bottle for a ﬁrll one.

Bottled water is preferred (though cost prohibitive for many) due to unreliable tap water.

31

r .ir-‘a

Always looming to the northeast is the volcano ‘San Salvador’. The
neighborhoods in its shadow vary considerably—from wealthy gated communities, to
marginalized and impoverished zones. In some areas there are homes with manicured
yards, domestic servants, and luxury cars. In others, there are tightly crammed homes or
shacks in danger of being washed away by mud during the rainy season. Many
neighborhoods consist of homes that fall between these two extremes. These households
possess a mix of traits: perhaps domestic help once a week, a washing machine, an older
car, and vigilancia or security guards that are shared by neighbors.

The city is ﬁlled with loud busses emitting visible fumes—some of these are
retired school busses from the US. Universities and other educational institutions,
restaurants, clinics, lawyers’ ofﬁces, shops, and gas stations dot the streets. Vendors sell
pirated DVDS, mobile phone holders, and fresh produce from makeshift stalls and the
curbs at busy intersections. All prices are in US. dollars because the currency switched
from the Salvadoran colo'n to the US. dollar in 2001. Merengue, regatén, and US. pop
music pounds from busses, cars, and the stereos of CD vendors.

Compared to some neighboring countries, the indigenous presence is minimal.
This can be traced in large part to a massacre (La Matanza) in 1932 that, in addition to
decimating the native population, also squashed pride in indigenous roots (as well as in
labor organizing). While there are still groups and individuals that consider themselves
to be indigena (Tilley 2002), little of this is overtly seen or felt within San Salvador.
Instead, categorizations tend to be drawn along lines of skin tone, hair color, eye color,
and socioeconomic status (though there are subtle and powerful complexities that

underlie the invisibleness of the indigenous populations [Peterson 2005]).

32

My research in El Salvador began ten years after the 1992 signing of the peace
accords that marked the end of the country’s civil war. The conﬂict claimed more than
70,000 lives (Mason 1999) and devastated the country’s economy and infrastructure. The
war itself began in 1979, but the underlying conﬂicts were prevalent for years preceding
the armed ﬁghting. The violence was a consequence of social, economic, and political
problems, at the root of which were extreme inequalities. Triggers included poverty,
political corruption, frequent dictatorships, repression, and inequitable land distribution.
In a country where coffee was king, unequal access to land kept the vast majority in
poverty. Liberation theology and both socialist and communist ideals were ﬁrndamental
in the mobilization of various revolutionary groups, which ultimately united in their
efforts to change the Status quo.

The conﬂict was a gruesome one during which a number of infamous events
occurred. These include: the Salvadoran military’s assassination of an archbishop of the
Catholic Church, Oscar Romero, in 1980; the military killings of six Jesuit priests, a
domestic employee and her daughter at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA); and the
military’s massacre of over 700 people in the northern community of El Mazote (Danner
1993). High proﬁle atrocities such as these occurred amid uncountable, less publicized
tragedies. The everyday lives of Salvadorans were characterized by varying degrees of
fear, violence, grief, and suffering. Interviewees, friends, and collaborators tell of family
members disappearing, corpses and death, displacements, and fear. The war, to varying
degrees, somehow impacted the individuals in this study. While age is a key variable in
terms of memory and understanding of that impact, the event was too substantial to leave

a single Salvadoran unscathed.

33

AS part of cold war efforts to stomp out communism or anything resembling it,
the US. gave full support to the capitalist Salvadoran elite in their efforts at
counterinsurgency. Through both military and economic aid, the US. government
shaped the war strategies and tactics of the Salvadoran government. Because of support
and training, the US. is a shadow accomplice behind many of these acts of the
Salvadoran military. These relationships are signiﬁcant because of the consequences of
the conﬂict, but also because they demonstrate the intensity of ties between the US. and
El Salvador.

The postwar portrait of El Salvador is one of continued inequities, poverty, and
struggles. Evidence suggests that inequality in El Salvador is on the rise. The percentage
of income earned by the top ten percent of the population is just over 40—the sixth
highest in the world. The Gini coefﬁcient is 52.3—the ﬁfth highest in the world (World
Bank 2002 cited in Towers and Borzutzky 2004). Hmnan rights abuses are numerous:
they include arbitrary arrests and detentions, an inefﬁcient and corrupt judicial system,
and impunity (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor 2006). Wealth and
power is primarily controlled by descendents of the original coffee oligarchy. Today
there are a number of political parties; the F arabundo Marti National Liberation Front
(F MLN) and the National Republican Alliance (ARENA) are the two dominant parties.
The FMLN evolved from the various guerilla groups that joined forces during the war.
Their legitimate entrance into the country’s political scene was one of the negotiated
terms of the 1992 peace accords. Currently, the FMLN holds key political positions at
local and national levels, but has yet to win a presidential election. The goals of the

F MLN are understood by some, both within and outside of the party, as primarily

34

revolutionary. Stemming in part from the civil war ideology of the guerilla factions,
some party leaders and members are calling for radical changes. Neoliberal models, for
example, are rejected and alternative models, such as the Cuban one, are admired.
Within the FMLN, however, there are also people who emphasize democracy over
revolution, taking less radical approaches to national problems. In general, varying
degrees of disappointment and skepticism pervade the attitudes of party members and
FMLN activists. Many people are discouraged by what they describe as a lack of post-
war change, as well as the complacency of some former guerillas and those who work
with them.

ARENA (or Alianza Republicana Nacionalista de El Salvador) is a conservative
political party or ‘alliance’ which like the F MLN, has roots in the civil war. The
nationalist and anti-communist alliance was founded by Roberto D’Aubuisson Arrieta in
1981.'3 The ﬁrst ARENA candidate to be elected president was Alfredo Cristiani
Burkard in 1985, and the party has maintained control of this executive position through
the present. ARENA is staunchly anti-communist and the party touts a neoliberal
approach to social and economic issues. A recent explicit example is the administration’s
intense support of CAFTA-DR. The president in 2005, Antonio Saca, was consistent in
his conservative economic approach. However, he also adopted a discourse that
emphasized a concern with social welfare on several issues. The administration
maintained, for example, that while Saca was President, healthcare would not be

privatized. Education was another focus of ARENA, and the administration initiated

 

I3 . . . . . . . .
The United Nations ( I993) truth commISSIon found that D AubUIsson was the Intellectual author behind
the assassination of Archbishop Romero.

35

“National Education Plan 2021” to improve technology, pedagogy, and English language

training, amongst other things.

Class Shifts

Since the end of the war, the Salvadoran population has undergone shifts in its social and
class structures. Economic and political changes and new conditions have given rise to a
larger number of people ﬁlling the space between the country’s very poor and the very
rich. Fundamental to this shift is transnationalism, particularly migration to the US. As
will be discussed in greater detail in later sections, transmigrants remit monies and goods
to family in El Salvador. In many instances this affords the maintenance of a particular
standard of living or a higher standard of living. For instance, the families of several
collaborators lost land and livelihoods in the armed conﬂict. Children working in the
US. and Australia enabled these families to continue to lead middle class lives despite
the losses. Additionally, remittances and other aspects of the transnational experience
have allowed many families to shift to the middle class, or to a lifestyle that more closely
resembles it. The father of one upper middle class interviewee, Elana, had proﬁted from
a transnational business that involved regular movement between the US. and El
Salvador. Many Salvadorans have returned from the US. and started businesses
(sometimes based on US. models), and others send money home to enable family
members to initiate money-generating businesses. The children of one Salvadoran friend

sent her start up money so that she could make and sell pupusas (a traditional Salvadoran

food).

36

There are other economic Shifts that also explain the fairly large number of people
in the San Salvador area who can be considered middle class. Monies have entered El
Salvador from a number of sources. Just as Leichty (2003) describes in Kathmandu,
international aid has been important in creating local jobs. US. economic aid distributed
during the war, for instance for the development of export manufacturing zones, “played
a key role in the development of new economic agents” (Robinson 2003). International
aid for education and health projects likewise provided middle class salaries. Alejandra,
as an example amongst interviewees, worked for the ministry of education and her job
included negotiating with World Bank representatives. Non-proﬁt organizations have
also broadened the middle class sphere. In an effort to put into practice the types of
equities that they are working towards, some organizations in San Salvador prioritize
compensating employees with relatively decent wages and health coverage.

Throughout Central America, the tourism industry also creates employment and
opportunities for entrepreneurial activities. While El Salvador is less of a destination
compared to some of its regional neighbors, this is still an important industry inﬂuencing
the capacity of individuals and families to participate in middle class life. In the case of
El Salvador, there are several key types of incoming travel. More so than eco or leisure
travel, many who come to El Salvador are visiting for political or religious reasons. A
common form for such trips is the delegation. These groups are coordinated by various
organizations in El Salvador and the US. Delegation agendas often include visits to sites
like the National Cathedral where Archbishop Oscar Romero is entombed and the

community of El Mazote where a massacre occurred in 1981. Poverty also encourages

tourism and delegations may be focused on providing direct aid, such as in the case of

37

medical brigades. This form of ‘tourism’ involves the travel of doctors, nurses, and
volunteers to provide basic medical care at temporary clinics. Spin offs from these forms
of tourism include the proliferation of guesthouses, transportation companies, eateries,
and other services utilized by delegations. Again, such activities allow Salvadorans to
maintain or improve their standard of living. Several collaborators and interviewees
earned money via tourist and travel-related activities. For instance, Teresa’s brother-in-
law garnered considerable proﬁts from a tour bus company that transported passengers
throughout the region. Another interviewee, Celestina, rented rooms or portions of her
house to travelers.

El Salvador’s tourist industry has also grown due to the many transnational
migrants who return home for vacations, celebrations, and holidays. Measurable
numbers of Salvadorans return (in particular from the US.) to visit with family, vacation,
or pass holidays at ‘home’. Elana’s aunt, for instance, recently traveled to El Salvador
for Elana’s cousin’s wedding. Transmigrants may return for other reasons as well, such
as Esperanza’s sister who had to ﬁnalize her U.S. residency through the Embassy in San
Salvador. Travelers may also be in El Salvador for business, to take advantage of
excellent surﬁng, or to simply pass through en route to other Central American countries.
In all, the high number of visitors and travelers has augmented industries that facilitate
the maintenance or growth of a middle class. For the reasons outlined, this group makes

up a notable and unique portion of the population.

38

Women in El Salvador

Gender is another fundamental variable in this work. Because El Salvador is a
patriarchal society, women experience life differently from men. For example, the
country has a grave problem with women and girls being forced into prostitution and
trafﬁcked as part of regional and international sex trade circuits (Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights and Labor 2006). Less extreme and more prevalent is the clear gendered
division of labor with characteristics similar to those that exist in many other countries.
Women are more likely to be hired by maquilas or factories where the work is grueling
and the compensation inadequate. The shifts are often longer than 8 hours per day for six
days per week, with earnings amounting to about US $5.04 per day (the minimum wage
for the textile industry). Maquilas are known to be brutal environments—hot, dusty, and
tedious—and unionization is practically impossible in the current Salvadoran political
context.

Women are also frequently employed in service and care industries, for example,
as domestic workers. Live in domestic servants are often distanced from their own
family and children as they are only permitted weekends away from the employing
household. This lifestyle resembles that of a Salvadoran who has emigrated to the US,
but with signiﬁcantly lower earnings—usually around the minimum wage, which is about
$150 per month. This ﬁeld well exempliﬁes the way that gender intersects with race and
socioeconomic status because the relationship between employee and domestic help is a
hierarchical one. Further, some people speak of a domestic servant as more than just

someone who cooks, cleans, and watches the children—she may also be expected to

provide sexual services for the male household head. A number of other service industry

39

jobs, in fast food,retail, schools, and daycare centers are also open to women.
Additionally, women ﬁll a niche in the informal economy, for instance preparing food
items or crafts to vend from the home or on the street. Professional opportunities are
available to women, though there are signiﬁcant gender and wage gaps in this sector
(Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor 2006). Age also limits the potential for
women to participate in professional arenas. One woman explained that after the age of
50, a female is thought of as menopausal, angry, and a problem, while a man of this age
is considered perfect for managerial positions.

This is not to say that men do not also experience a great deal of injustice. Age,
for instance, may also limit professional opportunities available to men. One Salvadoran
with a Masters degree from a US. university could only ﬁnd work as an agent at the
newly opened Dell computers call center; he argued that most companies would not hire
men over the age of 50. In terms of the division of labor, many of the jobs available to
men are not necessarily more desirable. For example, males are the primary employees
of the companies that provide security ofﬁcers (a burgeoning privatized industry in San
Salvador). They often earn a bit above minimum wage, working six 12-hour shifts per
week. Security ofﬁcers are employed for both day and night shifts, and they typically
stand, or sometimes sit for a bit, in about the same spot for their entire shift.

While both male and female laborers are subject to low wages and poor working
conditions, Salvadoran women continue to work a double day. Some may have hired
help to wash clothing or clean the home and others may own a washing machine. But for
those who cannot afford help, employment outside of the home does not release them

from their household obligations. They are the primary caretakers of children, elderly,

40

ill, and disabled family members. They also cook, clean, and perform other activities
required to keep the household functioning. Women assume most or all responsibility for
reproductive labor. This is the case in households where both partners are employed
outside of the home, in female-headed households, and in households where the female is
not employed outside of the home. Meeting the needs of family members presents
challenges. Raising children is made difﬁcult by a variety of threats, especially in urban
areas. Violence, theft, and gang activity are pervasive and children may be victimized or
drawn into criminal circles. Even with remittances, household ﬁnances are a limiting
factor in care taking and rarely are sufﬁcient to hire additional help. Additionally, these
obligations limit the freedom that women have to migrate. When mothers do migrate,
their absence usually increases the work of another woman, often a grandmother.

Gender bias also exists at institutional level. In El Salvador, women “lack voices
at the macro, meso, and micro levels” because all levels privilege the male (Gideon
1999z5). Women play only marginal roles in formal institutions, such as in political,
economic, social, and legal arenas (e.g., Gaborit et al. 2003). Non-govemmental
organizations, cooperatives, and trade unions also tend to be male-centric (Gideon
1999: 12).

Migration experiences are also gendered. For example, women are at
signiﬁcantly greater risk when crossing undocumented. Physical dangers, including
sexual assault, are frequently reported. Once in the US, the division of labor and wages
are gender dependent (Repak 1995). Women immigrants frequently work a double day,
although the research of Poggio and Woo (2000) suggests that some husbands increase

their participation in domestic tasks once in the US. The experiences of immigrant

41

Salvadoran women in the US. are impacted by a society that generally grants women
more equity than does Salvadoran society. Some females become more independent,
attributable, in part, to new experiences and exposure to different lifestyles. According to
Poggio and Woo (2000), the process of increased liberties begins when women make the
decision to leave El Salvador and continues throughout the course of their experiences as
migrants. Increased self-esteem and self-appreciation are outcomes of migration for
some Salvadoran women and both can be observed in changes in gender relations within
families (Poggio and Woo 2000). These changes depend not only on women’s abilities
to earn incomes but also “on the social processes of working outside the home as
conditioned by the new context” (Menjivar 20032102). Thus, the process of migration
can change household hierarchies, where both male and female heads are present, as a
result of the alteration of the individual actors.

These gendered patterns are critical to understanding transnational processes. In
my examinations of migration I incorporate not only macro level forces, i.e. economic
and political factors that inﬂuence migration, but also patterns of household organization,
networking, and class divisions (Georges 1990; Grasmuck and Pessar 1991). Further,
this work takes into account that other transnational processes are also gendered, such as
structural adjustment programs (e. g., Geisler and Hansen 1994) and aspects of ‘global’

capitalism (e.g., Bergeron 2001; Freeman 2001; Ong 1991).

Transnational Migration and El Salvador
Transnational migration, especially to the US, is a prominent feature of life in El

Salvador today. The country has long been characterized by labor mobility. A trend in

42

recent decades has been exceptionally high rates of US. bound migration. These

transnational movements of people are a fundamental theme in this dissertation.

Conceptualizing Transgationalism

The concept of transnationalism aids in the elucidation of Salvadoran migration and other
processes relevant to this inquiry. Transnationalism is a useful tool for accounting for the
non-bounded and non-isolated characteristics of many phenomena and processes. As a
concept, ‘transnational’ provides a theoretical and analytical space between the ‘global’
and the ‘local’, but at the same time incorporates elements of both. A transnational lens
highlights interconnections and complexities that may be lost if only a local or global lens
is used. In conceptualizing transnationalism, I draw on the work of Vertovec who
suggests that the term “broadly refers to multiple ties and interactions linking people or
institutions across the borders of nation-states” (1999:447). He elaborates by noting the
intensiﬁcation of between-country connections despite geographic and political barriers
or borders including “laws, regulations and national narratives” (1999:447). In this
dissertation I emphasize transnational connections because I am primarily concerned with
the links between the US. and El Salvador. However, this work is informed by related
anthropological writings on globalization. For instance, the work of Held et al. (1999)
illuminates the extensiveness and intensiveness of political, economic, social, and
cultural changes on a global scale. Also inﬂuential are the many works concerned with
anthropological approaches to the local and the global (e. g., Edelman 1999 and Freeman

2001).

43

For a number of reasons, transnational connections are pervasive in today’s
world. Whether labeled ‘globalizing’ or ‘transnationalizing,’ the connections link
geographic zones that could otherwise be distanced by either physical or symbolic
barriers. Technology, including computers, cable and satellite television, radio, and
mobile telephones, is a fundamental mechanism allowing transnational processes to
occur. The lntemet, for example, enables transnational purchases and investments,
money transfers, and the initiation and maintenance of personal, social, and professional
ties. The lntemet also makes news, information, and popular culture mediums such as
ﬁlms and music, more readily available. Mobile telephones, pagers, and Blackberries
increase and improve communications, particularly in places where the infrastructure
limits installation of telephone lines. The number of technological examples is immense
and so are instances of technologies encouraging transnationalization. Technology is
integral to transnational systems. Youngs aptly refers to it as the “material element of
transnational exchange, interest and activity and the means by which such transnational
phenomena are expressed” (2000:81).

Technology and other mechanisms have encouraged the transnationalization of
political and economic forces. Examples of these forces include neoliberal economics
policies, global institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), trade
agreements, and multi-country agreements on issues ranging from human rights to global
warming. Regarding the WTO, Robinson notes it was the: “ﬁrst supranational institution
with coercive capacity not embedded in any particular nation-state but rather directly in VA

transnational functionaries and the transnational corporate elite” (2003251).

Transnational corporations (TNCS) are fundamental forces within these processes of

44

expansion. They are examples of agents in the neoliberal context that “do not derive their
power and authority from the state” (Sklair 2001 :2). At the same time, local political
structures—as they function at various levels—can be important. As Smith notes,

“globalist approaches” run the risk of failing “to take account of local causal processes”

(2005278).

Transnational Migration

In this transnational and globalizing context, high rates of between-country migration are
found throughout the world. ‘Transnational migration’ is different from in-country
migrations, and as a concept it accounts for unique characteristics. When applied to
migrants, the term ‘transnational’ emphasizes the interconnections across national
borders as experienced and practiced by many (but not all) migrants. The types of
connections vary; for instance they may be in the form of obligations, loyalties, or
emotions (e.g., Louie 2001). These interconnections can be at the individual, familial,
group, and community levels. And the identities of transmigrants may be “conﬁgured in
relationship to more than one nation—state” (Glick Schiller et al. 1995:73). Because they
negotiate life in two contexts, transmigrants are often thought of as leading “hybrid ways
of life” (Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila 1997).

The degree to which migrants lead transnational lives varies. Differentiating
between transmigrants and non-transmigrants can therefore be difﬁcult at both the
individual and group level. Because of this, there is not complete consensus regarding
which migrant groups can accurately be labeled ‘transnational’. Portes et al. for example,

suggest limiting the application of the label to those exchanges that are intense, novel,

45

and “require cross-border travel and contacts on a sustained basis” (1999:219). Other
scholars, including myself, draw on less restrictive deﬁnitions. This is well modeled by
the work of Robert C. Smith (2005) on migration from Ticuani, Mexico to New York. In
considering this population, Smith uncovers complex and nuanced transnational elements
of gender relations, assimilation, and the experiences of the second generation. In the
case of El Salvador I ﬁnd it appropriate to describe the overall migration process as
transnational. While there are individuals whose connections to El Salvador have
diminished or disappeared, as a group, Salvadorans maintain numerous linkages with
their country of origin. This is due, in part, to the common expectation of a return to El
Salvador (e. g., Baker-Cristales 2004). As a whole, Salvadorans maintain emotional,
economic, and cultural ties with their family members despite geographic distance. They
are also involved in their home country via community organizations, churches, and
political parties. Travel, on the part of both migrants and non-migrants, is another
element of these transnational connections.

In this dissertation, I discuss the ways that transnational processes shape
Salvadorans, as well as the role of migrants in shaping transnational processes. For
instance, transmigrants are dispatchers, couriers, and recipients of goods, money, and
ideas. At the same time, other mechanisms, in particular technology, shape migration
and the intensity of its role in transnational processes. Transnational migration must be
understood as an individual action, as well as a reaction to external forces and as
something that is shaped by dominant power Structures. Migrants are agents and
subjects. They are “affected by, challenge, and contribute to the perpetuation of different

systems of power” (Mahler 1998:65). While recognizing the agency of migrants as they

46

attempt to maneuver through the ideologies and power structures of both the US. and El

Salvador, I emphasize the strength and impact of transnational and global structures. For
example, one key point of concern is with the tensions that arise from the inconsistencies
between the globalizing neoliberal system and macro level restrictions on labor mobility.

El Salvador’s theorized comparative advantage is labor, and while efforts are
made to bring employment to national soil, the exportation of labor is encouraged by
present local and transnational social, political, and economic structures. At the same
time, the practice of hiring a relatively inexpensive and non-local labor force is consistent
with the tenets of neoliberalism. Outsourcing, offshoring, and other arrangements are
largely considered to be sound economic practices. Despite these realities, there is
considerable resistance against regularizing migrant labor in the US. and the mobility of
labor is restricted in a number of ways.

The economic and political circumstances of a given time period signiﬁcantly
impact public perceptions of immigration and this shapes the experiences of
transmigrants. In the recession of the 19808, inﬂation, the cold war, and other problems
led to the scapegoating of immigrants (Massey et al. 2002286). In 1986, President
Reagan linked border control issues to foreign terrorism, and in that context Mexicans
and other Latin American immigrants were “demonized... as ‘invaders’ and

9”

‘terrorists (Massey et al. 2002:87). Macro level outlooks and issues encouraged a
complex mix of racism, ethnocentrism, and fear. For a variety of reasons, the situation in
post-9/Il U.S. looks analogous today. Local, state, national, and international measures

to control undocumented immigration have intensiﬁed. Crossing the U.S./Mexico

border, never a risk-free endeavor, has been growing increasingly dangerous. Living an

47

‘undocumented’ life in the US, whether it results from ‘illegal’ entry or an expired visa,
carries signiﬁcant hardships and risks. Anti-immigrant measures and the angry attitudes
of power holders have created a context in which racial proﬁling, fear, animosity, and
varying degrees of tension are on the rise. Migrants and their families are left to
negotiate the inconsistencies between the demands of the transnational neoliberal

economy and the factors that discourage and punish labor mobility.

Salvadoran TransnationﬂMigration

Internal and international migrations are long time features of El Salvador. Beginning in
the 18603 and continuing through the 1970s, the search for wage labor encouraged high
rates of international migration (Menjivar 2000). For example, in the 19205, Salvadorans
migrated to Honduras due to their expulsion from lands that were taken for coffee
production (PNUD 2005:31). As industrialized agriculture increased during the 20’h
century, families were decreasingly able to survive on subsistence farming and
consequently transnational migration rates climbed (Menjivar 2000:45).l4 Later, the
economic shocks of the 19705 encouraged Salvadorans to migrate, and many traveled to
the US. in search of work (Hamilton and Chinchilla 2001).

In the 19803, migration rates were profoundly impacted by El Salvador’s civil
war. A complex mix of political, social, and economic factors triggered migration during
this time. The violence of the armed conﬂict and political repression encouraged
migration, as did the threat of military recruitment (Mahler l995a; Montes and Garcia

Vasquez 1988). Salvadorans sought political refuge, or respite from violence and

 

'4 It is estimated that by 1971. 60 percent of rural people were landless (Barry l987:9 cited in Baker-
C ristales 2004).

48

poverty, in the US, Canada, and Australia. The exact number of people who ﬂed during
this period is not available because much of the migration occurred through
undocumented channels. Community activists in the US. estimate that the number
approached one million (Coutin 1998:904). According to another estimate,
approximately 54 percent of the U.S.-bound, documented Salvadoran migration that
occurred between 1820 and 1994 took place during the 12-year war (INS 1996:28).

The 19803 into the 19903 was also marked by a grave economic crisis. Dunkerley
(1994) aptly explains the economic situation during the war. He notes that trade
throughout the region suffered due to conﬂicts in El Salvador and other Central American
countries. In addition, state coffers were drained by international debt service including
payments on International Monetary Fund loans. This situation was exasperated by the
coffee market collapse that occurred between 1987 and 1993 and a drought related to El
Nifio in the 19903.

Despite ample evidence that many Salvadorans who ﬂed during the war were
political refugees (e.g., Montes and Garcia Vasquez 1988), only 2.6 percent were granted
asylum (Mahler 1995b). This was because refugee policy in the US. primarily protected
people ﬂeeing communist governments, rather than capitalist ones like that of El
Salvador (Mahler 1995a: 1 76). Many Salvadorans entered without documents by crossing
the U.S./Mexico border, and few were able to immediately regularize their status. While
much migration was undocumented, the Montes and Garcia Vasquez study found that
about one-third of Salvadoran migrants had legal status (1988219). In part, this number
likely represents the wealthier Salvadorans who were highly mobile prior to and during

the war; US. citizenship, residency, or travel visas allowed many to move easily between

49

the two countries. The majority of those who migrated during the war, however, likely
came from the lower and the lower-middle classes, in part because these classes
represented as much as 95 percent of the population of El Salvador at that time (Montes

and Garcia Vasquez 1988).

Migration Today

Migration rates did not decline with the end of the civil war in 1992; they may, in fact,
have increased (PNUD 2005:40). The ﬂow of migrants continued for a variety of
complex and interrelated reasons. Sustained political tensions and violence contributed
to the exodus of Salvadorans. Natural disasters also encouraged migration, in part due to
the resulting negative economic ramiﬁcations at both the household and national levels.
The country’s struggling economy has been a key variable pushing people from all
economic strata to look elsewhere for livelihoods. Unemployment, underemployment,
informal labor, low wages, limited social services, and a high cost of living (many of
which are byproducts of the neoliberal economic approach) are all pieces of this
economic explanation.

It is estimated that anywhere between 10 and 40 percent of the Salvadoran
population has migrated to the US. (PNUD 2005:37). There may be as many as 2.7
million people living outside of the country (Marroquin Parducci 20052466). According
to one estimate, approximately 1,070 Salvadorans endeavor to emigrate each day (PNUD
2005:34). Evidence suggests that more males than females attempt the border crossing,
likely as a result of the increased militarization and danger along the U.S./Mexico border

(PNUD 2005157). However, at the time of this study there were more Salvadoran women

50

than men over the age of 44 residing in the US. (PNUD 2005259). The majority of those
crossing in recent years have been under 44 years of age (PNUD 2005258).

As was the case during the war, undocumented Salvadoran migration appears to
be prevalent. According to one estimate, 30 percent of immigrants in the US. do not
have legal status (PNUD 2005:67). Many people cross the U.S.lMexico border (with or
without the services of a coyote), and in some cases Salvadorans overstay visas. Yet for a
variety of reasons there is an ever-growing group of Salvadorans with US. citizenship or
residency. Because a base-population of documented Salvadorans formed, there has been
a chain of applications to petition to bring family to the US. Spouses, children who are
minors, and elderly parents can be brought to the US. with relative ease. Gradually
entire families are reuniﬁed through this process. In 2004, 9602 Salvadorans were
naturalized, and 29,795 became US. residents (BCIS 2005). These patterns can
primarily be explained by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The
legislation included amnesty, thereby permitting many immigrants to legalize their status
and initiate family reuniﬁcation procedures (PNUD 2005233). Temporary Protected
Status (TPS) also allows as much as 20% of the migrant population to live and work in
the US. legally. In the years following the war, US. citizenship and residency became
decreasingly linked to wealth. '5

Salvadorans have primarily congregated in ﬁve urban areas in the US: Los
Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Houston, and the Washington DC. area. New

communities are rising throughout the US. including in North Carolina and Nebraska.

 

'5 U.S. tourists visas, however. continue to be difﬁcult to obtain unless an applicant can Show
some wealth, property ownership. and meet other requirements that are believed to indicate that
the applicant will not stay in the US. after the visa expires.

51

The social and economic positions of Salvadoran migrants vary, both prior to and after
exodus. Migration is a strategy employed by people from all walks of life. And within
the US, the Salvadoran population is fairly diverse. US. Census ﬁgures suggest that
Salvadoran immigrants possess a range of education levels (2004). Similarly, Landolt et
al. found Los Angeles to be home to a mix of working class, middle class, and upper-
middle class Salvadorans (19992293). Their research has challenged “the notion of
Salvadoran immigrants as a homogenous group of uneducated, low-wage labourers [sic]
drifting in a hostile sea of deregulated sweatshops and undocumented anonymity”
(1999:302). The Salvadoran migrant population thus can be described as diverse (both
prior to and after migration), according to every measure or variable.

While diverse, many Salvadorans ﬁll the same low skill, low wage labor niche as
other Latin Americans in the US. The low wage service industry has been an important
employment arena for immigrants (e.g., Mahler 1995b; Landolt et al. 1999). There are
gender disparities in this industry and women frequently perform lower-paying domestic
work (such as hotel cleaning), whereas Salvadoran men are more likely to hold the
higher-paying jobs (such as construction) (e. g, Repak 1995). In some cities female
migrants consistently earn less than men regardless of their education level or the length
of their stay in the US.

Social networks appear to be important mechanisms that allow for and perhaps
encourage the continuation of high migration rates. Family, friends, and acquaintances
already living in the US. provide economic help and other kinds of support to
Salvadorans who wish to migrate. For the most part, the foundations for the networks

were established in the 19703 with the inﬂux of Salvadorans into the US. (Hamilton and

52

Chinchilla 2001 :28). In her look at the gendered aspects of the social networks of
Salvadorans in the San Francisco area Menjivar found that “men and women derive
dissimilar beneﬁts from their membership in networks” (20002157). For example, her
investigation reveals that it can be more difﬁcult for women to have a resource surplus
that will allow them to help others. The result of these patterns, according to Menjivar,
are: “that it becomes difﬁcult for women, particularly single ones, to establish the kinds
of ties with men—namely, with the other half of the community that commands relatively
more resources—that would be beneﬁcial to them” (20002164). Women may, however,
form network alliances with each other, and common exchanges include the sharing of
childcare, domestic work, information, and moral support.

Salvadoran migrants have established formal networks involving both men and
women. In Washington DC, for example, they have formed more than 20 groups to raise
money to aid communities in El Salvador (Orozco et al. 2005). These hometown
associations and organizations support migrants in the US. and help them to assist
families and communities in El Salvador. In all, Salvadorans are well established in the
US, yet many maintain intense linkages with El Salvador. These connections foster the
exchanges of ideas and behaviors between El Salvador and the US.

After over two decades of constant mobility, transnational migration has become
an embedded sociocultural feature of El Salvador. For many, going to the US. has
become a component of dreams and beliefs about the future. For some, it is as much (or
more) a part of the dream as is the completion of secondary school or higher education,
owning a home, or starting a family. In fact, it is one of the primary ways to ensure the

realization of the other aspirations. As Baker-Cristales notes, for Salvadorans, migration

53

now seems “unavoidable” and necessary to create a “fulﬁlling life” (2004294). In some
communities, youth consider one or more attempts to enter the US. mojado or

undocumented to be a right of passage (Marroquin Parducci 20052471).

El Salvador’s Transnational Economy
El Salvador’s economy is neoliberal, transnational, and ‘developing’. Together, these
well characterize many aspects of the small country’s internal dynamics and external
relationships. Further, it is a poor country with pervasive social and economic inequities.
In El Salvador, the prevailing approach to the economy and its development is a
neoliberal one. To some extent, this results from outside pressures. Global institutions
provide development aid contingent on the adoption of a neoliberal regulatory system.
Likewise, the US. provides aid and cooperation with the expectation that El Salvador
will engage in the form of capitalism preferred by the US. As mentioned, for example,
El Salvador’s government was fairly quick to ratify CAFTA-DR—an agreement that
typiﬁes neoliberal economics. Internally, power holders in El Salvador overwhelmingly
advocate for neoliberal policies. In 2005, one ARENA representative, Juan Miguel
Bollanos, argued that development is only possible through free trade (personal
communication, March 30, 2005). This translates into reductions in or the elimination of
subsidies and tariffs, as well as minimal intervention in transnational economic processes.
Overall, the conservative ARENA party has dominated elections since the end of the war,
and it has therefore been instrumental in the shaping of a neoliberal development path for
the country. With little exception, ARENA has adopted the practices and approaches

expected of a neoliberal govemment—privatizing public services, downsizing

54

government, and promoting ‘free trade’. Many Salvadoran institutions, such as
FUSADES or the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic Development (this organization
will be further discussed in later sections), also endorse neoliberal capitalism. Together,
the power of these individuals, institutions, and bodies shape the predominant form that
development is taking in El Salvador. It is a version of development centered on capital
accumulation, growth, and consumption.

Neoliberalism shapes numerous spheres. Industries, such as telecommunications,
public transportation, the banking industry, and pensions have been privatized in El
Salvador. This has served to attract transnational corporations to the country.
Privatization decreased government size, and in theory budget. It has also reduced and
eliminated access to certain social services. For example, after electricity was privatized
in 1992, the cost increased 221 percent over about one decade (Towers and Borzutzky
2004232).

Neoliberal policies inﬂuence the production arena. El Salvador has shifted from
its principally agricultural past to an industrial and service oriented economy. The
country therefore relies on the export of goods and services ‘produced’ by the local labor
force in factories and call centers; but most of these products are not Salvadoran, rather
they are under the auspices of companies based in the US, Korea, and other countries.
Similarly, the service industry employs people who provide goods and services for the
internal market, though it is sometimes a ‘foreign’ product such as in the case of Burger
King or Pizza Hut franchises. In all, the country has made changes that are consistent

with a neoliberal approach to development.

55

And, as indicated, neoliberalism shapes approaches to developing El Salvador.
Conceptualizations of development arise from a multitude of institutions and individuals.
Discourses of development are key mechanisms in the rooting of development theories
and economic approaches. ‘Experts’, including scholars and institutions such as the
International Monetary Fund, The United Nations, and the World Bank, have helped to
ensure the entrenchment of a particular set of ideas regarding progress and
modernization. This pattern has been persistent over time, as ‘experts’ have played “a
pivotal role in the process of collecting, controlling and transferring scientiﬁc knowledge
between North and South” (Parpart 19952223). In El Salvador, these experts and global
institutions shape development in theory and practice. The Salvadoran government and
elites support, deﬁne, design, enact, and authorize development approaches. At present,
El Salvador’s development agenda is also intimately linked to transnational corporations
(TNCS). Power and hegemony are fundamental elements in the spread of development
ideals (Rist 1997). As such, dominant countries, institutions, bodies, and individuals
largely direct development paths and priorities.

Dollarization, for example, is evidence of the absorption of external economic
ideologies. In 2001, El Salvador replaced the coldn with the US. dollar. This change in
currency is symbolic of the transnational economic and political power of the US. It is
also indicative of the ﬁnancial ties and economic goals that link power holders in the two
countries. Towers and Borzutzky (2004) argue that the conversion was, in large part, an
effort to protect the “interests of the ﬁnancial sector and the large entrepreneurs who
control the National Republic Alliance (ARENA).” They ﬁrrther argue that the change in

currency has increased inequality and had a negative effect on the poor. The dollar is an

56

overt symbol and many Salvadorans have expressed disappointment in the identity
implications wrought by the absence of colones and the ever-present circulation of the
faces of historic ﬁgures from their powerful neighbor to the north. Further, the dollar
was initially circulated in a misleading and manipulative way. Salvadorans had been led
to believe that both currencies would circulate side by side, but in actuality, colones were
gradually pulled leaving nothing but US. currency. The dollar became a covert tool of
power and control. Dollarization is an economic process that has beneﬁted transnational
power holders while contributing to the marginalization of many.

Dollarization is a facet of the transnational and hegemonic economic connections
that foster a neoliberal development strategy. In this framework, the theorized results of
neoliberal approaches include defacto development. Neoliberalism is expected to
develop nations as a natural consequence of economic growth. Since economic growth
leads to a rise in circulating capital, so the theory goes, the amount of wealth received by
individuals, families, and communities is also expected to increase.

As elsewhere, the dominant discourse in El Salvador equates increases in
consumables and consumption sites with development. Such a view is predicated on
historic notions of development. As Rist (1997) outlines, the work of Rostow (1960) was
instrumental in equating mass-consumption societies with the theorized ﬁnal stage of
development evolution. This perspective persists, as evidenced by the case of El
Salvador. For example, a newspaper article on the opening of the newest San Salvador
mall refers to it as “un seﬁal de progreso” or a sign of progress (Hernandez, Barrera and
Avalos 2005). Similarly, on their website, Grupo Roble (a Salvadoran conglomerate

detailed later) refers to their ﬁrm belief in “sustainable development.” On the website

57

and elsewhere, the work of Grupo Roble is represented as socioeconomically beneﬁcial.
They note that they are “the largest company of commercial center development in the
region” (www.gruporob1e.com, author’s translation from Spanish). While commercial
development and sustainable development are quite different concepts, the Grupo Roble
website intimates that they are identical or that at least there is considerable overlap
between the two. Such a conceptualization of development is consistent with that of the
lntemational Finance Corporation (IF C), the private sector arm of the World Bank.
Grupo Roble sought funding from the IFC to aid with one of the expansions of the large
Metrocentro shopping mall. According to the IF C website, they strive to encourage
development by “promoting a sustainable private sector in developing countries,” thereby
“helping to reduce poverty and improve people’s lives” (www.ifc.org). The Grupo Roble
project announcement indicates that the mall’s expansion will “stimulate further
development” and beneﬁt the community.

Under this development framework, the construction of immense Shopping malls
throughout El Salvador is a positive Sign of growth. And such consumption sites are
expected to encourage future growth. Shopping is thus a requisite element of neoliberal
development. The same is true of other types of consumption. The consumption of
travel (such as the tourism industry in the case of Costa Rica) encourages development
per the neoliberal framework. In fact, an absence of consumption is the antithesis of
neoliberal development. Poverty is conceptualized as “the relative dispossession of mass
goods” (Miller l995b2154). And sites where people are not buying goods or utilizing

services are ‘underdeveloped’.

58

Contestations
While the neoliberal framework is dominant, challenges to it and related processes do
exist in El Salvador. There have been elected ofﬁcials in the FMLN party who
questioned and disputed neoliberal strategies. In 2005 there were other groups that
clearly articulated opposition to the neoliberal market; for instance, activist students at
the Universidad Nacional regularly demonstrated against the dominant economic
structure. Following their demonstrations, phrases such as “Tony Saca privatiza a tu
madre” —translated as “Tony Saca [the President at the time] privatizes your mother” —
could be seen Spray painted on buildings. Other common grafﬁti phrases disparaged
CAF TA, the US, and US. president George W. Bush. Some educators within academic
institutions, particularly colleges and universities including UCA, also challenged the
neoliberal model via lectures and written works. Recently, at the community level, the
privatizations of both water and health care were met with concern and resistance.
Despite these contestations, l highlight neoliberal versions of development
because at present, they are the foundation of the country’s economic strategy. While
throughout the world there are challenges to the model and proposals for alternatives (for
example, Bergeron 2001 and Gibson-Graham 1996), the power of the neoliberal
framework and the individuals and groups that support it are both intensive and
extensive. Further, in the case of El Salvador, challenges to and contestations of the
dominant economic model have a long history of being silenced. Collaborators spoke of
the ways that freedoms to question, challenge, and seek change were restricted.
Protestations against privatizations have sometimes led to arrests. A local newscaster on

Channel 12 was ﬁred for being outspoken and left leaning. And individuals involved in

59

various efforts towards rectifying perceived injustices have been refused re-entry into the
country and in some cases, murdered. This climate discourages challenges to the
dominant system. The climate also fosters an “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude.
As Dean Brackley, a Jesuit at UCA argued, given the politics of fear, instability, and
extensive experience with disappointment, people select the path with the fewest risks.
Acceptance of or engagement in the neoliberal consumption system is a primary example

of such a safe arena.

Emulating Modernity

Consumption is both a component and symbol of modernization (e.g., Miller 1995b). An
industrial and progressive city consumes. Development agendas are encouraged and
adopted for multiple reasons and the replication of the “rationalizing processes of the
West” is inherent in most models (Peet and Harwick 1999:85). For El Salvador, the US.
is the primary model of development. This is true at an institutional level, including
within the government and amongst some nongovernmental institutions and
organizations, and also at the individual level.

One factor that has contributed to the power of the neoliberal model is the
seeming success of the US. Dysfunctions and inequities in that country have only
recently begun to receive widespread attention. Prior to this (and perhaps in spite of this)
the circulation of many inaccuracies about the US. impeded the design and
implementation of alternative frameworks. In the case of El Salvador there were gaps in
knowledge about and understandings of inequalities and poverty in the US. This came to

the forefront in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which exposed entrenched

60

‘underdevelopment’ in the US. to the surprise of Salvadorans. When I discussed the
hurricane with friend and interviewee Leticia, she was genuinely stunned to learn that
even as a citizen, one could still live in poverty in the US. Leticia, like many others, had
not been exposed to the growing wealth and income disparities that plague this ‘rich’
country. In addition, the failure of the US. to comply with the tenets of the neoliberal
framework, for instance the reduction and elimination of subsidies, has only recently
been recognized and increasingly questioned. The seeming success of neoliberalism in
the US, however, has only begun to be shaken. At the time of this research, the country
still largely served as evidence of the superiority of the neoliberal model.

Some interviewees in my study highlighted speciﬁc modern characteristics of life
in the US. They expressed the belief that the US. offered more opportunities in a range
of areas including education and employment. Services like healthcare and law
enforcement were considered superior to those found in El Salvador. Lupe, for instance,
explained that her husband admired the safety and security found in their neighbor to the
north. She gave the example of wearing jewelry when shopping—something that is risky
in El Salvador. Interviewees also expressed the belief that life in the US. could offer
greater access to material goods (for instance home buying) and a more secure economic
situation overall. Baker-Cristales similarly found that Salvadorans suspect that life in the
US. is superior to life in El Salvador (2004295). The perception that ‘developed’
countries such as the US. are superior is a key component of development and
modernization discourses and agendas. Developed countries often have higher status
(which is also a function of power and hegemony). This presumed link between

modernization and status corresponds to the relationship between consumption and

61

status. Within this framework, the need to ‘catch up’ is imperative (e.g., Wilk 1990). To
a large extent, Salvadoran individuals, households, communities, and the country as a
whole strive to catch up to and emulate U.S. development.

In the US, consumption is a key element of development, progress, and growth.
“Vigorous and growing consumption is the chief indicator of a prosperous and self-
conﬁdent community” (Borgmann 20002418). And within the neoliberal development
framework, the market economy is the “new basis of civilization” (Ewen and Ewen 19922
49). Such visions of modernity are dominant in El Salvador too. The act of consuming
itself, as well as consumption sites such as restaurants, shopping centers, lntemet cafes,
tourist destinations, and movie theatres, are therefore categorized as evidence of
development in El Salvador. In these contexts, consumables act as “vehicles that people

use to create directions and mark their progress” (Wilk 1990290).

Transnational Consumption
The US. has been instrumental in the globalization of Central America (e.g., Robinson
2003). As I have begun to Show, understanding El Salvador’s sociohistoric context
demands an analysis of the country’s relationship with the US. Because of past patterns
and present connections, much insight on the El Salvador context can be gained by
incorporating evidence from the US. context.

An article in the Wisconsin-based satirical newspaper titled “The Onion” claimed
that “three of the ﬁve deepest emotional investments” of a man in California include
Apple, American Apparel, and Starbucks. The man’s girlfriend and mother were the

other two “emotional investments” on his top ﬁve list (The Onion 2006). While this may

62

be a satirical exaggeration of consumption in the US, it represents an element of
accuracy in two ways. First, it conveys the importance of consumables in the US.
Second, it reveals self-critique regarding consumption patterns in the US.

In the US. the range of available goods and services has escalated and continues
to increase. Turnover of styles, models, and versions of consumables occurs at an intense
pace. Individuals and families possess (and experience in the case of services and
entertainment) an increasing diversity of consumables. They are spending more time
shopping. It is estimated that people shop an average of one full day per week compared
to only two hours per week in the 19203 (Lury 19962126). In the US, a great deal of
leisure time entails consumption. Weekends and evenings may be spent watching movies
or television, shopping, or taking children to amusement sites. Shopping malls are in fact
the third most likely place for people to spend time (after home and work) (Martin
19932141). Eating in restaurants, drinking in bars, and attending concerts are also
common recreational activities. Reading books, playing games, and exercising in a club
are other popular ways of passing free time in the US. Travel and tourism are also
common and have been increasing over time (Schor 1998b).

Holidays and celebrations are characterized by particularly intense consumption.
During the Christmas season, people consume considerable quantities of food, drink, and
goods. Approximately 20 percent of yearly alcohol sales are made during the Christmas
season (Jacobson and Mazur 19952180). People devote money and storage space to
holiday decorations and lights. A ﬁrndamental component of Christmas is gift giving.
This is a practice that is questioned by some who believe the holiday should revolve less

around consuming and more around family and religion. Conversely, some research

63

suggests that gift giving has become a way to show “affection that expresses private
sentiment within a relationship that is personal” (Carrier 1993255). In this view,
shopping for and wrapping presents transforms items from impersonal commodities into
expressions of personal affection (Carrier 1993). For many, family and personal
relationships are central to the holiday and consumables in the form of gifts are used to
communicate love. Gifts demonstrate the way that consumables are, at present, a
component of human relationships. They ﬁll this role at Christmas, birthdays, weddings,
baby showers, and a range of other celebrations and rituals in the US.

These patterns of elevated consumption are accompanied by increases in
household debt (e. g. Johnson 2005 and Butler 2000). The number of people using credit
to make purchases has risen, as has household debt in the US. In all, the data points to
the use of credit and debt to ﬁnance consumption. Purchases are also being funded by a
steady increase in work hours (Schor 1998b).

In the US. there is a common feeling that a salary, even if it is between $50,000
and $100,000, is insufﬁcient to meet needs. According to Schor, “half the population of
the richest country in the world say [sic] they cannot afford everything they really need.
And it’s not just the poorer half” (1998b26). This is because people in the US. generally
look to wealthier economic groups to ascertain what they should consume. And Schor
argues that people are increasingly comparing themselves to groups that are substantially
richer rather than those that are one income bracket wealthier (1998b24). With income
inequalities on the rise in the U.S.,"’ “keeping up with that top quintile is not easy,

because they keep getting richer” (Schor 1998b: 1 3).

 

16 .
See for example Bemstern et al. 2006

64

Exporting Meaning

These patterns are not isolated and stationary; rather they are mobilized by transnational
processes, which allow consumption symbols and behaviors to move readily within and
between countries. In the past and present, numerous mechanisms have linked the US.
and El Salvador. In various ways, these connections act as conduits for the movement of
consumables and meaning.

Transnational migration was and continues to be an important mechanism
undergirding the movement of goods, ideas, and symbols. The concept of social
remittances helps to capture many relevant exchanges that occur between sending and
receiving communities (Levitt 2001). Building on the research conducted on monetary
remittances sent by migrants to sending communities, Levitt explores the non-monetary
exchanges that occur between migrants and their families. To varying degrees, migrants’
“interpretive frameworks” are altered while they live in the US. (Portes and Zhou sited
in Levitt 2001). The result of these changing frameworks are “social remittances,” or
ideas, values, behaviors, and social capital. These social remittances can be transmitted
to the sending community. They can include communications regarding goods and
lifestyles in wealthier countries. Migrants also impact consumption patterns at
community and national levels. After living in the US, for example, Salvadoran and
other transmigrants sometimes return to their natal country and open businesses based on
US. models. In these ways, Salvadoran migrants are one mechanism encouraging the
transnationalization of ideas about what can be consumed and how it can be consumed.

Further, because they can directly or indirectly inform family and friends back home of

65

the symbolisms linked to consumables, they help to mobilize the meanings associated
with consuming.

Transmigrants also remit goods. Salvadorans frequently send clothing, shoes,
appliances, toys, and other items to family and friends. Regardless of the good’s
production site, many people speak of these U.S. items as being superior to those bought
locally. When Teresa’s daughter spent the day with me in my home, she asked where
various items came from. With regards to some of my linens, she asked if she could have
them since they were from the US. The production site of the good is not considered, the
focus is instead on its symbolism and link to the US. Items displaying Sponge Bob
Square Pants (or Bob Esponja in Spanish) may not be made in the US, but they
represent a popular U.S. animated character. At the same time, migrants living in the US
covet certain Salvadoran goods. For instance, Lupe told me that when visiting family in
the US, she brings locally produced cheese, pupusas, and clothing from the store, St.
Jack’s. Goods and related ideas ﬂow readily between El Salvador and the US, and
migrants facilitate these ﬂows.

Similarly, media and advertising ﬂow rapidly and frequently from the US. to El
Salvador. Consumption-related messages are communicated via ﬁlm, television
programming, the lntemet, commercials, and printed advertising. Television
entertainment is highly trans or multinational and this is well exempliﬁed by the
transmission of US. cable television in El Salvador and other Latin American and
Caribbean cities. Where this is the case the programming is almost identical to that
televised in US. cities. In this way, people with cable television are exposed to the

consrunption messages circulating in the US. Additionally, because Salvadorans tap into

66

cable television lines and easily purchase pirated DVDS, these mediums are highly
accessible in spite of their expense in the US. market.

Teresa’s husband and family regularly viewed programs on their two television
sets. At one point, Teresa and her husband cancelled their cable and told me that the kids
were watching too much television, especially the cartoon network. Even without cable,
television continued to be an important entertainment source. Teresa’s older daughter
was enthralled with a telenovela or soap opera for children. Teresa’s husband liked both
the “OC” and “The Practice.” The family also owned a collection of burned DVDs
bought from street vendors, including the Harry Potter ﬁlms. On one of my visits to their
home, we watched a comedy called “Boat Trip.” Much of the story takes place on a
cruise ship and Teresa’s daughter asked me if I had ever been on a cruise.

Jesuit Dean Brackley of the Universidad Centroamericana argues that the present
population of Salvadoran youth is the ﬁrst to be raised on television (personal
communication, 2005). This exposure to other realities results in youth striving to live
differently than their parents. Television programming and the targeting of children via
television advertising teaches children to be consumers. As in the US. (e. g., Chin 2001),
numerous goods and services are aimed at children as consumers. Animated characters
such as Spiderrnan appear not just on television or in ﬁlm, but are also sold as action
ﬁgures and other toys. Their images are found on clothing, posters, cups, bikes, bedding,
and an array of other objects. In the current system, viewers can “buy urban membership
and self-worth by following the lessons of consumerism dictated by television”

(McMillin 20032509).

67

The impact of television on consumption-related beliefs and behaviors can be
signiﬁcant. In the US, watching television exaggerates viewers’ sense of what is
normal, thereby leading people to overestimate standards of living. For instance,
according to one study, heavy viewing of soap operas results in higher estimates of the
prevalence of afﬂuence (O’Guinn and Shrum 1997). In this way, both reality and
ﬁctional television programs “allow us to believe that we know how others, with whom
we may rarely have signiﬁcant direct contact, live and consume” (O’Guinn and Shrum
1997: 290). In El Salvador, my landlady’s domestic employee asked me if it was true
that people in the US. throw away articles of clothing after wearing them only once. I
speculate that television played a role in theories such as this. In spite of hyperbole and
bias, television is a powerful information source. Further, in the case of the US,
evidence suggests that the more frequently people watch television, the more money they
spend in an effort to imitate the lifestyles they observe (Schor 1998a).

Transnational corporations play fundamental roles in the ﬂow of consumables
and associated meanings. They inﬂuence the media and marketing arenas and the
availability of goods and services. El Salvador hosts TNCs from a number of countries,
but as revealed by the Fortune 500, U.S.-based corporations are the most numerous in the
transnational market. Additionally, economic ties (including trade relations) between the
US. and El Salvador are strong. Pederson notes, “Throughout the 20th century, El
Salvador had been intimately tied to the United States through the circulation of money
and commodities, exporting coffee in exchange for imported manufactured goods”
(20022441 ). At the time of this research, a signiﬁcant portion of Salvadoran exports were

sent to the US. (Hernandez et al. 2005:757) and a large percentage of goods imported

68

into El Salvador were from the US. (BCR 2005). In addition, for decades the US. has
been exporting advertising through transnational agencies (Leiss 2005).

Lury argues that the “history of consumer culture is intimately bound up with the
processes of imperialism, colonialism, and the creation of hierarchical categories of race”
(19962156). The US. ﬁgures prominently in the economic landscape of El Salvador. It
has held a heavy hand throughout Central American in deﬁning both politics and
economies. In particular, during the Salvadoran civil war the US. inserted itself
militarily, politically, and economically in order to protect capitalist interests and crush
movements presumed to be communist or socialist. El Salvador “was brought under US.
tutelage in a manner unprecedented in Central American history, except perhaps for the
US. occupation of Nicaragua in earlier decades of the twentieth century” (Robinson
2003288). This reality meant that the US. inﬂuenced political, social, and cultural
patterns—including consumption. “U.S. intervention thoroughly penetrated and
transformed Salvadoran society... from government ministries, to social service
institutions, the private sector, the mass media, and civil society organizations”
(Robinson 2003289).

US. aid well exempliﬁes these hegemonic patterns and processes. As Quan
demonstrates, such programs were not only part of counterinsurgency efforts, but also
“part of a set of global ﬂows of capital, lifestyles, and international standards of
governance” (20052276). During the civil war, the US. poured money and ‘experts’ into
El Salvador through the economic and political support of agencies such as F USADES.
Robinson describes FUSADES as the “institutional headquarters for the development of a

transnational fraction and its project” and notes its efforts “to establish hegemony within

69

the private sector, civil society, and the state” (2003290). Through Salvadoran
institutions the US. interspersed socioeconomic and political inﬂuence. Cuenca argues
that US. requirements for the administration of aid funds resulted in certain groups
gaining power and inﬂuence over “institutions of social reproduction” (1992292 cited in
Robinson 2003). He further argues that in this context the groups

...strengthen their commercial ties to the United States and obtain good access, in

the ﬁrst place, to AID (Agency for lntemational Development) ofﬁcials, and in the

second place, to ofﬁcials from governmental agencies (for example, Central Bank,
the Treasury, Ministry of Planning) that determine eligibility for diverse import-

export activities (Cuenca 1992292 cited in Robinson 2003).

In this way, US. aid inﬂuenced the private groups that became inserted into transnational
markets—the same markets that are part of the transnationalization of the consumption
system. The Salvadoran elite became linked to the US. in a new way, which resulted in
the replication of foundational components of the dominant consumption system,
including the capitalist principles that encourage unrestricted accumulation and the
meanings and beneﬁts of consumption.

While in the post-war context U.S. insertion may have changed and diminished in
some arenas, it persists in others. The broad goal of integrating El Salvador “into the
global economy and society on the basis of an entirely new composition of social forces”
continues to unfold (Robinson 2003:89). For example, the US. exerts inﬂuence through
international institutions, in particular the World Bank, due to its power structure.
Through this and other bodies a variety of neoliberal policies are advocated, including
deregulation, privatization, and participation in a global market economy. These

economic and political policies designed to liberalize the market are fundamental

components of systems of capital accumulation. And capital accumulation is a principle

70

element of the consumption system in several circular ways. The capacity to consume
requires surplus capital (and/or access to credit). Consumption creates capital for those
who proﬁt from it. This in turn generates capital for consumption. Further, the desire to
have the means to consume encourages practices aimed at the accumulation of capital. In
this way, the neoliberal agenda put forth by the US. (and according to Rupert 1995,
largely pioneered by the US.) has been critical in the shaping of consumption beliefs and
behaviors in El Salvador.'7 Consumption systems are thus produced and maintained by
transnational politics and political bodies. Robinson (2003) argues that the hegemony of
capital was an important component of the US. intervention strategy in the past. This
continues to be the case today.

It is certain that the movement of consumption practices and ideologies is not
unidirectional; as noted by Inda and Rosaldo, “Globalization... cannot be conceived
solely as a matter of one-way, western imperialism” (2002222). Further, “U.S.
intervention converged with the activities and the emergent projects of distinct
Salvadoran agents” (Robinson 2003291). In other words, Salvadorans were not simply
pawns in the processes pushed by the US. The Salvadoran elites were power holders in a
speciﬁc context, who negotiated a complex, and in ways complimentary, set of goals.
Nevertheless, the US. has exported an exceptionally high sum of consumptive goods,

ideas, and behaviors to El Salvador as part of the neoliberal development framework.

 

‘7 Other entities are. of course. also highly relevant in these processes. For example. Sklair (2001)
demonstrates the importance of a transnational capitalist class. However. the US. has been particularly
important at the global level. as well as within the Central American region. As Robinson argues, the US.
is playing a leadership role “on behalf of transnational hegemony” (2003249).

71

Develgoment and Mi ggrtion

A ﬁnal, critical topic relevant to this discussion of economic development in El Salvador
is transnational migration. There are a number of important relationships (be they
substantiated or assumed) between development and migration. The most recent United
Nations Human Development Report (PNUD) in El Salvador reﬂects this connection as
the focus of the ﬁve hundred-plus page document is migration. The Inter-American
Development Bank also recently released a report titled “Remittances as a Development
Tool” (IADB 2006b). There has been an increase in efforts like these to understand,
measure, and document the impacts of El Salvador’s extremely high emigration rate and
remittances on development.

The link between development and migration is frequently theorized to be largely
positive. Remittances and the activities coordinated by migrant organizations are
believed to alleviate poverty or buffer its effects for many in El Salvador. Remittance
receivers seem to be experiencing improved standards of living. The inﬂux of these
monies appears to increase the circulation of capital thereby beneﬁting local businesses
and industries. The efforts of migrant organizations likewise contribute to improved
infrastructure in communities with high numbers of transnational migrants (e. g., Popkin
2003). And the Salvadoran government provides matching funds and support for some
projects. However, concerns regarding the sustainability of such a development approach
are many. Further, experts note that it is migrants and their families who bear the costs of
modernity and development (e. g., Silvey 2006235). This scenario is one example of how
the world’s marginalized, rather than nation states and elites, bear the burden of

decreasing poverty.

72

Gendered Processes
The burden of negotiating the context of San Salvador plays out in speciﬁc ways for
women. This is because women throughout Latin America are more likely to be the
primary caretakers of children, elderly, and ill family members. In this study, ten of the
women were the principle caretakers of their own children (in some cases, with the aid of
remittances sent by the children’s fathers). Similarly, Paula was responsible for her
younger siblings because her mother had passed away and her father was virtually absent.
Jacinta was responsible for her teenage grandson, and Sara was responsible for her
nephew (Sara’s own daughters were grown and had migrated to the US). Raising
children, even with ﬁnancial assistance, is a signiﬁcant responsibility in the urban
context. For instance, the city presents age-speciﬁc concerns. Both Teresa and Sara
expressed frustration with raising adolescent boys—a group particularly vulnerable due
in large part to chronic and large gang networks. While discussing her interest in
migrating to Canada, Teresa explained that she was wonied about her 13-year—old son.
Over the course of time, I had learned about his academic problems, a dissipating interest
in constructive activities, and discipline problems in the home. At one point, Teresa told
me that she worried about her son walking around the city alone, but she simply could
not accompany him everywhere. He traveled on public busses by himself to and from
school. She also told me that there was a chance that he would have to repeat the school
year, as his grades were low.

Teresa’s anxiety regarding the threat of violence, gang activity, and gang
recruitment was justiﬁable. According to a US. embassy security representative, in 2005

there were around 40,000 members in approximately 200 different gangs and most were

73

between 11 and 15 years of age. Gang related crimes and violence were a feature of life,
though its prevalence varied from zone to zone. Grafﬁti, including that of the powerful
transnational gang Mara Salvatrucha, was pervasive. In some zones their physical
presence, however, was clandestine as gang members themselves were not immediately
recognizable due to legislation prohibiting membership in gangs and authorizing the
arrest of suspected members. These circumstances greatly burdened parents. The
mothers and care providers in this study negotiated fears and anxieties about children
being recruited or victimized in gang initiations or other related violence.

Salvadorans were consistently exposed to powerful messages regarding gang
violence. In 2005, common themes in newspapers included cases of gangs extorting
money from and controlling private bus service providers, efforts of the government to
arrest leaders, and murders involving gang members. The experiences of Daniel
(J acinta’s adult son) exemplify the types of circumstances that contribute to anxieties.
Daniel was robbed twice in a matter of a few weeks. The ﬁrst time, men asked for his
money while yielding a seven-inch knife. The men were covered in tattoos indicating
their membership in a gang.

Further, parents and guardians had few resources and limited assistance to help
them negotiate the challenges of protecting and setting boundaries for children and youth.
Quality childcare was cost prohibitive for many, programs for youth few, and school days
short (public schools meet in either the morning or the afternoon). Inadequate support at
the societal and public level made the burden on women that much greater.

In addition to the safety of children being a difﬁcult issue, many women were also

responsible in some way for the care of older or ill family members. Again, it was

74

women in this study who added the energy and time expenditures to their already full
lives. Sara’s situation is an extreme example. As the oldest child, she raised her siblings
when they were children and also worked for a wage after their mother abandoned them
and their father passed away. In her forties at the time of this study, Sara continued to
provide high levels of care and support to her brother and sister who had chronic and
debilitating illnesses. Both siblings were in wheelchairs and required help with basic
tasks such as cutting food.

In terms of migration, this means that women are conﬁned or limited in ways that
differ from their male counterparts. The implications of migrating are distinct because
many women have full or greater responsibility for their children and their absence
demands a substitute. For instance, while Teresa talked to me some about wanting to
migrate to Canada, after giving it more thought she concluded that she simply could not
leave her three children with her husband. While he was a relatively committed father, it
was Teresa that ensured that day-to-day needs were met, such as pressed uniforms for
school, meals, and help with homework. Teresa would tell me that, if it were not for her,
domestic tasks such as these would not be accomplished.

At the same time, research shows there are several powerful migration impetuses
that are unique to Salvadoran women. According to Repak (1995) restrictions on land
inheritance, and the nature of male/female relations in El Salvador have obligated women
to migrate for survival. Also some women report migrating as an escape from domestic
violence (PNUD 2005). Domestic abuse is a common problem in El Salvador (Bureau of

Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor 2005) and there are limited recourses. A gendered

75

economic factor has been the low rate of legal marriage that leaves women with little
ﬁnancial support from men (Poggio and Woo 2002; Repak 1995).

Overall, women are impacted in unique ways by the migration process. They
experience in distinctive ways the absence of fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons. One
of Priscila’s brothers migrated and she told me that as a single mother, she needed the aid
of a good brother. Priscila’s brother who stayed in El Salvador was not helpful. She
missed her migrant brother’s support and the separation was painful for them both, as
well as for her kids. Whether as a mother, grandmother, aunt, daughter, or sister, women
were far more frequently the care providers—with or without remittances from migrant
family members. This reality limited their ability to participate in the transnational labor
system and resulted in them feeling the consequences of migration in speciﬁc and
powerful ways.

San Salvador is a transnational context in varied and interrelated ways. The
Salvadoran economy is transnational; corporations, goods, services, labor, and money
ﬂow between countries with great ﬂuidity. Globalizing neoliberalism is fundamental to
this tendency as it encourages transnational ﬂows and inﬂuences the form and function of
that which moves between countries (including consumables). High levels of migration,
in particular to the US, contribute to the transnationalization of people and place.
Salvadorans who migrate, as well as their families in El Salvador, negotiate the
dysfunctions of this context and bear the costs of tensions. They are caught between the
neoliberal forces encouraging labor mobility and the barriers designed to prevent it. In
the next chapter, I elaborate on a key transnational component of the neoliberal

development model: consumption.

76

CHAPTER 3

CONSUMPTION AND MOBILE MEANINGS

Foundations and Mechanisms of Social Reproduction

Concern with consumption patterns requires directing attention to actors at the local,
regional, and international levels, including the individuals and bodies that promote,
encourage, and beneﬁt from consumption. As Martin argues it is necessary to “place our
search for the subtle distinctions of rank and place as measured in material things within
a framework of power in order to understand the gatekeepers of behavioural [sic]
knowledge (socialization) and cultivation knowledge (cultural capital)” (19932157).

El Salvador’s political landscape, where the tenets of the neoliberal economic
framework have been widely accepted, is fundamental to the shape of the present
consumption context. True to Escobar’s description of Latin America since 1980, El
Salvador has abandoned dirigisme or self direction and focused on externally deﬁned and
driven economic growth (1995289). Robinson summarizes this political and economic
context: “In each Central American country, a transnationalized “technocratic” or New
Right fraction gained hegemony within the dominant classes and pushed the transnational
agenda of neo-liberalism and the consolidation of polyarchies through diverse
institutions, including political parties, states, and the organs of civil society” (2003265).
At the time of this study, El Salvador was enmeshed in the global economic system built
on capital accumulation. A3 a result, many priorities and policies of the government
directly and indirectly entrenched a system of consumption much like that of the US.

For instance, the government’s compliance with the neoliberal precepts of an open

77

market and the privatization of public services advances the evolution of a consumption
system that parallels that of the US. Free trade and privatization are intimately tied to
cycles of capital accumulation and resulting consumption. They are measures taken in
response to the prioritization of economic grth and consumption. Further, policies and

practices such as these increase the consumption potential of those who proﬁt.

Transnational Corporations and Salvadoran Grupos

There are two key hegemonic forces that dominate social reproduction processes in San
Salvador: grupos and transnational corporations (TNCS). There are, of course, other
arenas, such as organizations, in which meaning is created and propagated in El Salvador
(Gonzalez et al. 2005). El Salvador hosts a large number of non-proﬁt organizations,
some of which play roles in the shaping of meaning and symbols. Churches and religious
groups are also a part of these processes. However, in various ways, the grupos and
TNCs possess unparalleled power in the processes that stimulate the circulation of
consumption-related messages and meaning in El Salvador.

Many businesses, ﬁrms, and companies in El Salvador and surrounding countries
are organized into conglomerates of companies or grupos. There are numerous grupos,
and the authors of a recently published book by Equipo Maiz (Aguilar and Villalona
2005) argue that there are eight that hold signiﬁcant power in El Salvador. '8 These
grupos embody authority and wealth. Most of the investors and executives are members
of the wealthiest families in El Salvador. Many of the families can be directly and

indirectly linked to the coffee and land oligarchies of pre-civil war El Salvador. The

 

'8 The grupos are: Grupo Cuscatlan. Grupo Banagricola. Grupo Banco Salvadorer’io. Grupo Banco de
Comercio. Grupo AGRISAL, Grupo Poma/Salaverria Prieto/QuirOs/Scotiabank. Grupo $013. and Grupo
Hill/Llach Hill.

78

grupos have been the greatest wealth producing entities in the country in large part due to
their heavy investment in both imports and exports. Their wealth and business ventures
are also related to the privatization of banks in 1980. All of the eight grupos are
associated in some way with banking, credit, investing, or retirement ﬁmds. They are
also in control of major industrial and commercial companies. For example, several
jointly own El Salvador’s only cement manufacturer—an impressive monopoly given
that cement is the primary material used in construction.

While their history makes them ‘local’ players, as do their many investments in
the country of El Salvador, these grupos are transnational corporations or TNCS. In
addition to their involvement and investments in industries throughout Central America,
grupos also own businesses and franchises in the US. and other countries. Grupo Poma,
for example, owns hotels in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico and Florida. In
El Salvador, Grupo Poma owns or is heavily invested in real estate, hotels, Scotiabank,
auto dealerships, and free trade zones. Some Salvadorans speak of Grupo Poma as the
most powerful conglomerate in El Salvador. It is one of the largest commercial and
industrial groups in Central America, and the Poma family is highly proﬁled and
powerful. Grupo Roble, a subsidiary of Grupo Poma, owns several of the ten plus
commercial shopping centers in the metro San Salvador area. Throughout the Central
American region, they own 17 malls. Because they are leaders in the San Salvadoran
shopping mall industry, Grupo Roble is important in this study.

In addition to these ‘home grown’ TNCS, a multitude of TNCS from the exterior
operate within El Salvador. Neoliberal deregulation has encouraged companies from the

US, Korea, Japan, and elsewhere to offshore operations in the small, Central American

79

country. For instance, the computer company, Dell, opened a call center in San Salvador
in 2005. Maquilas or factories are another common TNC operation. In 1999, 70,000
Salvadoran workers contributed to the exporting of 1.6 billion dollars (about a ﬁfth of the
gross domestic product) of maquila goods (Aguilar Guillen 1999 sited in Frundt 2002).

Companies based throughout the world also franchise in, and export or sell goods
and services to El Salvador. Better known examples include Coke, McDonalds, Pizza
Hut, Kellogg’s, and Blockbuster. More surprising examples include Jimmy John’s
sandwich shops, Hush Puppy shoe stores, Ofﬁce Depot, and TGI Fridays restaurants. A
great deal of entertainment, including ﬁlm, television, and video, is imported. Movies
come from Hollywood, soap operas from Brazil, television channels from Mexico, and
music from Spain. The telecommunications companies are also TNCS, often based
outside of El Salvador.

Transnational marketing ﬁrms also have a presence in El Salvador; for example,
both J. Walter Thompson and Saatchi and Saatchi do work in the region. Steven Kemper
(2001) documents the reach of transnational ﬁrms such as these and reveals that North
America, Europe, and Japan accounted for 90 percent of advertising revenue in the
19803. Globally, a small number of companies have dominated the ﬁeld. In 1993, ﬁve
of the ten largest ﬁrms were based in the United States, three in Europe and two in Japan.
Kemper argues, “the Western origin of most of these global ﬁrms reﬂects the hegemony
of Westem—and more narrowly, American—forces in the global production of culture”
(Kemper 2001225).

In approaching advertisements and marketing campaigns, these ﬁrms have

consistent approaches. Advertising has an “agreed-on set of assumptions, a disciplinary

8O

language, and everyday practices” that makes it “a community as well as a profession”
(Kemper 200128). Kemper also found that advertising has been centralized. This process
began in 19803 “when the London ﬁrm Saatchi and Saatchi began to speak of ‘global
advertising’ and argued that by creating a single identity for a commodity the world over
it could sell products the same way in Uruguay as the United Kingdom” (2001:28). At
the same time, Kemper shows that ﬁrms are ‘local’ in ways. For example, they hire local
staff, use local actors, and otherwise adopt campaigns to make them culturally
appropriate.

At both global and local scales, advertising has been and continues to be a
fundamental component of the consumption system in San Salvador. Referring to the
approach of TNCS in the 1960-19703, Barry and Preusch state: “With their enormous
advertising budgets, they created a consumer demand for luxury goods, despite the fact
that only a few Central Americans could afford these nonessential products” (Barry and
Preusch 19862166). A quote from a TNC chairperson regarding the company’s
marketing strategy reveals their philosophy:

How often we see in developing countries that the poorer the economic outlook,

the more important the small luxury of a ﬂavored soft drink or smoke... to the

dismay of many would be benefactors, the poorer the malnourished are, the more
likely they are to spend a disproportionate amount of whatever they have on some

luxury rather than on what they need (Barry and Preusch 19862166).

Aggressive marketing and advertising campaigns have persisted, and in 2005 San
Salvador was coated with billboards for shoes, cars, alcohol, restaurants, and money

transference services. A huge sign in an upscale neighborhood advertised the release of a

new Harry Potter book. Prizes, special offers, and various rewards were used to

81

encourage buying. In April of 2005, a large ad on the side of a bus promised a $1000
give-away at an electronics store. Several banks, Gigante Express (a remittance agency),
and Delta airlines also advertised various prizes, bonuses, and awards for spending
money on their products or services. On several occasions, the effectiveness of these
marketing strategies was conﬁrmed by the comments made to me by Salvadorans. For
instance, Teresa and I saw a small, black Chevy with a large red ribbon on it at
Metrocentro. The sign from Uval Bank said, “maybe you can win this car!” Teresa said
that she wanted a car just like it in terms of color and size. She also mentioned that she
had a credit card with Uval and that a bank representative had called the house one day
and she wondered if they were notifying her that she had won the car. In all, the
onslaught of consumption-related messages was intensive and extensive. Other
advertising arenas included ﬂiers, sale ads in newspapers, radio commercials, and

advertisements on television.

Rise of Grupos and T NCs in El Salvador

A gradual evolution led the grupos to their forms and positions in El Salvador. Since
1950, the coffee oligarchy (known as Los Catorce or the fourteen families) has expanded
into non-agricultural industries (Barry and Preusch 1986). As they made this shift, elites
were able to maintain control over much of the country’s wealth because of the
continuance of the inequitable land tenure system and repressive labor policies. Further,
throughout the country’s history, the wealthy have been embedded in the political system.
In its current form, this became the case with the administration of Armando Calderén

Sol whose tenure began began in 1994. Since then, the political party ARENA has

82

remained both in power and intimately linked to the country’s economic elites (Gonzalez
2002; Paniagua Serrano 2002).

Barry and Preusch (1986) explore the establishment of TNC power in the Central
American region. They show that TNC’s, principally from the US, controlled regional
industrialization between 1950 and 1978. In this time period, TNCS “took control of the
most proﬁtable manufacturing and food-processing industries” (19862162). They
received signiﬁcant tax breaks, which, for El Salvador in 1975 equaled about 85 percent
of all industrial wages (19862166). Further, foreign TNCS joined forces with local
businesses—between 1960 and about 1980, 41 of 55 foreign investments were joint
ventures (Herold 1980 cited in Barry and Preusch). In the 19603, the insertion of US.
TNCS was fostered by the Alliance for Progress—a US. aid program that arose in
response to the Cuban revolution (Dalton 1978). Under this program, U.S. consultants
became involved in both government ministries and banking. Foreign corporations thus
have a longstanding, potent, and often hegemonic inﬂuence on El Salvador’s
sociopolitical and economic landscape; this inﬂuence has primarily been U.S.-based.

The TNCS and grupos play important roles in the maintenance of the sociocultural
and political system of meaning in which consumables and symbols circulate. At the
local level, the grupos beneﬁt from this system and the families invested in the grupos
accumulate wealth. This perpetuates the system of meaning and symbols, in particular
the beneﬁts and promises linked to consumption. With varying degrees of awareness,
those that encourage consumption in El Salvador do so to increase their own capacity to

participate in the consumption system. So in addition to inﬂuencing the system through

83

marketing and promoting consumption, Salvadoran elites are engaged in the same
complex web as are the other consumers.

Grupos and TNCS have beneﬁted (per the criteria of the dominant consumption
system) from their contributions to the consumption system. Their activities generate
proﬁts in obvious ways: sell a product for the right price and revenue results. The
income of the grupos is generated in other ways as well, due in large part to their banking
investments. The resulting proﬁts circle back, at least in part, as ‘investment’ in the
consumption system. They can be put towards, for instance, increasing marketing,
expanding product lines, or expanding retail space. Proﬁts also accumulate amongst
individuals, families, and companies in high proﬁle ways, thereby augmenting the array
of consumables and behaviors that might be looked to in processes of emulation.

In El Salvador, the conglomerates are principle economic beneﬁciaries of the
consumption of goods and services. Grupo Roble proﬁts because they expertly create
and market consumption sites or malls. This occurs in a context with fewer and fewer
public spaces that provide free forms of entertainment, particularly for people who are
not part of the upper—middle class or elite. Safe sites that are completely ‘free’ of charge
were virtually non-existent in the city of San Salvador. Open space for soccer, safe roads
or sidewalks for biking, functional playgrounds, and accessible walking trails were rare
or non-existent. Lack of safety, which had many complex and interrelated causes, and
the co-option of public spaces for retail, limited affordable public spaces for recreational
activities.

People therefore recreated in malls. Similar to patterns found in Trinidad by

Miller, “retailing and malls become largely a new form of public space which is quickly

84

appropriated for forms of social interaction” (1997240). In San Salvador, consumption
Sites are many. They are often sophisticated and complex in function. For instance, they
house ofﬁces or branches where bill paying and other transactions are conducted. For
various reasons, they become high use spaces. San Salvador well exempliﬁes this
pattern.

Mass culture transformed experiences into marketable products while advertising

turned marketable products into representations, images and then, over time, into

experiences once more. The consequence of all this has been that the consumption
of experience and the experience of consumption have become more and more

indistinguishable (F alk and Campbell 199728).

Grupo Roble beneﬁts directly from this situation. Likewise, Grupo Siman (a
subsidiary of Grupo Banco Salvadoreﬁo) beneﬁts through its well-established department
stores and construction company. Not only do tangible proﬁts result, “but hegemony is
made not just in time, but also in space—in the taken-for-grantedness of bodies in
speciﬁc places, and what those bodies are, what those place are, and how they constitute
and deﬁne each other” (Mitchell 2004217). Through malls, shops, transnational stores
and eateries, and the virtual absence of alternative public spaces, the consumption-related
behaviors and beliefs of Salvadorans are manipulated.

The power of these grupos or conglomerates also rests in their control over
Salvadoran importing (Aguilar and Villalona 2005215). For instance, several of the
grupos own automobile dealerships, and proﬁt from the imported vehicles that they sell

in El Salvador. Similarly, Grupo CuscatlanI9 owns Inifersa and Serte, both of which

import fertilizers.

 

'9 Grupo C uscatlan well exempliﬁes the link between the consumption system and politics. This is the
conglomerate in which the family of Alfredo C ristiani is heavily invested. Cristiani is the director of the
conservative and ruling ARENA party and was the president ofEl Salvador from 1989 - 1994.

85

The conglomerates also beneﬁt directly from migrant remittances. In 2005, the
four largest banks provided money transfer services.20 Because they offered services in
the US, the dollars earned by migrants could easily be deposited in checking and
savings accounts in Salvadoran banks. Grupo Banagricola, for example, had agencies in
Los Angeles, California. Salvadorans easily transferred money and family in El Salvador
readily accessed the funds. In all, Salvadoran banks pay out approximately 70 percent of
all remittances (Orozco 2006). These remitted dollars are largely spent in the ‘local’
Salvadoran economy—in Metrocentro and other sites. Similarly, the ‘vacation dollars’ of
visiting migrants are spent at stores, restaurants, and other Salvadoran consumption sites.
For example, Grupo Taca, a subsidiary of Grupo Banagricola, sees high proﬁts from
Salvadorans returning home for ﬁestas patronales, Christmas, and other holidays or
events such as weddings. Grupos also proﬁt from the real estate purchased with
remittances. Grupo Roble, for example, has built over 50,000 homes in El Salvador
(www.gruporoble.com). Those who beneﬁt from increased consumption in El Salvador
beneﬁt from transnational migration as it lubricates the neoliberal economy. If money
were not entering in the form of remittances, the Salvadoran economy would be stagnant
or depressed.

Some consumption in San Salvador occurs with the aid of credit. Amongst
interviewees, the debt-free household was somewhat exceptional. One interviewee, for
instance, conﬁded that she had $5000 in debt. The banks, many of which are controlled
by the powerful conglomerates or grupos, provide this debt opportunity. Grupo Roble,

for example, is heavily vinculada or invested in Scotiabank. Small, community, or

 

20 , , .
These are Banco Agricola. Banco Cuscatlan. Banco de Cornercro. and Banco Salvadoreno.

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cooperative banks are virtually non-existent; it is the large grupo and TNC owned banks
that beneﬁt from interest, fees, and other monetary gains associated with lending money
and other ﬁnancial endeavors. Thus, by encouraging consumption in a context where
few have the monetary means to consume, the grupos beneﬁt because they provide loans
to help people participate in the consumption system. They proﬁt twice—once when the

service or item is paid for, and again on the interest payments.

Understanding Consumption
At a biological level, life requires consumption of resources; however, much human
consumption is about more than simply sustaining physical life. Consumption is
fundamental to cultural, social, emotional, and psychological life as well. In this
dissertation, I use a wide lens to help get at these abstract elements of consumption. In
the remainder of this chapter, I expand on my conceptualization of consumption. I
explore the complexities of consumption, consumables, and related beliefs and behaviors.
Throughout this discussion, I present examples from the El Salvador case. I also draw on
evidence from the US. context. Because the US. economic and consumption models
have been exported to El Salvador, many patterns have been replicated in El Salvador.
Further, there has been more U.S.-based research conducted on these topics.

I deﬁne consumption in an expansive and inclusive way. The consumables under
consideration here include objects (e. g., shoes, computers, houses), service industries
(e. g., hair salons, health care providers, coursework, and training), and spaces (e.g.,
malls, parks, neighborhoods.) I cast a broad net in order to get at a wide range of

consumption-related beliefs and behaviors. With this approach, I attempt to correct for

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the tendency to categorize some consumables as appropriate and beneﬁcial while, as
Miller discusses, others are considered “pathologies” (1997:36). The value of a
consumable is subjective, as I will explore in greater detail. Classifying consumables
inevitably demands some process of valuation. A broad conceptualization of
consumption decreases the risk of categories being subjectively deﬁned. Further, this
broad deﬁnition helps to account for vast differences in access. Socioeconomic status
and geography largely determine what can be consumed. It is therefore common to take
goods and services that are readily available for granted; in a context where potable water
ﬂows freely from drinking fountains in public parks, clean drinking water may not seem
to be a consumable. In another context where this is not the case, accessing clean water
can be much more complex and costly.

Consumption is necessary to sustain life. It is also, however, a complex set of
beliefs and behaviors that extends well beyond this function. In a capitalist framework,
consumption is part of an intricate chain of production, exchange, and consumption.
Consumables, then, are goods and services thatare produced, valued and exchanged in
some way, and used, appropriated, or consumed. From an anthropological standpoint,
tangible consumables are artifacts. Per Douglas and lsherwood, they are “needed for
making visible and stable the categories of culture” (1979259). Non-tangible
consumables, i.e., services, also function within and shape culture. Further, consumables
are fundamental to the interconnections (and lack thereof) between individuals and
groups. As Douglas and Isherwood frame it, consumables “make and maintain social
relationships” (1979260). In all, an anthropological concern with consumption is a

concern with “how people use things and how cultural beliefs and practices shape their

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appropriation of such things, with consequences for the wider contexts of their lives”
(Hansen 2000214).

In considering the concepts of consumption and ‘consumption system’, it is
important to point to the related concepts of consumerism and materialism.
Consumerism, though distinct, is related to consumption. It is used in a synonymous way
by some scholars (Martin 19932143). It can also be a value-laden term used to refer to
‘over—consumption’ (a subjective concept) as a social ill. Materialism is another related
concept. Martin suggests that when “materialism is greatest, people believe that
possessions provide the greatest satisfaction and dissatisfaction in life” (1993:143). It too
can be used in a pejorative way to refer to an over concern with material goods at the
expense of values or morality. These concepts are all related and are elements of ideas
and discourses explored in this dissertation. As Martin suggests, “consumerism,
consumption, and materialism intersect and overlap in many ways: all cluster around one
key theme—the interaction of people, ideas, and material objects” (1993243). So while I
am not explicitly wrestling with materialism and consumerism, they are far from absent
from this discussion. Further, although the issue of increasing consumption of resources
is a relevant concern here,2 ' my intent is to document and explore patterns of
consumption in order that several processes and relationships can be made more
transparent. The intention of this dissertation is not to judge, but rather to describe and
understand. This endeavor is approached with a deep awareness that the world’s
resources are ﬁnite and depleted, but I emphasize consumption as a sociocultural reality,

rather than a societal problem.

 

2‘ See for example OEC D 2002.

89

In this work, I am drawing a distinction between the dominant consumption
system and commoditization processes. Although closely related to each other, these
concepts are not synonymous. Increasingly, consumables are converting to commodities
and things that can be classiﬁed as rights are circulating at the market level. Under
neoliberalism, clean drinking water, healthcare, and public spaces are prone to
commoditization. Consumables are not always, however, commodities as they have not
all been universally absorbed by economic markets in theory and practice. Some services
and goods are still public in some places. In the case of El Salvador, people are working
to prevent the absolute privatization of health care. While there is a signiﬁcant push to
completely commoditize this consumable, it has yet to be fully transformed into a market
service. Furthermore, contestations of commoditization (such as concern with the
privatization of public services) is not the same as contestations of consumption (such as
concern with an unnecessary abundance of material possessions). The concept of
commoditization is useful, nevertheless, for considering consumables. Therefore 1

reference it and also draw on works concerned with the concept and related processes.

Consumption and Meaning

Consumables function at two levels. First, many have fairly obvious purposes, for
instance a coat protects the wearer from cold weather and other threatening elements.
Second, and critical to this dissertation, consumables have socioculturally assigned
meanings. Some consumables do not have obvious utility or else they are never used for
that function, such as a decorative collection of spoons. In such cases, the socioculturally

assigned symbolism is the ‘function’ of the consumable.

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To varying degrees, the function of consumables can be found in their
symbolisms. Sahlins, in fact, argues that the absolute utility of objects “consists of a
signiﬁcance” (19762203). Similarly, Appadurai describes goods as “incarnate signs”
(1986238). For instance, a common meaning linked to consumables is sacredness -
sacred consumables are “set apart and beyond mundane utility” (Belk et al. 198929). The
value of consumables, such as its sacredness, is derived from the socioculturally deﬁned
symbolisms. Taken together, the consumables, symbols, and values form a complex
system of meaning. The signiﬁcations are “deﬁned by their relationship to the entire
system of commodities and signs" (Baudrillard 197027). In other words, they are situated
in the consumption system and their signiﬁcance cannot be understood in isolation.
There are sociocultural Speciﬁcities to these various dimensions of consumption. The
meanings of consumables and the importance of the meanings vary over time and across
space. These meanings and symbolisms associated with consumables are sometimes
explicit and sometimes tacit. Their value, both real and perceived, is sometimes

unarticulated.

The Promises and Beneﬁts of Consumption

Analysis of consumption and consumables in San Salvador thus requires recognition of
complex, layered, and dynamic meanings in that context. Status, success, and prestige
are embedded signiﬁcations in consumption acts and beliefs. Similarly, consumption is
associated with a series of beneﬁts. Well being, happiness, satisfaction, and pleasure are
promised in varying ways by the consumption system. Of these, happiness is an

important symbol and beneﬁt. In part, this is because it is often the ‘end’ while the other

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signiﬁcations are the ‘means’. Well being, status, success, and prestige are important
symbols and objectives; but to a degree this is explained by their capacity to generate
happiness and contentment. Thus in tacit ways, happiness is often the root objective
(though not necessarily the root symbol).

Through my use of the term ‘happiness’ I am considering feelings of pleasure,
joy, contentment, well being, and the relative absence of pain, depression, and
unhappiness. Based on their study of cultural constructions of happiness, as well as an
analysis of related research, Uchida et a1. argue: “people everywhere are likely to prefer
the desirable over the undesirable and the pleasant over the unpleasant” (20042223).
However, what is desirable and pleasant is not universal. Anthropologists and others
have unveiled evidence that shows feelings are culturally mediated. Anthropologist
Edward L. Schieffelin argues, “while it is true that feelings are privately experienced, to
the extent that their content and expression are culturally organized, they must be
understood in terms of those culturally shared structures of interaction extrinsic to the
individual from which they derived their meaning” (19852104).

We may therefore, “expect considerable cross-cultural variations in meanings of
happiness (i.e., what might constitute happiness), motivations underlying happiness (i.e.,
what people might try to do to achieve happiness, and predictors of happiness (i.e., what
factors might predict happiness)” (Uchida et al. 2004:223-224). In this work, I explore
consumption as it relates to happiness and well being in the context of El Salvador. And
while happiness and other emotions are culturally mediated, I draw parallels between the
US. and San Salvador because of the hegemonic processes that have shaped the

consumption system in El Salvador. Not only have these processes inﬂuenced the

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availability of consumables and the messages about consuming, they have also shaped
the cultural construction of happiness and well being.

Cross culturally, well being and happiness are interrelated. While the exact
relationship is contested, there are philosophical theories that propose that well being is
equal to authentic happiness (Sumner 1996 cited in Tiberius 2004.) Be it as a synonym
for happiness or just closely related, well being is critical to a concern with consumption.
Consumables promise and deliver various elements of well being. As such, it surfaces in
the anthropological work of Miller. He suggests that in anthropology, well being refers
to “the capacity for self-creation by a society or individual that is created through objects’
appropriations” (2005220). The way this can play out is exempliﬁed by the work of
anthropologist Karen Hansen. In her analysis of the consumption of clothing in Zambia,
Hansen references well being as something that is delivered by this consumable. She
concludes that clothing functioned “as an index of well-being and a mediator of
widespread sensibilities” (2000289).

Other concepts related to well being and happiness also surface in anthropological
literature on consumption. Miller (1995b) refers to “the treat” or consumables that bring
pleasure to the individual who is indulging in the purchase. He notes, for example, that
the women in his North London sample described clothing as something that could
function as a treat. The women also argued that the consumption of a treat could be a
response to depression. In other words, consumption could ﬁrnction to provide the
consumer with an emotion that is opposed to sadness, i.e., happiness. Similarly,

consumables could be rewards, for instance, for “carrying out the act of shopping”

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(1998241). Miller’s consideration of treats and rewards provides insights on the links
between consumption and happiness.

In various ways, well being is something that is sought for self and others through
consumption. Because well being is desired for others, in particular family, there is a
related link between consumption and love. For the relationships in which love is a
variable, well being and happiness are often desired for the person who is the object of
that affection. Therefore, in contexts where consumption and well being are linked,
consumption and love so too are linked. As an example, Miller’s study of families in
North London led him to conclude: “shopping does not merely reﬂect love, but is a major
form in which this love is manifested and reproduced” (1998218). The work of Parreﬁas’
situates the topic of love and consumption within the transnational migration literature.
Parreﬁas’ found that women from the Philippines who had migrated to the US. “have the
urge to overcompensate their absence with material goods” (20012123). She argues that
the migrant parents in her study exchanged “familial bonds” for “material well being”
and that parents “purchase love with American or Italian designer clOthing and school
supplies” (20012124). Human relationships entail a range of socioculturally deﬁned
obligations. In El Salvador, the consumption system and transnational migration are
important mechanisms in the establishment of these obligations

General references to contentment also arise in the transnational migration
literature. Anthropologist Baker-Cristales refers to the fulﬁlling life that is accessed via
migration from El Salvador to the US. (2004294). She links this idea of fulﬁllment to
earning potential and consumption. Similarly, regarding her work on migration in China,

Ngai states, “the consumer subject can pursue his or her ‘happiness’ within this new

94

rationality for living up to the global project in which consumption can offer the answer
to their every wish (20032475). These anthropologists and others reference the emotive
beneﬁts of engaging in consumption. In this dissertation, I take this a step further by
deconstructing these beneﬁts.

The links between consumption and happiness are, in ways, legitimate.
Consumables can continually offer short-term pleasures (e.g., Lykken 2006). Further,
data from multiple countries suggest that increased income (and consumption) in poorer
countries does increase contentment levels. However, “there is little or no further
increase in life satisfaction once GDP per capita exceeds $12,000 (Kahneman et al.
2006). While consumption and contentment are linked in concrete ways, evidence
suggests that a bit beyond the point where needs are met, the likelihood that money and
consumption will increase happiness is greatly reduced (e.g., Inglehart 19992217).
Nevertheless, within the dominant consumption system, consumables seem to have an
unlimited potential for delivering pleasure. That consumables fail to meet all of the
promises that are made within the consumption system is under explored and infrequently
articulated. Critiques of materialism, for instance, do not typically dissect the validity of
the supposed beneﬁts of consuming. Instead, the beneﬁts of consumption circulate
widely in a sophisticated, powerful, and hegemonic system, which is undergirded by
powerful institutions and bodies.

Advertising, the media, models of consumption (such as the wealthy and famous),
and other mechanisms function cumulatively to create and circulate information and
messages about consumables and consuming. They function to educate and socialize in

overt and subtle ways. At root are the individuals and institutions that are primarily

95

responsible for enabling these processes. They are directly and indirectly linked to
corporate interests and they are driven by the duel neoliberal tenets of capital
accumulation and economic growth. Marketing discourse, for example, is persuasive.
“This explains, as Peﬁaloza (1994) observes, why marketing communication determines
the immigrant’s self-image as surely as the cultural baggage he or she brought from the

home country” (Oswald 19992316).

Historical Transnational Processes
The current form of the consumption system in San Salvador is explained, in part, by
historic patterns originating in the US. Much evidence suggests that by the 18003, an
increasingly consumption-oriented society was emerging there. While people were
certainly participants in complex consumption systems prior to that period, the historical
evidence points to ampliﬁcation in a number of ways. Two changes likely contributed to
this: ﬁrst, there was an increase in consumables, and second, there were greater numbers
of people who were able to consume in ways that had previously been limited to
wealthier groups. These changes may have been the result of the larger quantities,
affordability, and availability of goods turned out during the industrial revolution. Or it
may be that the desire for goods led to, rather than resulted from, industrialization (Lubar
1998)

Motion pictures also arose late in this time period and revealed leisurely and
pleasure-ﬁlled lifestyles, which became part of the ‘consumer culture’ emerging in the
US. (Lubar 1998:27). The rise of the department store between 1880 and 1930 was

another important element in this changing society (Lubar 1998; Martin 1993). For

96

example, it was in the 1870’s that department stores began to use the Christmas holiday
to market consumables (Jacobson and Mazur 19952179). Another shift that played a role
in rising consumption was the introduction of mail order catalogues such as the one
distributed by Sears Roebuck and Company (Martin 1993; Leiss et al. 2005).

Leiss et al. (2005) outline rising consumption patterns in the time between the
World Wars (1918-1936) and the subsequent years. During this period, increases in the
breadth and depth of consumption were fostered by the advent of product designers,
marketers, advertisers, and consumer researchers. Leiss et al. argue that advertising
became a particularly potent force in this period. The authors note, for instance, the
power gained by its alliance with media sources such as radio programming. Further,
after the First World War, “Americans began to spend their way to prosperity” (Leiss et
al. 2005276). Products became increasingly affordable because of efﬁcient and less
expensive production processes. Housing subsidies and rising blue-collar wages also
made consumption increasingly accessible. Additionally, in this post war context, style
and fashion spread from the clothing and auto industries to house wares and other arenas.

It is in this environment that key meanings and symbolisms that are presently
associated with consuming surfaced. Consumables increasingly became the artifacts
linked with status. The connections between consumption and both civilization and
reﬁnement intensiﬁed (Lubar 1998). More and more, people made comparisons and felt
pressure to consume like their neighbors, friends, co-workers, or even strangers (Coleman
and Rainwater 1978 cited in Leiss et al. 2005). And from the 19203 onward, marketing

and advertising approaches incorporated “visible expressions of human contentment in

97

the associations between persons and products” and also placed emphasis on “self-
satisfaction, individual gratiﬁcation, and living life in the moment” (Leiss et al. 2005287).
Historic economic and social processes fostered links between consumption and
happiness, pleasure, satisfaction, fulﬁllment, success, and so on. These aspects of the
human experience are intimately embedded in the resulting consumption system. Like
Kemper observed regarding advertising in Sri Lanka, this is about “culture being

produced,” not just “transmitted” (20012147).

Consmtion. Identity, and Self Esteem

A common topic across literatures concerned with consumption is the importance of
consumables in the forming and deﬁning of identity (e. g., Stambach 2000). Sahlins, for
instance, argues that there is a “continuous process of social life in which men [sic]
reciprocally deﬁne objects in terms of themselves and themselves in terms of objects”
(19762169). Identities are complex, dynamic, and multi-faceted; components of identity
include characteristics such as age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, language, political views,
and religion. Consumables (or their absence) are a part of the formation and/or
expression of these components.

In cultures that emphasize the importance of the individual—an increasingly
common trend in El Salvador (e. g., Sibler 2004) —establishing one’s identity is a way of
meeting a cultural expectation that people will have and convey identities. Meeting this
sociocultural expectation provides a sense of balance, happiness, and pleasure.
Conversely, the inability to meet such expectations can cause unhappiness. Researchers,

including Belk (1988), “have explored how consumers project themselves into

98

possessions and consumption rituals and experience grief when such possessions and
rituals are lost or replaced because of theft, ﬁre, or change” (Oswald 19992310). Such
evidence conﬁrms linkages between identity, well being, and happiness. There are
related links between happiness and self esteem. The degree to which this is the case
varies as well being and contentment are more highly correlated with self esteem in
individualistic cultures than in collectivist cultures (Diener and Diener 1995 cited in
Tiberius 2004).

There are also important experiential pleasures that result from consuming. These
pleasures can be thought of as “ﬂeeting ﬁxes” (Draeger-Muenke et al. 2006225) as they
are only temporary experiences. For instance, there is evidence that buying shoes can be
a psychological boost for some. Women interviewed at Pentagon City outside of
Washington DC. made this claim (Pressler 2005). While seemingly distant from El
Salvador, the metropolitan Washington DC. area is home to a large number of
Salvadorans. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Pentagon City is a popular mall amongst
the immigrant group, in part because it can be easily accessed using the Metro. Further,
footwear is an exceptionally popular consumable in El Salvador, which suggests that
there may be some emotive beneﬁts to the consumption of this good. Pleasure can also
be derived from imagining consumption (Campbell 1987). Daydreaming about and
imagining consumables is, in itself, pleasurable. Perhaps, in part, this is because some
forms of anticipation offer excitement. However, Campbell argues that because the
reality of the consumable does not typically deliver the degree of pleasure imagined, the
breach between desiring consumables and obtaining consumables is never closed. Thus,

people “desire to experience in reality the pleasurable dramas which they have already

99

enjoyed in imagination, and each ‘new’ product is seen as offering a possibility of

realizing this ambition” (1987290).

Consumption and Status

As indicated, status and prestige are important corollaries of consumption. In the last two
decades consumption has been considered by many to be the “just rewards of those who
had risen to the economic and political elite” (Martin 19932148). The goods, services,
and lifestyles consumed by elite ﬁgures are allied with ideas of prosperity, leisure, and
happiness. Furthermore, there is a common understanding that individuals or families
that demonstrate material achievement will not face the feelings of insufﬁciency or
inadequacy thought to be associated with lower economic status (Sennett 19982119).
Lack of money can lead to “feelings of deprivation, personal failure, and deep psychic
pain,” and in US. society, it is a “profound social disability” (Schor l998b239).

For mainstream US. society, material goods are important indicators of economic
and professional success (e. g., Sennett 1998). Consumption patterns can therefore be
related to the prestige associated with certain consumables. At least in part, this may be
explained by biophysical processes. Evidence from primate studies indicates that
increases in status are associated with higher serotonin levels (Brammer et al. 1993 cited
in Layard 2006). Serotonin is a neurotransmitter associated with happiness. In a given
society, the goods, services, or artifacts that are linked to status are also linked to
happiness. In the US. and El Salvador, consumables are mechanisms that earn a person
status. Autos, for example, have a long history of being important consumables for

communicating and gauging success. In discussing the 1950’s U.S. context, McCracken

100

states, “cars augmented the consumer, and so augmented they gave the consumer a
physical mobility that played out their social mobility” (2005279). Similarly, vehicles,
according to Mahler (1995a), are a way for Salvadoran migrants to communicate that the
American dream has been achieved. Autos in both the US. and El Salvador are status
symbols. Consumables such as these are symbols of success (as it is deﬁned by cultures

and subcultures) and facilitators of contentment.

Consumption and Discipline
The participation of groups and individuals in the consumption system is disciplined in
various ways. Economic classes, social groups, religion, age, gender, and other variables
shape the ways that people approach consumption. These categories intersect, such that
the ways that a mother is engaged in the consumption system might differ from that of a
childless woman of the same age. Various mechanisms within each of these categories
function to deﬁne appropriate and inappropriate engagements in the system. Similarly,
the rewards and consequences vary. For example, a child has several spheres through
which their engagement in the consumption system is disciplined. She would likely have
limits set by her parents, based on either their monetary constraints, beliefs about spoiling
children, or other related values. At the same time, consumption-related rewards and
consequences, which differ from those of her parents, would also surface within her peer
group.

Peer groups or references groups can be powerful mechanisms of discipline. An
example from the context of San Salvador involved a Salvadoran friend and her husband.

They had been living with her parents as they situated themselves professionally and

101

economically. She thought this a good approach to saving money with the longer-terrn
goal of buying a home. Her husband, however, desired to have their own place and felt it
Should be in a wealthier neighborhood. Despite the recognized importance of saving and
investing, the couple moved out of her parent’s home and established themselves in a
lifestyle consistent with the upper middle class sphere in which they felt they should
circulate. At least in part, this is an example of the kinds of behaviors that can result
from the discipline that exists within a group.

Rewards and consequences can also arise outside of reference groups. Within the
capitalist system, there are a number of mechanisms of discipline external to the
reference groups of the vast majority of people. These mechanisms and their
implications are explored in this dissertation.

In this chapter, I have explored the topic of consumption from several vantage
points. I have explained the importance of historic patterns in the US. and transnational
mechanisms based in both the US. and El Salvador. 1 have also deconstructed
consumption in the neoliberal context and shown that it possesses a complex array of
characteristics and is associated with a range of beneﬁts. In this chapter, I began to
explore how consumption plays out in San Salvador. In the next chapter, I expand on this
by more closely detailing the local and transnational components of the consumption

system.

102

CHAPTER 4

CONSUMPTION-RELATED BELIEFS AND BEHAVIORS IN SAN SALVADOR

The Salvadoran Consumption System

The US. has exported a consumption system; components of this system have been
incorporated into the economic, political, social, and cultural landscape of El Salvador.
The US. and El Salvador case well exempliﬁes the way that “consumption patterns
mirror and transform one another across the globe” (Poster 20042416). It has not
triggered complete displacements or replacements of consumption-related traditions,
beliefs, behaviors, and so on; however some aspects of the system closely parallel
patterns found in the US. One key comparison is the economic foundation on which the
system rests. Neoliberal development and the capitalist goal of accumulation are
principle forces shaping other aspects of the consumption system. As such, there are a
number of commonalities between the US. and El Salvador.

At the same time, precisely identifying local and imported consumption practices
is, of course, impossible. As Mazzarella states, “‘the local’ and ‘the global’ are not
opposites; rather, they are mutually constitutive imaginary moments in every attempt to
make sense of the world” (2003217). Further, there are variations in consumption
patterns within a culture. In considering the advertising industry in the context of Sri
Lanka, Kemper (2001) observes that there are multiple Sri Lankas; likewise, there are
multiple E1 Salvadors. For example, consumption in the urban setting of San Salvador

can look quite different if compared to consumption in a rural Salvadoran pueblo. The

103

consumables that gain popularity, and ideas that circulate about consuming, ﬂuctuate
across time and place.

Exemplifying the negotiation of the tension between the ‘local’ and the ‘global’
are efforts to maintain Salvadoran identity in the face of the power of the US.
consumption system and other diffusing elements of US. culture. A legislative decree
for the protection of cultural patrimony or heritage of El Salvador was passed in 1993.
This decree prohibited changes to the names of places and required that cultural goods be
protected. Similarly, several Salvadorans spoke to me of related legislation that
prohibited giving newborn children non-Salvadoran (in particular U.S.) names. Despite
the complexity of determining the cultural authenticity of a name, such efforts certainly
point to a desire to limit the extent to which elements of US. culture are replicated in El
Salvador. While names may not be consumables, the arenas in which they circulate are.
Movies, music, television programs, and news coverage all expose Salvadorans to a high
number of names that are popular in the US. So while the government may be
committed to neoliberal development and related consumption processes, the state
simultaneously makes token efforts to protect national identity.

In discussing the Salvadoran consumption system, I present examples that help to
reveal the forms of engagement in the system—be they reﬂective of ‘local’ or ‘global’
patterns. I discuss consumables and the ways that Salvadorans engage with them.
Footwear, for example, is a theme that surfaces in a number of contexts. I also explore

understandings of consumption behaviors in both the US. and El Salvador.

104

Gendered Consumption

The way that people engage in the consumption system varies considerably, and gender is
one variable that shapes that engagement. Many examples presented here specify the
gender of the individual or group that I am describing. In addition to gendered variations
regarding types of consumables, there are also gendered patterns regarding roles. For
instance, women are likely to be the primary ﬁgures in the negotiation of the
consumption on the part of children.22 Women in this sample were more involved than

. . . . . . 7
men in famrlral consumption decrsrons‘3

—in part because in many cases men were absent
from the household for varying reasons. While the control of women was sometimes
limited, for instance in some cases the household budget was largely managed by the
male or was extremely tight, women were often the primary decision makers in many
aspects of household consumption (such as food and other household goods). They also
held responsibilities for purchasing clothing and other items for children, and elderly
family members.

Gender is also a concern in analysis of consumption because it is a variable that is
taken into account in interpretations of consumption behaviors. As Miller observes, there
is a historic understanding that males are less likely to be shoppers in many societies;
therefore a line is drawn between the “seriousness” of labor and the trivialness of
consumption (1998295). Further, the use of consumables as symbols of love or “acts of
devotion remains at the heart of modern female identity” (Miller 19982110). Gendered

expectations and interpretations of consumption behaviors shape engagement in the

system. These expectations and interpretations also shape the mechanisms that inﬂuence

 

2 For a discussion of motherhood and consumption see the edited volume of Taylor et al. (2004).

Is) h)

‘ Miller 1998 found srmIlar patterns In his study of consumption patterns In North London.

105

consumption beliefs and behaviors; it is an important variable in the form and function of

hegemonic processes behind the consumption system

Dmamic Consumption Patterns

For El Salvador, the contrast between past and present consumption patterns is
considerable. Prior to and during the country’s civil war, many consumables were
available to only a small portion of the population. In the time preceding the war, El
Salvador was characterized by extreme inequalities; much of the nation was in poverty.
These patterns worsened during the war, with the landholding oligarchy capturing wealth
and repressing efforts towards change. The 12-year conﬂict devastated the country’s
economy and infrastructure thereby further limiting access to wealth and consumables.
Since the end of the war and signing of the peace accords in 1992, the country’s
economic structure has changed—it is now characterized by more industrialized
activities, privatized services, and an urbanized landscape. (Poverty persists, though,
with some wages having risen very little given the ‘successes’ of the post war economy
and the current cost of living.)

As described, at the time of this study a portion of the population had disposable
monies that allowed for increases in consumption. While many wages were low, in some
arenas salaries permitted moderate to high levels of participation in the consumption
system. Further, remittances were an important source of money for Salvadorans. About
1/6 of the population of El Salvador lived in the US. and in 2004 they sent home over 2
billion dollars (PNUD 2005). Salvadorans who migrated to Canada, Australia, and

Europe also sent money home. As discussed, remittances have pushed families into the

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‘middle class’—allowing for bachillerato or secondary school studies, home ownership,
and higher standards of living.

Credit is another important mechanism undergirding the evolution of the
consumption system. The amount of credit extended to the private sector by Salvadoran
commercial banks and other ﬁnancial and banking institutions in 2004 totaled 39.5
percent of the GNP (CEPAL 2005)“. Mortgages, credit cards, and small loans are
common household debts in San Salvador. For a variety of reasons, including declining
interest rates, credit cards are no longer a luxury (Pico 2005). For the Central American
region as a whole, Visa lntemational had 5.6 million credit card holders who spent $8
billion in cash advances and credit card purchases—an increase of $5 billion in four years
(Pico 2005).25 Electronics, appliances, furniture, computers, and other products are also
frequently ﬁnanced through the vendor. The prices of many more costly products are
given as a monthly cuota or payment rather than as a total price. These tactics encourage
people to consider the dollar ﬁgure that they have to come up with each month—be it 15
dollars, 25 dollars, or more—rather than the total combined cost given the price of the
item and interest payments. In all, like the US, El Salvador is experiencing increasing

consumption rates—there is more money available and more ways to spend it.

 

24 . . . . . .

I was unable to ﬁnd a breakdown of this ﬁgure. For Instance, It Is uncertain what proportion of these
monies is lent to medium and large businesses. AS I note later, this is an important issue demanding greater
attention and clariﬁcation.

25 . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ngai srmrlarly reports an Increase In credrt cards In C hIna. card use rIses markedlyjust mm to national
holidays, a time when the state encourages consumption (20032475). Ngai‘s work is further discussed in
chapter seven.

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Advertisirggin San Salvador

Through advertising and marketing, meaning is created and assigned to consumables.
Advertising therefore “serves as a kind of dictionary constantly keeping us apprised of
new consumer signiﬁeds and signiﬁers” (McCracken 20052165). In the current system,
consumers look to advertisements for “concepts of what it is to be a man or a woman,
concepts of what it is to be middle aged, concepts of what it is to be a parent, concepts of
what a child is and what a child is becoming, concepts of what it is to be a member of a
community and a country” (McCracken 20052165). In the case of parenting, for instance,
there is a different relationship between motherhood and consumption as compared to
fatherhood and consumption (Silvey 2006) and advertising is one mechanism that helps
to deﬁne this distinction. A common example of the kinds of gendered messages
conveyed through advertisements is seen in commercials involving domestic work. In El
Salvador, it is women who are most likely to be cleaning and cooking in advertisements.
Through such messages, advertising and marketing help deﬁne or conﬁrm the self.

In San Salvador, advertisements and the media are critical sources of information.
Because of a Kellogg’s advertising campaign, Teresa bought a breakfast cereal purported
to result in the loss of six pounds in 15 days. Through marketing, Kellogg’s informed
Teresa and other consumers of the importance of a slim ﬁgure and the role of their
product in fulﬁlling this societal expectation. Products that might improve self-esteem by
helping people to ﬁt the dominant image of beauty are prevalent. Advertising for these
consumables often indirectly promise happiness as an aside to the overt beneﬁts of status

and an improved self-image.

108

Happiness is also directly marketed in San Salvador. For instance, a sign for the
opulent mall named Galerias showed a smiling blond child with the words “iEnsér’rame a
ser feliz! iTodo esta aqui!” This translates to, “Show me how to be happy! Everything
is here!” Similarly, a television commercial for the shopping center Las Cascadas stated,
“todo lo que te hace sentir bien” or “everything that makes you feel good.” For Father’s
Day, Siman used the slogan (in Spanish), “make Papa’s dreams a reality.” The happiness
and shopping correlation is also made evident by the smiling faces of the couple on
banners hanging in El Paseo shopping area.

A subtle and common approach to advertising in San Salvador is what I refer to as
multi-layered marketing. Multi-layered marketing occurs when multiple consumables are
marketed and/or distributed together. For example, a store in San Salvador promoted the
ﬁlm “Batman Returns” through various marketing techniques, including prizes. The
grand prize was a BMW car, which itself (as well as the auto dealership) was being
endorsed through promotion of the ﬁlm. The end result of multi-layered marketing is a
complex and deep overlaying of messages about consumables, as well as the advertising
of multiple items via one ad campaign. It is a very powerful means of inserting messages
and symbols into the consumption system. In this case and others, multi-layered
marketing transforms entertainment consumables (ﬁlms, television shows, and video
games) into advertisements.

Multi-layered marketing also encourages the consumption of malls throughout
San Salvador. Billboards, signs, and television commercials advertise Metrocentro, for
example. Once in the mall, the facility itself further endorses the consumption of the

space. On another tier, the stores, goods, and products sold in the mall are marketed both

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outside and inside of the mall. Marketing occurs via a television ad for MD shoes, as
well as the displayed footwear in several of the MD stores located in Metrocentro.

Intellect is a related marketing theme. At one of the many vehicle displays found
in the shopping malls, in this case the auto was a Renault, the phrase at the bottom of the
Siman credit card sign stated, “La manera inteligente de comprar” or “the intelligent way
to buy.” This suggests that consumables are indicators of intellect since intelligent
people know the best ways to access them. Words are not minced in communicating that
savvy people use credit to consume. Self-esteem and status are both inherent in this
message, as intelligence is a characteristic relevant to both. Of course, the woman in the
image is smiling. That owning a car can improve one’s quality of life (and thereby
increase contentment) is conﬁrmed by this image. Related to this, the English language
was also used in advertising, thereby linking the product to the country that symbolizes
achievement and modernity. Similarly, for Father’s Day, the English words “I love you
Papa” were painted on the window of a shoe store in Metrocentro.

Another frequently used marketing technique is envy. The use by MD shoe stores
of an outdoor sign campaign exempliﬁes this tactic. In 2005 a series of large ads were
posted along busy roads throughout the city, with attractive, fashionable, and sexual
young women posing with MD shoes. After several days, all of the signs appeared to
have been covered with grafﬁti, as though someone had drawn mustaches, hairy legs, and
speech bubbles over their heads containing comments such as “your ankles are fat.” This
was not the work, however, of a rogue anti-advertisement hooligan, but rather the signs
had been altered as part of an elaborate ad campaign built on envy. The signs played on

sentiments stimulated when women compare themselves and identify shortcomings in the

110

other (and perhaps ads such as these encourage women to do so). The power of envy and
its link to self-esteem is conﬁrmed by the regularity with which it is a theme in ad
campaigns such as this one.

Not surprisingly, sex was also used to sell products. Coca Cola advertisements,
alcohol, shoe billboards, and many other consumables drew on sexual images—often
scantly clad and shapely women—to market products. Men’s care products also used this
tactic, for instance Axe cologne had an ad campaign aimed at demonstrating the way that
the product will make the user more enticing to women. In a less direct way, such tactics
also aim to communicate the link between consuming and happiness. What is unspoken
about these messages is that by increasing sexual attractiveness and desirability, a person
increases happiness. This correlation is not made explicit and it does not need to be.
Physical and emotional companionship are often understood to be closely linked to
pleasure; consumables that aid in accessing companionship are therefore mechanisms for
accessing this pleasure. At an intuitive level, some people are aware of the chemical
pleasures (e.g., adrenaline and dopamine releases) that are experienced as part of
infatuation and falling in love. For some, sexual intercourse also holds the promise of
delivering physical pleasures.

In San Salvador, advertising mechanisms are proliferating. Preliminary
comparisons with other countries in the region suggest that San Salvador has an
exceptional amount of advertising and marketing. More exact data would need to be
gathered to draw a deﬁnitive conclusion, but it is certain that the context of San Salvador
is ripe with messages about consumption and consumables. In the city, billboards and

signs are many. Advertisements for alcohol, clothing, footwear, fast food, services,

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pharmaceuticals, vehicles, holidays goods, detergents, appliances, mobile phones, home
furnishings, English language schools, remittance services, and many other consumables
abound. In 2005, I saw billboards and a television commercial for the holiday show
“Pinocchio on Ice.” Another billboard advertised an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet at the
restaurant in the Radisson hotel for $19.95. Television access has risen, resulting in
increased exposure to commercials. In 2005, viewers at the cinema were exposed to a
series of commercials (in addition to several movie previews) before ﬁlms began. For
instance, before the ﬁlm “Sahara,” the theatre ran commercials for soup bouillon, baby
formula, and other products. The lntemet, another source of information regarding
consumables and a technology used for advertising, is also increasingly accessible. And
consumption sites, which also market consumables in complex ways, are on the rise.
This promotional ﬁrnction of malls and other consumption sites was exempliﬁed by a
conversation with a middle class woman. When we began our brief conversation about
consumption and the malls, she said that people could choose how to spend their
money—in other words, consumption is an activity that people opt to participate in. I
pointed out that places like Metrocentro are used as spaces for meeting people and
passing time because they offer security and I implied that I suspected that consumption
was encouraged in those spaces. She acquiesced and admitted that she has gone to the
mall with the intention of buying one thing, and ended up ‘wanting’ (and sometimes
buying) other things.

Media in the form of television and ﬁlm also plays a critical role in establishing
which consumables are associated with particular identities or reference groups.

Advertising and the media are tools that can help a person to know how to differentiate

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him or herself from mainstream trends or conform to them. They can thus be described
as “agents of consumer socialization” (O’Guinn and Shrum 19972279). In fact, television
may rival other socialization mechanisms, including the family, educational
environments, and churches (O’Guinn and Shrum 1997). For example, because of the
predominant representation of the upper middle classes in programming, television
inﬂuences ideas about consumption by exposing viewers to lifestyles more luxurious than
their own (O’Guinn and Shrum 19972 279).26 Further, network television stations, cable
television stations, and the lntemet bombard the public with information about economic
and celebrity elites—an important source of information regarding consumption (e. g.,
Veblen 1979; Ramstad 1998; Dugger 1998). Celebrities, pop culture icons, and wealthy
socialites are important ﬁgures in the creation of meaning. The power, prestige, and
media access linked with wealth give these groups considerable control in deﬁning
sociocultural meaning. For instance, celebrities and high proﬁle elites popularize
designer handbags, and women from a range of economic situations buy designer purses
or imitations in an effort to emulate.

Through both advertising and programming, Salvadoran television strengthens the
links between consumption and happiness. It provides considerable exposure to a
luxurious and seemingly happy reality experienced by few people on the planet.
Professional soccer and its marketing and media coverage are also examples of a
mechanism that aids in the creation or perpetuation of meanings associated with
consumables. For Salvadorans, particularly males, soccer is a popular consumable. A

Salvadoran contact described soccer as especially important both socially and culturally.

 

2( . . . .
’ The researchers note: “those with less Income and education are the most affected by televrsed
representations of the consumption practices of others" (O‘Guinn and Shrum 19972291).

113

lnterviewee Marta and her friends regularly watched soccer on television, played it at the
Universidad Nacional, and those who could afford to do so attended games at the San
Salvador stadiums. Salvadoran author Luis Armando Gonzalez and others (2005) argue
that the idolized players of popular teams, including Real Madrid and Barcelona, are part
of the system of message transmission. So when David Beckham (from Manchester
United) “spends a fortune on the satisfaction of banal pleasures—like Christmas gifts,
reconciling with his partner, or engagement rings—this makes him more deserving of
admiration, because these small luxuries are the best proof of his success” (Gonzalez et
al. 20052507, author’s translation from Spanish). As in the US, sports ﬁgures and other
high proﬁle celebrities are consumed as models of consumption. Film and television
stars, as well as musicians, from the US. and Latin America, model consumption beliefs
and behavior, thereby afﬁrming the supposed links between consumption and status,
pleasure, and happiness.

Television, ﬁlm, and advertising are fundamental in the deﬁning of which
consumables are available, and who is consuming what. They make signiﬁcant, and
often hegemonic, contributions to the establishment of the meanings associated with
consumables by clearly linking goods and services with speciﬁc people and
characteristics. “Media, especially large companies, have been converted into the
creators of privilege and diffusers of a series of symbolic-cultural references, through
which Salvadorans of all ages and socio-economic status feed their individual image and
from which they orient their daily behavior” (Gonzalez et al. 20052505, author’s
translation from Spanish). Children, youth, and adults follow the lives and careers of

their preferred pop musicians and stars from ﬁlm and television, and some make efforts

114

to imitate. Clothing styles, for instance, reveal patterns of emulation. One Salvadoran
woman convincingly argued that female celebrities, such as Shakira, set the standards for
slim physiques and light colored hair. Female sexuality is very clearly deﬁned by women
in television shows, ﬁlms, music videos, and other media sources. These standards of
femininity and sexuality demand efforts to adorn, alter, and consume products and
services that ensure compliance with norms. And it is primarily through media and

advertising that the standards (in this arena and most others) are set.

Consumption Sites in San Salvador

The number of malls, shopping centers, grocery stores, chain restaurants, and other
consumption sites rose dramatically as El Salvador became a favorable environment for
foreign investment. As the country stabilized politically and the government actively
worked to integrate with the global economy, transnational capital rolled in.

In 2005 San Salvador hosted a number of super size stores. One example is
Pricesmart—a membership warehouse offering large quantities and large sizes on a range
of items. Unique goods were available here, for instance a friend bought a crate of
soymilk. Another similar example is Hiper Paiz, a huge store that resembles a Super
Wal-Mart or Super Target. At the Hiper Paiz, patrons loaded carts with produce, cereals,
clothing, and a range of other consmnables. The importation of this super size trend is
explicit as both Pricesmart and Hiper Paiz are modeled on US. stores.

The Cinnabon restaurant in one mall is another example of imported consumption
patterns. The eatery was adorned with the same or similar curly cue wallpaper that

adorns U.S. franchises. Trendy blue glass lampshades covered the light ﬁxtures that

115

hung above the place where employees rolled out cinnamon rolls. The store and product
seemed identical to those in US. malls and airports.

In San Salvador, there were numerous shopping centers and ten or more enclosed
malls, such as the one that housed Cinnabon. These malls ranged from luxurious locales
where patrons were more likely to be relatively wealthy to less opulent centers patronized
by a wider range of economic classes. The decision of where to shop and pass time was
inﬂuenced by proximity, comfort level, social groups, and other factors. For instance,
while it was not near her house, Lupe preferred to shop at the upscale mall, Galerias. On
the other hand, Victoria lived near Metrocentro and when money and time permitted, that
is where she and her family were more likely to pass time.

The most recently constructed mall, La Gran Via, was referred to with the en
vogue industry label ‘lifestyle center’. Such centers are relatively recent concepts for
catering “to the retail needs and lifestyle pursuits of consumers in its trading area” and
they are “most often located near afﬂuent residential neighborhoods” (ICSC 2004). La
Gran Via housed a Bennigans, Benihana and other restaurants, bars, clothing and
department stores, a movie theatre, and a Courtyard Marriott. It had an outdoor, plaza-
like area where, according to the manager of the facility, a person could do a variety of
things, “such as read, enjoy a chat, or simply walk” (Hernandez, Barrera and Avalos
2005, author’s translation from Spanish). La Gran Via is a 60 million dollar, upscale,
opulent facility.

Multiplaza was another recently constructed and notable mall. It was located only
a few blocks from La Gran Via. F ortress-like, Multiplaza was intimidating to a

pedestrian arriving by bus, but a bit more approachable if you arrived in a car and parked

116

in the underground garage. The enormous complex housed a range of vendors, including
a number of designer stores such as Benetton, Oscar de la Renta, and Perry Ellis, as well
as upscale department stores. There were also less expensive stores, bars, and
restaurants. The immensity of this facility was what was most striking. Michael
Kercheval, President of the lntemational Council of Commercial Centers, suggests that
El Salvador has no need to envy the commercial centers of Europe or the US. (Martinez
2005). This opinion is justiﬁed given the majesty and extravagance of Multiplaza and La
Gran Via.

Built in 1970, San Salvador’s Metrocentro is the oldest and largest shopping
center in Central America. A visitor can (and does) easily lose oneself as it is so large
and the multiple layers and wings are confusing to the novice. In 2005, Metrocentro
housed 40 or more shoe stores—some of them duplicates. There were lntemet cafes,
electronic and appliance stores, ‘dollar’ stores, pharmacies, bookstores, and food vendors
(such as Pizza Hut, Pollo Campero, and Subway). The mall was anchored by a grocery
store (Super Selectos) and a department store (Siman). In 2003, it was estimated that the
center drew 1.2 million visitors each month (Hazel 2003). Patrons to this mall came from
a range of economic classes. The shoes and clothing stores were in the mid to low price
range, with a few high-end retailers. In US. dollars, you could buy a $75.00 dress at Liz
Minelli, or a $4.00 cotton top at outlet type stores. There was also a Cinemark with eight
screens, which primarily ran Hollywood ﬁlms, and a performance arts theatre (Teatro
Luis Poma).

Patrons could pay telephone, lntemet, water, and energy bills in Metrocentro and

the connected shopping complex called Metrosur. In El Salvador, bill paying was

117

something that must be done in person and with cash. Some service providers had online
bill payment options, but for the most part, accounts were handled in person at banks and
business ofﬁces. Other types of ﬁnancial transactions and the receipt of remittances
could also be conducted at the various banks and cash machines. This bureaucratically
ﬁrnctional aspect of Metrocentro made it more than just a place to purchase goods.
People were almost required to patronize the center in order to manage accounts.

Metrocentro was a convenient, centrally located complex. Busses from numerous
points throughout the city and suburban area stopped at Metrocentro, which made it a sort
of transit hub. It was often a handy place for meeting people—whether you were coming
from a university campus or a marginalized neighborhood. Bus stops surrounded the
perimeter of the facility and the mall functioned as a safe walkway if you needed to move
from one bus stop to another. Metrocentro was connected to the Intercontinental Hotel
and ofﬁce towers as well. The space marketed itself to the patrons who used the facility
for these non-shopping services.

In addition to being consumption sites, Metrocentro and the other Salvadoran
malls were places where entertainment was consumed, and theoretically this could be
done without spending money. As described to me by several Salvadorans, people
dressed up in their best clothing and went to Metrocentro to walk around, look at
merchandise, people watch, and maybe eat ice cream or chicken. There was also a large
number of professionals, students, and others who came to Metrocentro to socialize,
shop, eat, or drink. School age youth, some in uniforms, could be seen walking, admiring
store front displays, eating, and socializing in food courts. Malls also entertained

children; for example Metrocentro had a play area with a small slide, climbing

118

equipment, and coin operated rides. A train ride was available for 50 cents, and video
games and air hockey could be played as well. Similar options were available at the
other malls—Las Galerias even had a large, ornate carousel.

The food court at Galerias hopped during the lunch hour. There were food courts
on levels two and three and both contained a number of eateries and an expanse of tables.
On level two, televisions aired soccer games, movies, and programs. Shortly after the
noon hour, people were lined up to purchase food and the tables would gradually ﬁll up.
Burger King was a popular choice. Other eateries included Pops ice-cream, Quiznos
sandwiches, Pollo Carnpero chicken and a Mexican food vendor. People sat in groups of
two to four. By about 1:15 on a weekday, the tables in the food court were ﬁlled.

For some, these sites were convenient places to grab lunch or places where it was
socially beneﬁcial to “be seen.” For others, they were alternatives to crowded homes. In
diverse ways, cosmopolitanism could be found in consumption sites. The buildings and
spaces themselves possessed varying characteristics that can be associated with a
cosmopolitan lifestyle. The bathrooms at Multi Plaza, for instance were hip and funky.
The sinks had drains that seemed more like waterfalls than plumbing ﬁxtures. The water
ran to the back of the sink, then along a stone wall as though it was a sheet of rock behind
a waterfall in the woods. Multi Plaza also had a great deal of hip furniture, sofas, chairs,
and tables. Some were upholstered and others looked like adobe, but were in fact plastic.
The entire site was modem or futuristic—especially given the mall’s surroundings.

On one visit to Multi Plaza, the stage on the lowest level was set up for an
orchestra, which played songs including the theme from “Jurassic Park,” “A Whiter

Shade of Pale,” and a selection from “Phantom of the Opera.” People sat and listened

119

from various perches on the lower level, as well as on the stairs, and folks also stood
around the railings of the upper levels. Multi Plaza offered varying elements, such as this
entertainment, that are associated with modernity.

El Paseo also offered a highly cosmopolitan atmosphere. With a sort of outdoor
feeling, this small complex had a reﬁned opulence. The tables for three eateries were
lined up towards the front—there were 30 to 40 metallic tables. The plastic chairs were
soft yellow, pink, and green and the ﬂoor tiles various shades of gray. One late morning,
in front of a place called the Coffee Cup, four tables were occupied. At one was a man
with a laptop computer. At another, two men sat and talked; and at another, a man with a
professional leather binder read the newspaper. A group of four adults and a toddler sat
at the fourth table reading magazines and newspapers. Light poles ran through the space
with ﬂags that claimed, "El Paseo. .. Son lo mejor de vida" or El Paseo, this is the best of
life.

And of course, consumption sites were points of cosmopolitanism because they
also offered access to the consumables themselves. Goods and services associated with
modernity and higher standards of living could easily be accessed at the various malls

and shopping centers throughout San Salvador.

Safety

For all patrons, these malls were relatively safe places because security guards were
plotted throughout the centers. The men monitored the malls and threw out potential
beggars, thieves, or other criminals. In all, security was not abundant in San Salvador;

safety of self, family members, friends, and belongings was a constant preoccupation.

120

People frequently talked about delinquency, gangs, and violence. Stories of theft
abounded. According to a 2003 survey, an estimated nine out of ten Salvadorans felt
unsafe in their country and fewer than one of every four people felt safe in his or her own
home (PNUD cited in Mixco 2007). This reality was represented visually by the ever-
present razor wire surrounding homes and businesses and hundreds of gun toting
vigilancia or security guards. At the time of my study, the media reinforced awareness of
and ideas about the violence that plagued the city and suburban areas.

Homicides were frequent—according to one estimate 3800 were committed in
2005 (Zometa 2006). In many cases such violence was likely gang related. Available
data also revealed high rates of sexual assaults including rape. Theft, in particular petty
theft, was also common. Cell phones and jewelry were items that commonly motivated
theft. The presence of a multitude of ﬁrearms that made their way to the country during
the war exasperated these problems. A friend of mine, Esperanza, told me that she was
held up at gunpoint after collecting remittances at a bank in Santa Tecla. The rule of
thumb was this: give thieves what they want—or you might be killed.

Other accessible spaces did not offer the level of security available in malls. A
scenario that took place at a park in a moderate-income neighborhood demonstrated this.
The park was a popular destination for morning exercisers as it offered space for walking,
jogging, and also a pilates class. On one occasion, when many people were taking
advantage of the cool morning hours, a gun was pulled. A friend, who had been present
at the scene, described this frightening scenario to me. I was never was able to learn if it

was a robbery or some other type of altercation. Whatever the motives, such occurrences

121

encourage shifts towards the consumption of spaces with greater security including malls
and shopping complexes.

To further augment the crime problems in El Salvador, the police were severely
understaffed and under funded. The resources they did possess were not proportionately
applied; consequently, wealthier neighborhoods received more attention. Corruption was
also a problem, and police were sometimes involved in crimes. Metrocentro and the
other malls, then, were relatively safe sites for being entertained in varied ways. They
were protected places for the consumption of space, entertainment, goods, and safety.
And to varying degrees, malls were located in relatively safe neighborhoods.

Metrocentro was touted as the new centro or downtown. Grupo Roble, the major
shareholder in and operator of Metrocentro, described it as a substitute for traditional
shopping centers (www.gruporoble.com). In the postwar context, the ‘real’ downtown
became a frightening place where poverty, fear, and gangs were pervasive. With few
exceptions, government ministries and other key buildings were no longer in el centro.
There were markets and vendors offering low prices, but many Salvadorans were hesitant
to shop there. The downtown plazas and parks were not safe places to pass time or take
children to play. Metrocentro and the other malls were secure, clean, well staffed, (in
general, more so than the public schools and health care facilities) and seemingly

affordable alternatives to downtown or public recreation sites.

Complex Sites

In these contexts, no matter the lure, visitors were immersed in the powerful allure of

electronics, recent fashions, domestic wares, and an amazing array of sandals and athletic

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shoes. There was one spot in Metrocentro, for instance, where benches faced a store with
large screen televisions, stereo equipment, and other electronics. When there was an
important soccer game, there could be 30 or more men watching these televisions,
thereby experiencing not only the sporting event (and requisite advertisements), but also
the technology of ﬂat screen television and surround sound. In this and other ways,
patrons were immersed in symbols and signs of modernity. In addition to these
technologies, they experienced clean tiled ﬂoors, escalators, modern lavatories, and
display upon display of fashionable goods and clothing styles.

In the malls, I frequently observed men, women, and children looking through
store windows, sometimes pointing, and sometimes audibly discussing the consumables
on the other side. Shoe stores were a common focal point. At the window of a shoe store
in Metrocentro ﬁve young men stared for several minutes at athletic shoes. One of them
stated that he did not think that he had enough money to buy a particular pair. People
also paused to look at displays of clothing, cell phones, electronics, and house wares,
amongst other consumables. Observing and admiring consumables, as I interpret it, was
frequently a process of discerning happiness sources. At some level, the onlooker
understood that if the consumable were possessed, it would deliver some beneﬁt or
degree of happiness. It would improve life. What is a better life if not a happier life?

In addition to recreating in malls, Salvadorans were buying goods at consumption
sites. This was evidenced by the rapidly changing merchandise, as well as the fact that
stores stayed in business. According to an article regarding Metrocentro, annual sales per
square foot were between $350 and $400 and department store sales were growing at a

rate of 10 percent (Hazel 2003.) The 2005 addition to the Metrocentro facility was likely

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evidence that people were spending and sales were expected to grow. According to the
lntemational Ofﬁce of Commercial Centers, Salvadorans were buying clothing, shoes,
domestic products, electronics, and other products at such a high rate that El Salvador
could support two more malls (Martinez 2005).

In a series of what I called ‘bag counts,’ on varying days and in multiple spots, I
discovered that on average, about one third of patron groups were leaving malls with
purchases other than fast food or groceries. To get a sense of how many people were
engaged in the consumption of goods in these sites, I would position myself in one spot
for twenty minutes and count the number of visitors who carried shopping bags. On one
such venture, I found a bench near a Metrocentro entrance. I sat next to a woman who
was reading and I counted bags from 11245 to 12:05. In all, there were about 21 people
with bags, and about 134 individuals without bags. Although there were people with fast
food bags too, from Burger King, Biggest, Pizza Hut, and so on, I excluded them from
the count. My bench was across from a shoe store so I sat looking through the spotless
glass at men’s footwear, mostly athletic shoes. While I counted bags, about eight groups
of males stopped to peer in the windows at the shoes, pointing and talking while they
looked.

In addition to counting purchases, I also observed people shopping. I observed
women sorting through racks and shelves of clothing at the trendy clothing store Zara in
Galerias. They were ﬁling into the dressing room, and lining up at the sales counter to
purchase their ﬁnds. Store clerks scarnpered around behind shoppers to refold the items
that had been pulled down for assessment. On several occasions, paper shopping bags

from Zara were the most commonly carried parcels in Las Galerias. One afternoon I

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accompanied Marta on a trip to Metrocentro and we stopped in the sporting goods store
so she could look at swim goggles. She explained to me that she did not often buy things
for herself but frequently spent money on her nieces and nephews. The goggles and other
occasional athletic goods were among the exceptions, according to Marta. On another
day, I walked with Teresa through a busy department store as she looked for a Mother’s
Day gift for her mother-in-law. She chose a $24.00 nightgown and we waited in a long
line for complimentary wrapping. On still a different trip when Teresa’s children
accompanied us, I listened as her son expressed admiration and a desire for Converse All
Star shoes. His mom told me that he had been asking for them (and I was to hear his
request on other occasions). Teresa did not, however, buy them because of ﬁnancial
limitations as well as a desire that her son receive such coveted items as a reward for
academic success and good behavior. As a parent, Teresa was countering forces external
to her family that disciplined her son on the rules of engagement in the consumption
system.

In these consumption sites, not only were the goods marketed, but their current
meanings and symbolic functions were communicated. These malls were therefore
“important spaces for the diffusion of the mass of transnational symbolic-cultural
references” (Gonzalez et al. 20052505, author’s translation from Spanish). Through these
sites, Salvadorans were informed of what was missing from their lives and what they
‘needed’ in order to be fulﬁlled or pleasured. The array of consumables was so extensive
that many visitors could ﬁnd something that was lacking in their life. The malls, then,
were part of the hegemonic processes of the consumption system. The links between

consumption, well being, happiness and status were fostered by these spaces.

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Other Consumables
Consumption sites were consumed, as were an endless number of other popular
consumables in San Salvador. Mobile telephones, for example, were extremely
popular—in part because of relatively affordable pre-pay plans. Between 2000 and 2004,
the number of cellular telephones in use more than doubled (PNUD 2005). With few
exceptions, interviewees and collaborators relied heavily on mobile telephones. Not only
were the phones highly utilitarian, they were also entertaining because of the games, text
messaging, and other functions. Using a cell phone and owning a sleek model with the
latest ring tones also displayed wealth, technological capabilities, and trend knowledge.
Trini, for instance, revealed pride in response to my recognition and admiration of her
ring tone from the ﬁlm “Kill Bill”.

Movies, many of them from the US. were also consumed in great quantities.
Movie theatres and rentals were important access points, but in 2005 pirated DVDs were
a key means of viewing the latest Hollywood ﬁlms. Marta and I went to movie theatres
to view ﬁlms, I watched DVDs with Teresa’s daughters, and talked about recent releases
(such as “Voces Inocentes” and “Meet the Fockers”) with Joseﬁna. Computer use was
another popular consumable—either in lntemet cafes or on a personal computer or
laptop. Within San Salvador, lntemet cafes were fairly accessible, in particular in
university neighborhoods. For about one dollar per hour, patrons could instant message,
complete school assignments, and engage in other digital pastimes. Marta, for instance,
frequented lntemet cafes in order to email friends and type up schoolwork. Similarly,

video games on both computers and game consoles such as Nintendo were popular.

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Salvadorans were also engaged in the consumption system through the celebration
of holidays and events. It was fairly common to see people commemorating various
events at restaurants. For instance, one Sunday in February I witnessed ﬁve or so
different birthday celebrations in the Mexican restaurant, Las Cebollinas. Pizza Hut was
another popular birthday party locale. Baby showers were also frequently celebrated in
restaurants. Salvadorans referred to baby showers using the English words, a pattern
which points to the importation of this ritual. There is evidence to suggest that this is the
case in rural El Salvador as well, where “spending a lot of money on a celebration is the
new symbol of social prestige” (Lungo and Kande 20022922, author’s translation from
Spanish). While such patterns are not entirely new in function, the occasions and forms
have shifted and intensiﬁed.

Christmas decorations at Metrocentro illustrate the importance of holidays and
gift giving. In October the department store, Siman, displayed Christmas decorations in
their window. One day, a woman with two kids, one of them a little girl, walked by the
large windows. The girl saw the trees and started talking and singing about Christmas.
Her mother interacted with her on the subject. Beginning in November, holiday
decorations began to appear in the mall walkways and open spaces. Garland was hung on
the building exterior, angels hung from the ceiling inside, and festive lights were afﬁxed
in various places. Gradually additions were made. Wrapped presents were added to the
garland. The largest tree, located near the main entranceway, was slowly erected. On
one occasion, I watched as two women with a toddler pointed the tree out to the child. It
took the girl a moment to take it in, but once she had, she was intrigued. She paused and

stared, then walked toward it; she would have kept going had the women not stopped her

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at the yellow ‘keep out’ tape bordering the perimeter. Later, a Santa sat near the big tree
and rang a bell inviting children to come and give their wish lists to him. A man waited
for people to buy photos of their child with Papa Noel. Another Santa was posted at a
different large tree in the newest edition of the mall. He sat in a festive, wing-backed

chair.

Education in San Salvador

In San Salvador, education was another important consumable, particularly in the post
war context. Both private and public education were consumed and both required
monetary, time, and energy expenditures. At the time of this study, many Salvadorans
elected to send their children to private schools because the public education system had
a number of shortcomings, including a lack of materials, poor curriculum formation, and
inadequately trained teachers (Plan Nacional de Educacién 2005).27 One Salvadoran
mother explained that while her family sometimes had to do without things in order to
afford private school tuition, they were pleased that their daughter received English,
computer, and religious instruction. Another motivation for electing private education
included concerns regarding gang and violence problems in public schools. There were a
number of options—including prestigious and expensive schools based on US or
European models, and relatively affordable Catholic schools. Some private schools
offered scholarships, but parents had to be dedicated to ensuring the student’s success if

they were given the opportunity to attend. In the case of Teresa’s family, she and her

 

27 Sending a child to the struggling public schools is also a consumption choice in El Salvador.
Committing a family to the cost of uniforms. supplies. and transportation demands an intentional
consumption decision. Unfortunately. statistics suggest that many do not ‘consume' education as
approximately only 45 percent of Salvadoran children are making it to the 6‘h grade (UNICEF 2006).

128

husband made more than a monetary commitment in order to provide this consumable to
their daughters. They were expected to volunteer at the Catholic school and show
support in ways other than through large tuition payments.

Higher and continuing education were also consumed in El Salvador. A report
released by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL
2004) indicates that there was an increase between 1994 and 2002 in the number of
students enrolled in higher education. In 2001 there were about 30 post secondary
institutions in San Salvador that were accredited by the Ministry of Education. These
institutions offered a range of programs at varied prices. The Universidad Nacional was
the only public institution, and there were numerous private higher education programs
such as the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) and Universidad Francisco Gavidia. A
number of interviewees had university level educations. Several were working towards
undergraduate degrees, Mercedes and Leticia had law degrees and Trini held a Masters of
Arts in economics.

Beyond the ‘utilitarian’ functions of education, there were signiﬁcant symbols
associated with the schools. For example, much could be ascertained (or assumed) about
a family based on the schools or universities that members attend. Attendance at certain
educational institutions conveyed prestige and communicated success. This played out in
highly visible ways because many public and private uniforms from kindergarten through
high school were easily recognized. The wearer of the uniform was thus effortlessly
classiﬁed.

At the university level, the social, economic, and sometimes political position of

students could be determined based on the institution they attended. The expenses

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associated with attendance, as well as the politics of the institution, were fairly well
known. On several occasions, friends and collaborators summarized the types of students
who attended speciﬁc universities and private schools. For example, when I was crossing
the campus of the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) with an acquaintance, he told me
that the school was for “rich kids” and pointed to the cars in the parking lot as evidence.
He elaborated that the Jesuits used the institution as a way to get money so they could do
work in the communities, but said that they did not teach their philosophy in the classes.
Accurate or not, such categorizations and classiﬁcations of institutions and attendees
were prevalent and they shaped the education-related decisions of families.

People also spoke of having attended or wanting to attend post-graduate programs
abroad, in part because degrees from the US, Europe, and elsewhere were highly valued.
One person argued that almost any US. or European educational program would be more
prestigious than a Salvadoran program. English language courses were another popular
educational option. Salvadorans with English language skills were considered
signiﬁcantly more marketable than those without such skills. A large number of schools
offered coursework outside of degree granting programs. Several interviewees studied
English and others spoke of wanting to learn. Ana Maria, a journalism major who was
looking for full time employment, encountered a number of positions in which she was
interested but not competitive because of her still limited English skills (though she was
taking courses). A few interviewees, including Trini and Leticia spoke English with
considerable ﬂuency. There were numerous other courses, trainings, and workshops that
were also consumed by both children and adults. Children were enrolled in arts programs

(including dance, music, painting, and so on) and athletic programs. Youth and adults

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took driving classes at one of the many driving schools in San Salvador. Interviewees
and collaborators also spoke of yoga, pilates, and piffata—making classes. In all, education
and training were consumed in a variety of ways.

Schools in San Salvador could furnish and communicate prestige or lack there of.
Further, like clothing and other goods, schools and universities in San Salvador played
roles in the formation and communication of identity. The perspectives espoused by the
administration and instructors, as well as by the other students, shaped the views of the
enrollees. Given the highly symbolic nature of educational institutions, and the diversity
of educational opportunities, the categorization of education as either a ‘need’ or a ‘want’

is quite muddied.

Housing in San Salvador
Homes were also important consumables in El Salvador. Owning a home was a dream
for many—once paid in full, it freed people from the burden of monthly payments and
was seen as an investment. In some cases, simple homes with outdoor plumbing were
built after land was purchased. For those with more money, an option was to purchase a
more modern home in a secured community. Teresa’s brother and sister-in-law lived in a
new, two-story home in a gated neighborhood. The house was spacious, the ﬂoors were
covered in white tile (kept clean by live-in help), and there was a small pool in the back
yard.

Condos were also prevalent throughout San Salvador. For some, a house or
apartment was a way of generating revenue by renting it out. J acinta’s son, for instance,

owned a basic apartment in Zacamil, which he sometimes rented out and sometimes lived

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in. Speciﬁc housing designs and materials were also consumed, especially since an
increasing number of homes were based on US. styles (e. g., LOpez 2005). For example,
newer and more expensive homes sometimes had glass windows rather than the plastic
slats that lend themselves to air circulation.

Whether rented or owned, the location and characteristics of the neighborhood
and surrounding area were important variables. Some Salvadorans expressed a concern
with security; one acquaintance told me that her plans to relocate were motivated by
safety. In this case, theft was the primary issue. Another safety concern related to the
vulnerability of some homes to mud slides during the rainy season. Certain
neighborhoods (including Joseﬁna’s and Marta’s) that climb the lower elevations of the
San Salvador volcano were evacuated periodically for this reason. After serious rains and
ﬂooding, and a forced evacuation, Joseﬁna told me that she hoped to be able to sell and
relocate. Home size was also important, particularly for families. Joseﬁna and Teresa,
for instance, both spoke of wanting more space for themselves and their families. The
average home in San Salvador and surrounding areas was a tight space for both parents
and kids. Solitude, privacy, and quiet were rare. Housing improvements were another
commonly desired consumable. Teresa told me that when she received another loan, she
wanted to ﬁx different things, including the railing along her front steps. Inez had used
remittances to add a kitchen to her home, as had Joseﬁna. For these reasons, and others,

housing was a signiﬁcant and multifaceted consumable in El Salvador.

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Preference; Pleasuresgand Desires
Through analysis of ﬁeld and interview notes, I identiﬁed important patterns of desire
amongst interviewees. Marta, one of the women in the sub sample with whom I regulme
spent time, well exempliﬁed this. Marta was actively engaged in the consumption system
in a number of ways, including as a patron of restaurants, bars, lntemet cafes, and movie
theaters, as well as a viewer of sports and television shows (including crime shows). In
all, though, Marta lived relatively simply in a smaller home in a somewhat marginalized
neighborhood. She did not own a car or computer. Given her value system and political
views, I expected consumables to be of little importance to Marta. Yet after tabulating
her comments on the topic of consumption, 1 found that she identiﬁed many gaps and
‘needs’ in her collection of belongings. Marta periodically mentioned consumables that
she would like to have. These included sporting goods, clothing (including athletic
wear), regional and international travel, a computer, a guitar, a comfortable sofa, and a
watch. She also enjoyed and spoke of providing consumables for family and friends. For
instance, she coordinated her niece’s quinceaﬁera and held a birthday party for her
ﬁiend’s child. Marta expressed contentment with her present ability to help her family
access consumables, but also spoke of her desire to increase her capacity to do this.

The consumption desires conveyed by other women overlapped with those of
Marta. For example, Andrea told me she once went to Ireland for work and hoped to
have more opportunities for international travel. Leticia spoke of her social life and her
enjoyment of bars and dancing, as well as camping, movies, and occasionally shopping.
Paula and her younger siblings liked going to movies during school vacations. During

the August holiday, she took her brother and sister to see “Herbie.” Paula said that her

133

sister wanted to see it again—she explained that the 16-year-old became obsessed with
ﬁlms. For instance, she watched “Shreck” ﬁve times. Alejandra, who had studied in
Boston, told me about wanting to buy house wares at a Crate and Barrel store in the US.
She and husband also enjoyed consuming U.S. entertainment, including television shows
and baseball (in particular the Boston Red Sox). One evening, I went with them to the
mall when they were dealing with the purchase of a three-piece sofa furniture set and
coordinated side tables for their new apartment. I watched as they devoted time, energy,
and money to furnishing their new apartment.

Shoes were an important and complex example of a popular consumable. The
number of shoe stores (there were ten in Galerias alone, and an astonishing 41 in
Metrocentro), sophisticated shoe advertisements, and many admiring window shoppers
all pointed to the popularity of this consumable. As elsewhere, in San Salvador footwear
was a status symbol and identity marker, as well as a utilitarian item. Economic status
could be assessed readily by looking at shoes. The type of shoes, their position on the
trend time line, and also their condition could communicate a great deal. Women spoke
of white shoes, for instance, as a luxury accessible to individuals who did not encounter
much in the way of dirt and debris; in particular, they could be worn by people who drove
their own vehicle and walked less. Athletic footwear such as Nike, Adidas, and Puma
were popular amongst both males and females. These name brand shoes cost as much or
more in El Salvador as they would in the US. They were expensive given local wages,
and were therefore indicative of considerable investment. I frequently saw male youth, in
particular, admiring such shoes in store windows. These shoes were desired both for

their obvious functions and for their symbolic importance.

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Shoes were a relatively frequent topic of discussion. Women admired the
footwear of other females for appearance and comfort. Teresa, for instance, thought
highly of a pair of running shoes that I frequently donned. As she was on her feet a lot,
she sought a pair of comfortable and high quality shoes, but was limited in how much she
could spend. On one occasion when we were at Metrocentro, she pointed out a pair of
100-dollar athletic shoes. Teresa ended up buying a pair of 20-dollar shoes, which she
found to be quite comfortable. Her son also had a keen interest in shoes, in particular
Converse All Stars. On a different visit to Metrocentro, he stopped and looked longingly
in the windows of shoe stores, pointing out shoes that he desired. When I was with the
family for the ﬁrst communion of the eldest daughter, I learned that Teresa’s son had
asked for a new pair of shoes. His father explained to me that he was not going to get
them, as he had not ‘earned’ them.

Marta also revealed a great shoe interest, speciﬁcally in athletic shoes. She once
told me that she could spend hours looking at shoes, but that she was only able to buy
shoes once per year. Marta preferred “high quality shoes,” in particular Pumas. On one
visit to a mall, she pointed out a store with shoes that she said were very good because
they were made with quality leather. Later, when I pointed out a store with shoe styles
that I liked she said they were also made of good leather. Quality was a theme for other
shoppers as well.

The diversity in Shoe preferences in San Salvador was related to the diversity of
identities and reference groups. The importance of footwear as a communicator varied.
Shoes were important symbols for Teresa’s adolescent son, in part because he wore a

school uniform, which severely limited his ability to express his personality and

135

preferences. On the other hand, although she was concerned with fashion and brand
names, the comfort and utility of some of her shoes was a priority for Teresa.

Similarly, preferences for music genres (an accessible and popular consumable)
were also a deﬁning element of one’s identity and were often shaped by a person’s
reference group. Music is tied to ethnicity, politics, class, religion, age, and educational
levels. This is true, in part, because exposure to music genres varies along these lines—
musical preferences are shaped by familial, educational, professional, and other
experiences. Music also conveys values and beliefs for performers and fans alike. The
band U2, in particular the front man Bono, might be the most recent prototypical example
of the link between music, politics, and ideology. Music styles and musicians or bands
can represent identities for cultural-historic reasons. This is true in the case of rap, for
instance, with its roots in African rhythms, and the use of lyrics as a means of expressing
realities of life in the ghetto, police brutality, and racism (Keyes 1996).

In El Salvador, there was a body of music that was felt by some to communicate
human rights and nationalistic concerns in the post war era. This was particularly well
exempliﬁed at events commemorating war atrocities such as the assassination of
Archbishop Romero. As a speaker at one such event explained, music, poetry, and art
can be used as means of expression. While there can be overlap, some enthusiasts of
these songs and musicians were distinct from Salvadorans who were primarily tuned into
popular and more mainstream music. For these reasons, the music that one chooses to
consume can situate an individual relative to others—establishing similarities and
differences. Consumption, according to Poster, “is part of self-construction” (20042416).

Further, “to know what one likes is knowing who one wants to be in relation to others,

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and how others will react to what you are doing” (Clarke and Miller 20022197). Music,
whether bought, burned, downloaded, or tuned in via radio, communicated and shaped
identity in San Salvador. It could be banal, insightful, soothing, angry, or violent.

There were, however, societal limitations on individual choice. Some
consumables had clear, socially deﬁned parameters. In many contexts, there are more
acceptable and less acceptable clothing styles depending on age and gender. For
example, a woman in her forties is often challenged to ﬁnd a balance between not looking
too young, and avoiding a matronly look (Clarke and Miller 2002; Grimstad Klepp and
Storm-Mathisen 2005). In El Salvador, like elsewhere, there were clear rules regarding
appropriate clothing for the female body. Women rarely showed their legs, but
sometimes wore form ﬁtting and somewhat revealing shirts. Limitations were
considerably greater within certain religious circles. One fundamentalist Evangelical
church in El Salvador expected female parishioners to clothe themselves conservatively
by wearing skirts and dresses, avoiding makeup, and covering hair with a white scarf.

In the US, contentment is often measured by “the ratio between what one has
and what one thinks one ought to have in order to maintain self-esteem” (Leiss et al.
20052239). These patterns were present in San Salvador where the alteration of the
physical image could alter self-image (and thereby possibly increase contentment). There
can be measurable beneﬁts associated with meeting and exceeding societal expectations
regarding beauty. Drawing on several sources of evidence,28 Schouten notes that in the
US: “An attractive body is a valuable personal attribute, found by researchers to

facilitate success in social, romantic, and economic endeavors” (19912412). An

 

,
“8 Berscheid et al. I973: Brislin and Lewis 1968: Hatﬁeld and Sprecher I986.

137

‘attractive body’ is something that can be consumed, for instance via the consumption of
cosmetic surgery. Similarly, in order to escape ‘failure’ labels, people who are
overweight according to socially deﬁned parameters may consume ‘treatments’ (e. g.,
Hemdon 2002). Personal trainers, weight loss clinics, diet pills, liposuction, gastric
bypass surgery, and personal chefs can help one to succeed at weight loss and conform to
societal bodily expectations. San Salvador hosted a range of consumables that could
facilitate beautiﬁcation efforts. These ranged from more simple things like Avon
products and the Kellogg’s cereal mentioned previously, to costly exercise clubs and
cosmetic surgery.

Clothing was one of the most accessible tools for enhancing image. This was
exempliﬁed by a pair of shoes in the new San Salvador mall, Multiplaza, that were
virtually identical to the pair of stilettos worn by Sarah Jessica Parker’s character on “Sex
in the City.” Like other popular US. television programming, dubbed episodes of “Sex
and the City” were rerun on a number of cable and network television stations in El
Salvador. As the show’s protagonist, Parker’s character is made to represent a range of
meanings—“observant, risk taking, individualistic, sensual, sexual, witty, irreverent, and
liberated” (McCracken 20052103). Wearing Shoes such as those sold in Multiplaza can
situate a woman amongst other women by suggesting she possesses some of the
characteristics associated with Parker or another celebrity. Donning particular shoes can
also be part of a female strategy to assert femininity and tacit power—both of which can
be associated with attractiveness and sexuality.

As a Salvadoran study concerned with gender inequities notes, girls are taught

that their self-esteem should be based on “the reactions of those around them to their

138

physical appearance” (Gaborit et al. 2003265, author’s translation from Spanish). The
signiﬁcance of consumables like these sandals becomes inextricably linked to the ideal
female body (deﬁned and maintained in large part by the media and advertising)—an
ideal that is hyper valued in El Salvador. The shoes of Salvadoran women can
communicate a range of other messages. Despite spending long periods of time
commuting on busses, many women would don high-healed footwear in order to look
professional, fashionable, and attractive. Despite the heat, others wore leather boots to
model their trend knowledge. Women, youth, and girls invested considerable energy and
resources in taking care of and adorning bodies (Gaborit et a1 20032232). As part of this
effort, ﬁtness clubs, diet and weight loss pills, and manicures were consumed. Amongst
these popular consumables were also age defying techniques and products, such as make-
up, hair coloring, and anti-wrinkle creams (a product Teresa asked her husband to give
her as a birthday gift).

Similarly, physical attributes perceived to be characteristics possessed by ‘white’
women were also popular, in part, because they were associated with higher status.
Blond hair, ojos claros (light eyes), light skin, and a trim ﬁgure were admired, and where
possible, consumed. Women used skin lightening creams, for example, as well as
peroxide, bleach, and professional hair coloring in an effort to lighten hair. According to
one interviewee, products such as Avon were desired even in remote Salvadoran pueblos
because they were allied with blond haired, blue eyed, and white skinned women. In all,
consumables were used by Salvadorans to deﬁne identity, enhance self-image, and seek

greater contentment.

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Well Being and Happiness in San Salvador

In El Salvador, evidence of the link between consumption and happiness was sometimes
overt. When we were on a bus together one day, Teresa spotted a blouse that was for sale
at a street vendor’s stand. She declared with enthusiasm that she was going to return later
that day to buy it. The idea of possessing the blouse seemed to bring her genuine
pleasure. While she did not go buy it, other conversations with Teresa also revealed that
wearing certain articles of clothing brought pleasure. I found another example of this
overt link between consumption and happiness in the behavior of Teresa’s youngest
daughter. One late afternoon at the large mall, Metrocentro, I witnessed genuine joy as
she climbed the play equipment near the food court. She and other children attained
happiness through the consumption of this space. On another occasion, the
consumption—happiness links were revealed when Teresa expressed her pleasure at
having replaced windows, the toilet, and a few other things in her home (after receiving a
loan from the bank). Teresa and her family lived in a small, humble home and these
improvements made the space more comfortable for the family. They also gave it a
subtle improvement in appearance—something observable to neighbors, family, and
friends.

In another consumption arena, Paula told me of her family’s happiness resulting
from her brother’s upcoming high school graduation. And in still another consumption
sphere—a yoga class—there was a fairly explicit connection drawn between contentment
and the practice of meditation and yoga. Instructors and students alike revealed the belief
that accessing this consumable increased happiness. The consumption and happiness link

was also exempliﬁed on a beach excursion. An elderly couple joined our group on a day

140

trip to the coast. Their niece told me that the couple was happy to be getting out of the
house. Both were in their 803 and had limited opportunities to recreate outside of the
home.

In San Salvador, professional experiences can be another source of contentment.
Paula, who was working on a degree in economics, talked to me about this. She spoke of
her desire, upon completion of her studies, to ﬁnd a career that would allow her to
contribute to the development of El Salvador. At the same time, Paula revealed an
important tension. She explained that employment in arenas concerned with
development, poverty, and social problems in El Salvador would be unlikely to pay well.
Paula was conﬂicted because she wanted to earn a high salary that would allow her to be
comfortable and secure. For Paula, there were two important happiness paths, but they
could not necessarily both be followed. She and others felt that if their work were
fulﬁlling, they might be content despite the lack of beneﬁts associated with consumption.

Careers that paid well, in contrast, seemed less likely to be as fulﬁlling.

Needs and Wants

The ways that Salvadorans conceptualized and talked about needs and wants provides
additional insights on the consumption system and the ways that Salvadorans negotiated
it. Some consumables meet human needs (i.e., human requirements that help ensure our
survival) while others fulﬁll desires (i.e., pleasures); however, identifying the line
between needs and wants is a difﬁcult endeavor at both philosophical and practical levels
(e. g., Baudrillard 1970; Firat and Dholakia 1998). A key challenge lies in determining

what are the ‘basic’ biological, social, emotional, and psychological needs of an

141

individual. This is because historic, social, and cultural factors, more so than natural
forces, deﬁne each of these arenas (Hansen 2000216). The line is also blurred because
value is subjective. The worth of any consumable is ultimately evaluated at an individual
level, though a great many extemalities impact the evaluation. Social class, economic
position, educational level, ethnicity, nationality, and other factors inﬂuence
interpretations of value.

As discussed, the symbolic values of consumables can be more important (and
some argue are always more important) than the function or use value of the consumable.
Further, because symbolic values can help to meet human needs, the dilemma is not
solved by narrowing the ﬁeld of focus to the use value of consumables. As described by
Belk et al. (1989), consumption (among other things) has assumed a secular sacredness.
Seemingly ordinary things, such as clothing, furnishings, and other possessions, are
“made sacred by myths, rituals, and signs” (Belk et al. 1989211). Spectator sports, for
example, can involve the reverence of players as heroes, the consideration of stadiums as
temples, and a series of myths about players, teams, and games. In El Salvador, it is local
and international soccer players that are venerated by many individuals and groups. The
consumables that meet the human requirement (according to Belk et al. 1989) for
sacredness vary. This symbolic function may be included amongst human requirements,
though it does not seem to meet ‘basic’ physical needs. Because of these complexities,
agreement on a universal theoretical or practical deﬁnition of human needs is impossible.

This dilemma is reﬂected in (un)articulations of consumables as tools for meeting
needs or wants and as means to happiness and well being. When talking about personal

consumption, San Salvadorans did refer to wants or desires as well as needs. There were

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deﬁnite verbal distinctions drawn between something that the individual could live
without, and something that they deﬁned as more important or necessary. The distinction
sometimes had to do with the price of a good: for Teresa, a pair of boots that cost 100
dollars was more of a ‘want’, while a comfortable pair of walking shoes that cost 20
dollars was a ‘need’. In this example, Teresa also took into account the function of the
item. Teresa ‘needed’ comfortable shoes—by decreasing foot pain, she would decrease
her level of discontent or increase her level of contentment. But Teresa did not say that
she needed the shoes in order to be happy. People also regularly identiﬁed items that
would be consumed if a bit more money were available. This included, for example,
clothing, travel, computers, and cell phones. About one year prior to our interview,
Susana had traveled to Nicaragua. She expressed a desire to travel again, but explained
that she could not because of her professional obligations and ﬁnancial limitations.
Marta would also have liked to travel in the Central American region, but ﬁnancial
obligations limited her ability to do so. As people regularly prioritized for themselves
and for their families, consumables ended up falling on a scale of more important to less
important. This process of prioritizing was dynamic due to the regular changes in the
assortment of goods, variations in marketing, as well as ﬁnancial changes that impacted a
household budget. For example, something that was labeled a ‘want’ could be moved
into the ‘needs’ category as the result of a salary increase.

Envy was a common topic imbued in needs and wants discourses. In a number of
arenas in El Salvador, envy was identiﬁed as a common vice. As such, it was one way
that people distinguished needs from wants. In evoking the concept, Salvadorans also

critiqued greed and desire and made it clear that envy was a negative emotion. In some

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cases, envy seemed to be something that shaped understandings of the distinction
between needs and wants. Envy could convert a ‘want’ into a ‘need’. For example
Teresa, a mother of three, considered it problematic when her children spent time in the
home of their cousins whose father was living in the US. Their cousins had more games,
toys, and electronics, including a computer and lntemet access. Teresa explained that her
kids envied all the remittance-purchased goods and would leave there wanting the same
things—things that Teresa and her husband could not afford to buy them. Negotiating
one’s own needs and wants is challenging; responsibility for the needs, wants, and
happiness of children is doubly so. Parents in El Salvador struggled to deliver the joys
and pleasures associated with consumables to their kids, and at the same time, raise
children that were not ‘spoiled’.

On one afternoon outing to the Metrocentro mall, Teresa’s youngest daughter
rode the mini merry-go-round. She climbed on it when it was not moving, then
dismounted. A moment later, three children climbed on and an adult put in a coin. One
child jumped on and just stood for the ride because each of the seats was taken. Teresa’s
daughter did the same after her sister encouraged her to do so. When the ride ended, she
wanted to go around again, and asked her mom to give her coins. I offered to pay and
Teresa reﬁrsed. She told her daughter that they had spent enough money. The older
daughter agreed and corrected her sister, thus seeming much older than ten. Teresa and
the older daughter both agreed that you can spend ten dollars easily, and the young girl
would still want more. They noted that several little purchases could quickly add up to
ten dollars. Parents such as Teresa regularly negotiated how much to spend, which

consumables to prioritize, and when to indulge wishes. They also suffered the

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consequences of unhappy and disappointed kids when limits were deﬁned and enforced.
Parents were important disciplinarians in the consumption system. Their choices about
how the family consumes shaped how children engaged in the consumption system. It
also contributed to the formation of future consumers.

Consideration of articulations of needs, wants, and envy helps to reveal elements
of understandings of consumption and happiness. The negative view of envy reveals a
belief in the limited capacity of consumables to create well being and happiness. People
who envy are fooled by the consumption practices of others. Envy is not a useful
emotion because the envied subject may not be truly happy. At the same time, Teresa’s
desire to limit her children’s exposure to the consumption practices of their cousins
suggests that her children could be made unhappy by their exposure to consumables that
were unattainable. Their unhappiness could trigger her discomfort or unhappiness.

Several speciﬁc consumables help to exemplify the way that people negotiate
needs and wants categories. At the behavioral level, distinctions were made between
needs and wants in gift giving practices. A variety of ads encouraged buyers to “give
them what they want.” Such phrases were evoked for both Mother’s day and Father’s
day. And people spoke of the importance of occasionally indulging recipients by giving
them something that they ‘want’. Teresa regularly evoked this idea when discussing her
children and consumables. Giving a gift to oneself in the form of a ‘treat’ was also
discussed and sometimes enacted. As Miller notes, by evoking the concept of the treat,
consumers distinguish it from other purchases, thereby implying that non-treats are
consumables that meet needs (1998240). The form of the treat varied amongst

interviewees depending on individual preferences and means. For Marta, her more

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common way of treating herself was by eating in a restaurant and drinking beer while for
Paula and Susana it was travel. Although not consistently articulated as such, the ‘treat’
is linked to happiness. ‘Treats’ are often the consumables that most explicitly deliver
pleasure, joy, satisfaction, and happiness.

Clothing articles fall into both the ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ category. In practice,
clothes ﬁll utilitarian ‘needs’ in San Salvador, as well as the symbolic ‘need’ to deﬁne
oneself. For instance, brand name products, in particular clothing and footwear (such as
Nike and Tommy Hilﬁger), were highly valued as “symbols of success, youth, and
livelihood security” (Gonzalez et al. 2005, author’s translation from Spanish). Like
Hansen found in Zambia, clothing mediates between the individual and society “in an
interactive process through which the self is expressed/presented in possession” (200024).
Wearing a pair of Converse All Stars (like those desired by Teresa’s son) in San Salvador
is less about function and more about establishing and conveying one’s relative style and
attitude. On the other hand, a pair of less expensive, lightweight sneakers can be more
about function and comfort (which also communicates a message about the individual).
An expensive pair of comfortable sneakers is functional, but can also connote status. For
the athletic Marta, sporty clothing conveyed her interests and skills as well as her
knowledge about sports. The style of the articles, the name brand, and the logos were
important in establishing and conﬁrming her identity as an athlete and sports enthusiast.
Some clothing purchases may well fulﬁll desires rather than needs, but deﬁning where
one motivation ends and the other begins is impossible. To a degree, the unarticulated
relationship between clothing (or other consumables) and happiness is revealed by the

antithesis or the unhappiness caused by a deﬁciency. This may be a basic lack of

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clothing and shoes, or the lack of speciﬁc desirable articles that facilitates in the deﬁning
and communicating of identity.

Although the line between needs and wants is blurry at the theoretical level, in
various ways Salvadorans drew distinctions. Further, people revealed considerable
variation in approaches to the classiﬁcation of consumables as either needs or wants.
Personal preferences, ﬁnancial situations, and other factors appeared to inﬂuence views
on personal consumption as well as the consumption behaviors of others. These
categorizations and articulations of needs and wants help to reveal understandings of the
links between consumption and happiness.

In all, the array of consumables in San Salvador was vast and growing. Goods
and services were many, and consumption sites, in particular malls, were numerous and
enticing. Between 2000 and 2004, the value of imported consumer goods rose by $564
million (BCR 2005). In 2004 the country began a persistent pattern of consuming more
than it produced; that year, El Salvador’s gross domestic product (GDP) was less than the
country’s total consumption expenditures (BCR 2005). While it played out in varying
ways, each Salvadoran whose consumption behaviors and beliefs became familiar to me
was engaged in the consumption system. I knew Salvadorans who prioritized athletics-
related consumption (such as clothing and expenses associated with playing or watching
sports); consumables linked to child rearing (such as clothing, toys, recreational
activities, and schooling); consumables linked to entertainment (such as travel, watching
ﬁlms, and dining out); and consumables related to intellectual endeavors (such as books,

computers, and education). Many people prioritized consumables from multiple

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categories. Consumables, after all, are sociocultural artifacts and artifacts are an inherent

part of social life.

Salvadorans and the Neoliberal Consumption System

As outlined, political and economic power holders were overwhelmingly committed to
neoliberalism and a consumption system modeled on that of the US. While Salvadorans
were overwhelmingly engaged in the consumption system, the degree to which society on
the whole also supported the neoliberal framework is not so easily ascertained. The
dominance of the conservative political party (ARENA) in presidential elections may
indicate that the public primarily preferred the pro-capital or neoliberal agenda as
opposed to that of the more socialist-leaning party, FMLN. As Angela told me, she
preferred the US. model to that of Cuba. Because the US. is often conceptualized as
modern and progressive, a number of its socio-cultural characteristics were considered by
many Salvadorans to be worthy of emulation. Such hegemonic patterns were regularly
exempliﬁed by the comments of Teresa’s 10-year-old daughter. She consistently
conveyed her admiration of objects brought to El Salvador from the US. She and her
older brother both asked if they could climb into my suitcase to get to the US. Such
idealizations of the US. can lead to a desire to emulate behaviors. It is the idealization of
a place characterized increasingly by an understanding that well being is deﬁned by

9“

consumers relative success in gaining access to higher levels of consumption” (Leiss
1976287). As hegemonic processes mobilize the neoliberal consumption system,

consumption and well being become ever more linked.

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Some Salvadorans suggested that ARENA holds power because disenfranchised
and impoverished voters are fairly easily ‘bought’ or manipulated by campaign tactics
(see, for example, data presented in IUDOP-UCA 2005.) An example of this
manipulation was seen in the 2004 presidential campaign. At that time, television
advertisements made the claim that if the left-leaning political party (F MLN) won the
election, then the US. would deport Salvadoran migrants en masse, thereby virtually
eliminating remittances. Hegemony might hold more power over certain marginalized
populations—in this case, the family members of migrants. Further, the complexities of
neoliberalism, for instance as they play out in CAFTA-DR, were not readily understood
by most. One Salvadoran collaborator suggested that government ofﬁcials responsible
for ratifying free trade agreements do not read and comprehend the entire documents. As
this is the case for ofﬁcials, the public is even less likely to have the tools, time, and
energy to consider agreements and other mechanisms that institutionalize neoliberalism.
Although many are concerned with the overall condition of their country and are hopeful
that their leaders will elect courses of action that will remedy problems, the system is
characterized by exclusivity in terms of both information and inﬂuence.

A few Salvadorans expressed a dislike of and unease with consumption or
consumerism in the US. People in several arenas, including interviewees, conveyed
concern with the inﬂuence of US. values on Salvadorans. Some revealed the view that
US. culture posed a threat to migrants in the US. and to those who remained in El
Salvador. Among interviewees, these kinds of sentiments were most likely to be
emphasized when discussing children living in the US. This is illustrated by the

comments of several mothers with children already in the US. or whose children might

149

migrate. These women, including Celestina, volunteered that they were worried about
consumerism in the US. and hoped that their children would maintain the values instilled
in them while they lived in El Salvador. Pilar was especially worried about her six-year-
old as opposed to the older children. Pilar said that she had simply had fewer years to
instill values and beliefs that would allow her son to resist materialism in the US.
Several who questioned the consumption and happiness link articulated a belief
that consumption cannot ‘make’ a person happy. Often, though, it was speciﬁc types of
consumption or groups of consumers that they were critical of. For instance, Celestina
was engaged in the system through her consumption of housing, education, and the
artwork and furniture that adorned her home. At the same time, she was critical of
“materialism” and the consumption practices of remittance receivers. She expressed the
concern that they were exchanging material goods for family uniﬁcation. Individuals like
Celestina who contemplated consumption and found grounds for critique frequently
deﬁned their own consumption choices as sound, while those of others were unsound.
Salvadoran author Waldemar Urquiza expressed concern with materialism in the
context of El Salvador. In his work, he argues that the grth of ‘local’ national cultural
traits have been hampered by the presence of foreigners in El Salvador, migration, and
intercultural connections, including those fostered by the media (2004275). Urquiza also
argues, “the progressive and aggressive incursion of the market” controls culture as it
conquers the consumer; further, consumption addictions result from “the search for
colossal proﬁts” (2004276-77, author’s translation from Spanish). Put more simply,
Urquiza and other Salvadorans diagnosed themselves and their culture as already

“consumista.” Such concerns directly and indirectly reveal critical perspectives of

150

components of the neoliberal consumption system (though they may not be named as
such). They also convey an awareness of the power of sociocultural processes that
envelope individuals in systems of signiﬁcation.

The neoliberal consumption system pervades San Salvador as a result of multiple
interconnected transnational processes. Human mobility, technology, and increasingly
open economic markets facilitate the ﬂow of consumption beliefs and behaviors.
Hegemonic processes shape understandings of and responses to consumption in the
neoliberal context. In the next chapter, I explore in greater detail the interrelationships

between this consumption system and transnational Salvadoran migration.

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CHAPTER 5

TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION THROUGH THE LENS OF CONSUMPTION

There are a number of explanations for the high rate of Salvadoran transnational
migration; foremost among them is ‘economics’. In this chapter, I explore these
economic motivations, in particular consumption, thereby revealing two key tensions.
First, there is a tension that results from the power of the consumption system versus
limitations in access to this system. And second, tensions arise from limitations in
capacities to simultaneously meet a broad spectrum of emotional and economic familial
needs. In all, Salvadoran families juggle a complex mix of challenges stemming from the

exclusionary neoliberal context.

Consumption and Other Migration Impetuses
Various macro-level factors foster Salvadoran migration, including the country’s civil
war and economic shifts that impact wage labor. At the individual and familial levels
there are also a number of motivations and impetuses for migration. Bridging both of
these levels, consumption is an important migration motive.

As has already been indicated, many Salvadorans emigrated during the civil war.
From this wartime emigration wave, as well as the smaller waves that preceded it, solid
networks of friends and families were formed which have continued to permit and
encourage the movement of people. Today, networks provide assistance with the
migration process itself, as well as aid and information in the receiving communities.

Other factors that inﬂuence migration decisions include societal violence and natural

152

disasters (PNUD 2005). Salvadoran migration to the US. has also been supported by
US. policy. The 1986 Immigration and Reform Act and Temporary Protected Status
(TPS) are two examples of policies that have facilitated Salvadoran immigration.

Finally, in a number of ways, the economic context stimulates emigration. To
begin, ﬁnding work in El Salvador is a challenge across socioeconomic strata; as Roberts
et al. observe: “A permanent migration system rests on the lack of economic
opportunities in the place of origin and the attraction of permanent work opportunities in
the place of destination” (19992243). For Salvadorans, low wages, limited employment
opportunities, and minimal labor protections have been exacerbated by the dearth of
social services. For these reasons, many choose the conditions associated with leading an
‘undocumented’ life in the US. Furthermore, labor is given relatively few protections or
beneﬁts in El Salvador. Although conditions associated with low wage and/or
undocumented employment in the US. are often poor, they do not seem comparatively
dire. The Salvadoran government’s failure to enforce labor laws is documented in a 2004
report released by the lntemational Labor Rights Fund (ILRF 2004). In addition (and
related to the former), labor organizing is virtually non-existent in El Salvador. As
F rundt notes: “In the face of corporate power, the state's decline undercut union efforts to
strengthen the state as negotiator, to counter privatization creatively, and to achieve
genuine code enforcement” (2002229).

The link between the economic context of El Salvador and high migration rates
surfaced in almost every interview, conversation, and research article on the topic.
Amongst those that I interviewed, unemployment and underemployment were common

explanations for migration. Carmita’s son—in-law migrated because he lost his job,

153

Trini’s friend left because she couldn’t ﬁnd work in El Salvador, and Pilar’s uncle
migrated before the war because of unemployment. In addition to the problems it creates
for household livelihood, lack of work can negatively impact the self-esteem and
contentment of providers. For example, Camila explained that her migrant husband was
fulﬁlled by his improved ability to provide ﬁnancially for his family. The remittances he
sent were used in a number of ways, including for university tuition of their two children.
Migration is often prompted by household level ﬁnancial problems linked to
unemployment and underemployment, as well as issues stemming from low wages and
the high cost of living. (The cost of living in San Salvador will be detailed later in this
chapter.)

In several cases, interviewees also referred speciﬁcally to debt as a motivation for
emigrating. Marta’s brother-in-law sought work in the US. so that he could pay off bills.
Similarly, Teresa explained that shortly after her brother-in-law’s migration his family
was out of debt. And in talking about her brother’s migration, Andrea explained that

with US. wages, debts including her brother’s mortgage could be paid in full.

Consumption and Migpation

 

A critical element of the economic explanation for transnational migration is
consumption as I deﬁne it. Literatures concerned with migration address the importance
of economic incentives. These economic motivations and beneﬁts demand
deconstruction. For example, in discussing the Mexican community of Aguililla, Roger
Rouse (1991) indicates that people must look outside of the local community in order to

realize “goals”. It is somewhat unclear, however, what the goals are. I posit that in some

154

cases, greater attention to the aspirations of migrants and their families helps to reveal the
fundamental importance of consumption and consumption-related ideals. While some
Salvadorans (as well as other migrants) may see migration as a strategy to ensure that
they and their families can simply subsist, many are trying to improve standards of living,
quality of life, or socioculturally-deﬁned well being. Social and economic mobility are
limited in San Salvador, so many look to the US. as the locale where the ‘American
dream’, can be accessed. In the present context, consumables, their symbolic
signiﬁcance, and the purported happiness beneﬁt are key components of this dream for
Salvadorans. For many, the goal is to do better, whether as an individual, the family as a
whole, or future generations. For immigrants in the US, the dream is a “loosely deﬁned
cluster of aspirations, but it clearly encompasses the chance to make money, to buy a
house, and to ensure an education for the next generation” (Clark 200325).

Migration shapes consumption patterns, acting on its own, as well as in
conjunction with other catalysts. This happens in two key ways. First, the consumptive
behaviors of migrants themselves are changed by life in the US. Second, because of the
conspicuousness of the consumption practices of many migrants and remittance
receivers, these practices inﬂuence the consumption patterns of non-migrants.

Salvadorans living in the US. experience changes on a number of levels.
Migration, after all, is “a dynamic ﬁeld of social practice and cultural production through
which people constitute, rework, and at least potentially contest understandings about
themselves, their relationships with others, and their places in the wider world” (Mills

199926). While US. society is diverse, as are the forms of migrant insertion in

155

communities,29 there are documented changes in patterns of consumptive practices of
migrants. Research focused on Salvadorans in the US. has identiﬁed changes in
consumption behaviors. For the community in Mahler’s Long Island study, McDonalds,
U.S. clothing styles, and ATM bank cards became the norm (1995b2105). Baker-
Cristales observed the importance of consumables for Salvadoran immigrants in southern
California, noting “even those considered poor are able to participate in the conspicuous
consumption which is one of the distinguishing markers of the ‘American dream’,
bringing with it the appearance of abundance and wealth” (2004289).

The Salvadorans that I interviewed also regularly referred to the consumables
accessed by migrants. One Salvadoran collaborator, Roberto, argued that migrants
become more materialistic while living in the US. He based this on the changes that he
saw in his migrant siblings. Leticia told me of her sister’s home and auto. Several
mentioned education, including special services for Ana’s sibling with speech and
hearing impairments. In describing their family, Lupe and Alejandra made reference to
the consumption of safety in the US. They noted, for instance, that visiting migrant
family members were afraid of riding the bus in El Salvador. Marta told of a friend who
acquired a taste for designer clothing brands in the US. The young friend also developed
a desire to live alone rather than with family—a somewhat unorthodox behavior in El
Salvador. Focus groups conducted in El Salvador by Urquiza (2004), revealed that
family members of migrants consider consumerism to be a cultural trait assumed by

Salvadorans who live in the US. Participants suggested that Salvadoran migrants want

 

29 See for example. the work of Mountz et al. 2002 on the impact of immigration status on identity
formation in the US; the work of Chavez 1994 on the “social linkages. cultural sentiments. and economic
ties” established in receiving communities: and the work of Peilaloza 1994 for a related discussion of
Mexican migration, assimilation. and consumption.

156

everything that the market has to offer, and that they desire the most recent varieties.
Speciﬁc consumables cited include cinema, music concerts, videogames, birthday
celebrations, and basketball. Families also noted changes in migrants’ clothing styles,
and their use of appliances, electronics (including computers), and formalized childcare
(Urquiza 2004).

While living in the US, Salvadorans are immersed in hegemonic processes that
shape consumption beliefs and practices. As detailed, the receiving context experienced
by Salvadorans residing in the US. is one in which overall acquisition rates are
ballooning, as is upscale buying (Schor 1998b211). Houses doubled in size in less than
50 years, vacations and travel increased drastically, and the number of items in the
middle-class collection of accoutrements multiplied (Schor 1998b212). People in the US.
live beyond their means as evidenced by the record levels of household debt (Schor
1998b: 19).

The mechanisms of social reproduction that hold sway in the consumption arena,
and the meanings and symbols produced by these mechanisms, are part of everyday lived
realities. Salvadorans become situated in a context characterized by ﬁrmly entrenched
consumption-related symbols and processes. Advertising, consumption sites, and
patterns of engagement in the system are embedded features of life in this receiving
context. Given this migrant-receiving environment, and the high rate of mobility and
transnational connections, consumption changes in El Salvador are not surprising. While
in some ways behavior and meaning are anchored in place, transnational processes
encourage their mobility (V ertovec 1999). Transnational Salvadoran migrants act as

couriers of consumption-related beliefs and practices. For example, Salvadorans who are

157

foreign residents account for 30 percent of the tourists in El Salvador and they spend
more than $50 per day (Orozco 200323). Consistent contact is maintained via
telecommunications (Orozco 2003). Salvadoran migrants also act as cultural couriers by
bringing family to the US. with tourist visas or residency. Jacinta, for instance, spent
approximately six months of every year with her children in California, thereby
becoming exposed to their engagement in the US. consumption system. As such, in
various ways, migrants living and participating in US. culture and society shape
consumption patterns in El Salvador.

Consequently, non-migrants in El Salvador experience changes as well. At root is
the reality that remittance receivers simply have more cash. Some expenditures, such as
the construction of a home, purchase of a mobile phone, and cable television, can be
conspicuous outcomes of migration. According to Urquiza’s (2004) study, remittance
receivers were more likely to eat fast food, play videogames, adopt U.S. clothing styles,
and use the lntemet. Families of migrants engage in consumption in these ways, and
friends, family, acquaintances, and co-workers witness these behaviors. A collaborator in
this study, Esperanza, had deﬁnite ideas about how much money was remitted to women
in her neighborhood and what those monies enabled them to buy. She used this standard
to assess the (in)adequacy of the remittances her children sent home.

Migration—linked consumption also occurs when Salvadorans return home for
visits. As Leticia described it, visiting family do not mind spending lots of money, and
then going back and working extra to pay it off. She said that when they come to El
Salvador, “they seem rich.” Return migrants are “exorbitant with money,” bringing gifts,

and inviting friends to dine (Santillan 20052 116). To some degree, these gifts create and

158

reproduce “myths of economic prosperity in the US.” (Baker-Cristales 2004260).
However, while there is an element of the mythological, there is evidence showing that
overall, Salvadorans living in the US. have higher standards of living than their
compatriots in El Salvador (PNUD 2005). The research of Stark and Taylor on Mexican
migration also suggests that transnational migration can contribute to impressions that
there is a link between contentment and migration. They explore “relative deprivation”
as an inﬂuence on migration decisions. Stark and Taylor conclude that decisions are
shaped by “how individuals evaluate what they have (satisfaction) and what they do not
have (deprivation)” (198923). In other words, there is a sense that possessions can deliver
contentment and migration is a means to access that contentment.

In all, “migration has had a dramatic inﬂuence on tastes, celebrations, and daily
activities. Individual and collective consumption have increased as a result of the items
Salvadoran residents of the US. bring when they visit their communities” (Lungo and
Kande 20022648, author’s translation from Spanish). The inﬂuence of transnational
migration on the Salvadoran consumption system is a function of hegemonic processes
that play out in both the US. and El Salvador. Salvadorans in the US. experience the
well-established consumption system of that context. They play a role in its
mobilization. And their inﬂuence in El Salvador is matched or surpassed by the power of
transnational hegemonic processes, in particular consumption sites, advertising, and the

media.

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Consumption Limits in El Salvador

The consumption behaviors of migrants and remittance receivers are modeled and
displayed (intentionally and unintentionally), which can result in the desire to emulate.
These processes occur in a context that is ripe with other forces that reinforce the
neoliberal consumption system. However, the means for economic mobility are
extremely limited in El Salvador; moving ‘up a notch’ is virtually impossible, and
moving ‘down a notch’ a real possibility. Nevertheless, across strata, there is pressure to
maintain what is currently held, and if possible, to consume more. The responses to this
situation are varied, and depend in part on the economic and social situations of each
individual or family. One of the few options available to a broad spectrum of society is
the selling of labor outside of El Salvador. Migration has therefore become the primary
means for economic mobility in El Salvador; it is the principal mechanism for increasing
consumption potential, and in some cases, the only way to maintain current economic
status. As interviewee Trini said, migration gives you social mobility—without it, there’s
not much chance of that.

Transmigration can permit access to a broad range of consumables in both the
US. and El Salvador. In El Salvador, remittances were one important determinate of the
quality of housing materials, overall home condition, and access to basic utility services
(PNUD 2005283). For example, with money her daughters sent, Joseﬁna was able to
install a modern kitchen in the space that had previously been a patio. Teresa’s sister-in-
law, whose husband worked in the US, began to subscribe to lntemet service. Similarly,
education in the US. and El Salvador became accessible through migration. Joseﬁna’s

daughters paid tuition for their young cousin to attend a private school in El Salvador.

160

Healthcare needs were also met via remittances, or for some migrants, the US. healthcare
system became accessible. After a failed pregnancy, Amelia migrated to the US. during
her second pregnancy to give birth. Safety was another consumable soughtwith the aid
of remittances within or outside of El Salvador. For example, the threat of being the
victim of a crime and concerns regarding youth gang recruitment encouraged
Salvadorans to seek ways to ﬁnance safety. Migrant parents sent money for grandparents
to purchase a vehicle, thereby eliminating the need to use dangerous public
transportation. This was the case for Marisa’s ﬁiend, who lived with her sister and
grandparents while her parents worked in California. And non-migrant parents explored
options for relocating to safer communities, within or outside of El Salvador. Priscila, for
instance, told me that she wanted a better life for her kids—she desired to live in a place
with peace, tranquility, and safety.

Migration represents a means to obtain the beneﬁts, including happiness, that are
promised by the consumption system. It is an approach to accessing the imagined lives
described by Appadurai, and to challenging the “ironic compromise between what they
could imagine and what social life will permit” (19912198). When the means to
participate in the dominant consumption system are not present, people invent their own
methods of access—some of which are considered problematic. Schor presents a
comparable example of this in her discussion of impoverished youth in the inner cities of
the US. In the 19803 and 1990’s, these youth were exposed to “sophisticated street-level
marketing” on the part of athletic shoe companies (1998b240). In addition to inﬂuential
advertising, the companies increased the rate at which new styles were released, thereby

drastically reducing the length of time that a shoe was considered trendy. Responses to

161

this powerful process varied considerably, but included criminal means of obtaining
items. Shoplifting, drug dealing, robbery, and even murder were used to gain access to
the prestige goods that were otherwise off limits. “In some places, the streets became a
battleground for a game of ‘consumer’s chicken’: only the bravest (or most foolhardy)
dared to ﬂaunt, or even wear desirable possessions” (1998b241). Of course, as is well
documented by anthropologist Elizabeth Chin (2001), there are many responses to
exclusion from the consumption system that do not involve behaviors considered to be
problematic. In fact, self-control is a more representative behavior than is “dramatic
combat consumption” (Chin 2001: 48). Nevertheless, this same gap between symbolic
powers of the consumption system and what people are able to consume inspires
transnational migration, which is sometimes a ‘criminal’ activity. This is doubly so the
case when undocumented migrants resort to identity theft to work in the US, thus
committing multiple crimes in the eyes of US. authorities.30

Interviewees conﬁrmed the speciﬁc gains garnered in the US. The brother of
Ana Maria and Leticia had recently migrated because of economic opportunities in the
US. In 2005 he was helping to support his parents—something that he was not able to
do before migrating. Prior to leaving he felt inutil or useless. After migrating he was
more content because of his ﬁnancial independence. He was able to live a lifestyle that
more closely approximated what he wanted and at the same time support his family.
Their sister was also in the US. and with her help several of her younger siblings were
able to earn higher degrees. She owned a home and vehicle, and sent her children to

private Catholic schools. Ana Maria observed that her sister’s children had the hope of

 

30 . . . . . . . .

Identity theft was recently brought to the public 3 attention by of a series of sting operations In the US.
Federal raids in meat-processing plants in December of 2006 were claimed to be targeting hundreds of
undocumented immigrants using the identities of US. citizens to gain employment.

162

being able to access these consumables as adults, for both themselves and their own
children. For many Salvadorans, the dream involves a collective fantasy in which the
US. represents a “ticket to wealth and happiness” (Baker-Cristales 2004295). And the
dream (in its idealized version) does not discriminate—all are eligible to try to achieve it.
Salvadorans had numerous examples of dream elements, as well as evidence (though

sometimes exaggerated) that the dream can be realized.

Limited Access to the Drea_m_
Teresa and her husband lived with their three children in a small row house in a relatively
dangerous San Salvador suburb. The living quarters were tight and simple. Rather than
kitchen counters and a sink, for instance, there was a pila (a large cement basin and sink
that holds water and has a space for washing clothing and dishes). Their two daughters
shared a small room, their son had his own little room, and Teresa and her husband
occupied the third bedroom. There was also a tight living room, dining area, and cooking
area. The family commuted via bus, as they did not own a car. Their daughters attended
a low-priced private school and their son attended public school. Both Teresa and her
husband held professional jobs with the government and both had several years of
university coursework. Low salaries prevented them from owning a vehicle, moderately
sized house located in a safer neighborhood, or modern amenities like those portrayed in
homes that the family regularly saw on television and in ﬁlms.

As established, the line between needs and wants is difﬁcult to deﬁne; it is
therefore tricky to precisely indicate the (in)adequacy of most salaries in San Salvador.

Nevertheless, I give some cost of living data in order to help demonstrate what can and

163

cannot be met with local incomes. Wages in El Salvador are extremely low given the
country’s high cost of living. Further, the buying power of wages is decreasing while
prices are increasing (CEPAL 2005). Between 2000 and 2004, El Salvador was one of
ﬁve Latin American/Caribbean countries to experience a reduction in the purchasing
power of the minimum salary (CEPAL 2006263).

Many argue that the minimum wage is inadequate—that $155 per month will not
cover the expenses of an individual, let alone a family. Salaries above the minimum
wage come closer to meeting the ‘basic needs’ of a household and allow for greater
participation in the consumption system. In 2004, the average monthly wage in San
Salvador was $566.00 (DIGESTYC 2005). At the country level, ofﬁce employees
earned about $284 per month, technicians about $367 per month, and professionals
earned just over $700 per month (DIGESTYC 2005). Most Salvadoran wages greatly
restricted the ways in which individuals and households engaged in the consumption
system. Additionally, as noted, unemployment and underemployment rates were high.
Ana Maria, for example, was searching for full time, stable employment that would
permit her to earn enough to travel and so on. Leticia and others had also experienced
volatility in the labor market.

Because we cannot objectively deﬁne the basic needs of a middle class household
in El Salvador, I list the 2005 values of some goods and services in order to demonstrate
the gap between income and consumable costs. I primarily draw on US. prices in order
to consider comparative values.3 ' To begin, there are a range of valuations in housing,

food, and clothing in San Salvador. Consumers can easily pay US. prices in all three of

 

‘ ThIs exercrse Is based on approximations. due In part to price variability wrthrn the US. as well as prIce
ﬂuctuations in both contexts.

164

these arenas. In the case of housing, there is a deﬁnite likelihood that consumers will ‘get
what they pay for’ in terms of quality and safety. For the most part, a home that would
be occupied by a middle class family in the US. would cost about the same in both
countries. Kellogg’s cereals provide an example of a food item that costs the same in
both El Salvador and the US. Brand name clothing are also priced the same in both sites.
Electronics, appliances, autos, gasoline, brand name beauty products, board games, wine,
video games, DVDs, and a number of other goods and services cost about the same in
both countries and are sometimes priced higher in El Salvador. There are goods and
services that are signiﬁcantly less expensive in San Salvador, including some food
staples, cinema ﬁlms, cafeterias, and local eateries. Yet overall, the standards of living
associated with the ‘American dream’ cannot be met on most Salvadoran wages. Many
highly marketed consumables and products that are extremely visible in the media and
elsewhere are difﬁcult for a large portion of the Salvadoran population to purchase. The
prices of many goods linked in tacit and explicit ways to well being and happiness have
costs that closely approximate their US. market values in spite of their circulation in a
relatively poor country.

In addition, the costs of more basic consumables were also difﬁcult to manage.
Salvadorans frequently expressed the opinion that life became more expensive after the
conversion to the US. dollar in 2001. Interviewees and collaborators agreed that the
prices of many goods had gone up. The same pattern was found amongst participants in
a study by Towers and Borutzky (2004) on the impacts of dollarization. Part of the
explanation for this is that prices for many basic goods were rounded up after the

conversion. “Because the exchange rate was 8.75 colones to one dollar, a round number

165

in colones does not translate into a round number in dollars, so the prices in dollars are
rounded up” (Towers and Borzutzky 2004248). In effect, inﬂation occurred on lower
priced goods and services, many of them more basic consumables. For Salvadorans, the
currency change has made tough economic circumstances even more difﬁcult. The
privatization of services has also led to increased consumer costs (Towers and Borzutzky
2004). The cost of telephone and electric services has gone up in recent years. Water
service, which has not been privatized, has also become more costly.

In this economic context, there is a signiﬁcant gap between the hegemonic
circulation of signiﬁcations and symbols and the monetary means to engage in the
consumption system. Salvadoran economist Raul Moreno argues that the measurement
of well-being has become electronics—stereos, DVDs, cell phones, and vehicles
(personal communication, August 23, 2005). Yet wages are inadequate for most people
to be considered ‘well’ according to this schema. A recent CEPAL (2006) report
suggests that this tension may be most signiﬁcant for youth. This is in part due to their
use of the lntemet, an important courier of consumption-related messages; but it also
results from increasing television and radio availability. “All the data denotes a rapid
expansion of symbolic consumption. Nevertheless, the same is not occurring with the
material consumption among youth” (CEPAL 20062185). These realities are particularly
signiﬁcant given the limitations faced by youth in terms of career paths, employment, and
salaries. Youth “have access to the images, icons, music, and modern messages, but they
cannot translate this access into social mobility or into a complementary increase in
wages and capacity to consume material goods and services” (CEPAL 2006: 187).

Transnational migration is one of the steps that can be taken to resolve this tension.

166

Fulﬁlling the Dream

When I asked Pilar if her children wanted to move to the US, she replied afﬁrmatively,
and when I asked why, she answered, “30 they could say they were going to the US.”
That life in the US. was characterized by signiﬁcant beneﬁts was largely taken for
granted. Stories of the achievement of the dream being realized in the US circulated
more widely than did tales of struggle, disappointment, and failure (Baker-Cristales 2004;
Mahler 1995a). Romanticized notions of the US. are likely compounded by biased
media representations of life in that country.

Well over half of the women I interviewed revealed an interest in living in the
US. Of those who did not want to live in the US, a large percentage wanted to vacation
or study there (nineteen of the interviewees had already been to the US. to study, travel,
or work.) At the same time, there was substantial awareness of the dangers involved in
the journey and many said that they would only migrate if they were able to go legally.
Various campaigns and the media kept the Salvadoran public well informed of the
physical harms and loss of life that occur along the migrant trail. Also discussed, though
with less frequency and fewer details, were the tribulations and issues encountered by
both ﬁrst and second generation Salvadorans living in the US. Ricardo observed, for
instance, his concerns that his nieces and nephews could have gotten mixed up in
problems including drugs and alcohol in California—behaviors that he described as being
outside of the norm for San Salvador. At the time of our interview, his sister’s children
were old enough to be in the clear, but the family instead concerned themselves with her
grandchildren. Despite the dangers and risks, for numerous reasons, the gamble was

found by many to be worth taking. Ricardo himself would likely have migrated if his

167

wife had been in agreement. The high number of deportees sent to El Salvador by both
Mexican and US. authorities makes it clear that many are attempting to fulﬁll the dream
despite the hazards.

These high rates of risk taking are responses to evidence, both anecdotal and
research-based, that working in the US. can improve living standards and thereby
facilitate the pursuit of happiness. Data examined by Clark suggests that on the whole,
Latinos (born in both the US. and in Latin America) are economically successful in the
US: “they are now a very large proportion of all middle-class households” (2003291).
Likewise, Baker-Cristales observes, “The facility with which they [Salvadoran migrants]
can purchase such relative luxuries as telephones, televisions, stereos, computers, new
clothes, fumiture, and cars is radically different from the reality of life in El Salvador,
where such items are out of the reach of many working class people” (2004289). US.
Census data suggests that an increasing number of Salvadorans living in the US. are able
to buy their own home (PNUD 2005). Family members of many interviewees and
collaborators, particularly those who had been in the US. for longer periods of time,
owned homes in the US. Rosa’s in-laws owned a home in the US, as did Trini’s
friends, Priscila’s brother, and Lupe’s sister. Because homeownership is a key element of
the American dream, migrating to the US. does hold some promise for fulﬁlling
components of the fantasy. It certainly holds more promise than is currently found in San
Salvador.

Whether in the US. or El Salvador, owning a home delivers a range of tangible
beneﬁts. Homeowners in the US. are likely to live in quality housing, safer

neighborhoods, and have access to better schools (Clark 20032129). For Salvadorans

168

(especially those living in El Salvador), home ownership ultimately means an end to a
large monthly payment (be it rent or mortgage). Esperanza told me that she dreamed of
owning a home so that if her son stopped remitting she would not have to worry about
where the money would come from for rent payments. And given the political and
economic instability that has characterized El Salvador, the ability to secure shelter is
signiﬁcant. There is also a complex array of meanings embedded in homeownership. It
can be an indicator of hard work and tenacity, in other words, of deserving to have the
American dream fulﬁlled. Owning a home can increase grounds for status claims thereby
facilitating contentment. Homes can also be tools used to express identity. They give
“control over the physical living space and the freedom to modify, enlarge, and beautify
the living environment” (Clark 20032129). Interior and exterior design and upkeep can
reﬂect preferences, wealth, values (for instance via religious ornaments), and conformity
or independence. In various ways, then, home ownership is linked to happiness.

The terrain on which the American dream develops varies, and for many, it is a
transnational dream. This is exempliﬁed by the contexts in which home ownership
occurs. Not only are transmigrants living the dream (or at least elements of it) in the
US, they are also making aspects of the dream accessible to family who remain in San
Salvador. Remittances ﬂow readily into El Salvador and these monies are increasing
access to a range of consumables. Many leave El Salvador intending to either pay off a
house in their sending community, or build a home there with money earned in the US.
For instance, a key goal of Andrea’s brother’s migration included paying off a home in El
Salvador. Whether ‘here’ or ‘there’, owning a home is a key element of the Salvadoran

version of the ‘American dream’.

169

Migration and Status
For some, status is another element of the dream made accessible through migration.
This is closely related to the link between migration and increased consumption capacity.
For instance, Marisa’s mobile phone, paid for by her mother in California, allows Marisa
to ﬁt in with other students at the Universidad Centroamericana (U CA). Given her
humble economic position, technology is one of the tools that helps Marisa to ﬁt into this
relatively wealthy sphere. The prestige of Leticia’s migrant sister, Angelina, is revealed
by Angelina’s distaste for riding in older cars when visiting El Salvador. Angelina’s
migrant status merits access to certain luxuries. Trini explained that when migrants
return home, they take family and friends to dine at the best restaurants. She added her
opinion that having worked so hard, migrants deserve to come back to El Salvador and
enjoy it! In this way, as Goldring argues, migrants “display spending power, claim
status, and have it valorized” (19992181). Migrants who achieve the dream are rewarded
with status in part because they took risks and won; within the capitalist system, risk is
seen as a test of character (Sennett 1998). Moreover, migrants with increased spending
capabilities are better able to participate in the social system that measures success and
happiness levels via consumables. Migrants have greater access to consumption, as well
as to the symbols associated with consumption. The beneﬁts of transnationalism are thus
a function of monetary successes and access to consumables, as well as the value of these
within the consumption system.

However, some migrants experience a reduction in status, particularly in the US.
context. Individuals with professional degrees from El Salvador, and those who had high

status careers, frequently perform more menial work in the US. For instance, Linda’s

170

brother, who held a master’s degree in business administration from El Salvador, worked
the night shift at a gas station in Texas at the time of this study. He was forced to migrate
after months of unemployment following the loss of his job. Further, middle class and
wealthier families accustomed to hired help are often unable to afford such luxuries in the
US. In some cases, instead of being waited on, the migrant is now waiting on other
people. Roberto’s brother-in-law, who had been an executive in San Salvador, disliked
this and other aspects of his decreased prestige in the US. In these situations, individuals
and families can experience diminished status in both real and perceived terms. Because
of this, both Lupe and Alejandra expressed a preference to stay in El Salvador where they
could afford hired help. The deﬁnition of the American dream is somewhat
individualistic in terms of the prioritization of the elements. Joining the low wage labor
force in the US, for a person with a post-secondary degree from El Salvador, may be
worth it if it enables them to afford tuition at a prestigious private school for their child
who remains in El Salvador. This is the view held by Linda’s brother whose goal was to
provide well for his adolescent daughter in El Salvador. But migrating may not be worth
it because of the decrease in prestige—this was the view of several interviewees who
preferred to remain in El Salvador where they knew that their university degrees had
value.

For many, transnational migration is an approach to meeting needs and fulﬁlling
desires that cannot be met in El Salvador. It is a way to circumvent the power of
exclusionary forces. Through transnational migration, consumables (however they are

prioritized) are made accessible to migrants and their families. Migration thus alleviates

171

the tensions that result from the presence of barriers that restrict participation in the

consumption system; it functions as a means to access happiness.

The ‘Disintegrated Family’ Versus ‘Economic Help’

Transnational migration resolves one set of tensions while simultaneously stimulating
another. Family often ﬁts prominently in the dream, yet the relationship between
consumption and family is complex—fraught with both contradictions and consistencies.
Through the following discussion, I show where family is situated within both the
consumption system and processes of transnational movement.

A variety of transformations associated with globalization “suggest that the
spatially unilocal family may become an increasingly rare form of family life” (Landolt
and Wei Da 20052625). For instance, it can be argued that the distancing of family
members is occurring in the US. For both professional and personal reasons people
increasingly live considerable distances from both immediate and extended family
members. As a result, family members see considerably less of each other. Similarly, it
has become increasingly common for both parents to work outside of the home. This is
sometimes part of efforts to increase access to consumables and is therefore believed to
be beneﬁcial to the familial unit. In El Salvador the situation is not dramatically
different. It is a small country, roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts, so the
search for career and lifestyle options is often on a transnational scale.

Severe restrictions on international mobility make the Salvadoran situation more
complex than that of the US. Many Salvadorans do not qualify for visas to Mexico, let

alone have access to US. visas, residency, and citizenship. Due to geographic distance

172

and mobility limitations, a common migration-related theme that came through in
interviews, as well as in other contexts, was the separation of families. Many people
referred speciﬁcally to la desintegracio'n familiar or ‘family disintegration’man idea that
if taken literally suggests the breakdown and dissolution of the family. Linda referred to
this as the “fractured family” and Paula spoke of broken family ties while discussing the
migration of aunts and uncles. Communication limitations were referenced in the context
of describing the distance between family members.32 Telephone calls were expensive
and mail service unreliable. Email helped some to maintain regular contact, for instance
Linda’s migrant brother accessed the lntemet at the public library, but public web access
points are sparse in the US.

AS noted, restricted mobility is another issue impacting the ability of families to
stay connected. Inez told of how her brother could not come to El Salvador when their
father fell ill and Camila noted that migrants miss out on social events. Migrant parents
are frequently absent from the life events of their children, including graduations and
quincean'eras in the case of Rosa’s husband. This is particularly true for undocumented
migrants, but those with citizenship, residency, and visas are also limited by factors like
economic constraints and work related commitments. Because of the physical distance
and communication limitations, even a family that maintained contact via remittances
was described by some as disintegrated. At the same time, in many cases, remittances
were considered a key aspect of maintaining a united family. Thus migrants who were
unable or chose not to send money to family were often seen as evidence of familial

‘disintegration’ regardless of whether they maintained communication.

 

’2 . . . , . .
3 Works concerned With these topics Include Benitez 2006 on lntemet communication and Mahler 2001
on communication in rural El Salvador.

173

A related issue is the common fear that separations will become permanent. This
trepidation arises with regards to familial relationships—a son or daughter may lose
contact with a parent in El Salvador; a brother may stop communicating with a sister; and
a Spouse or partner may start a new relationship in the US. Andrea noted the possibility
that her migrant brother would ﬁnd another woman in the US. and abandon his wife in
El Salvador. Carmita expressed similar fears regarding her son-in-law. Carmita’s own
partner had migrated to the US. 15-years earlier and started another relationship there.
In discussing her children, Yolanda said that because they migrated, they forgot that they
had a mother in El Salvador. These fears were components of the discourse of family
‘disintegration’. Such fears may be justiﬁed as severed ties seem to occur with some
regularity.33

In addition to severed ties, emotional distancing is a key element of the
‘disintegration’, and occurred in a variety of relationships. Interviewees spoke of
symptomatic pain and suffering associated with distance. Regarding the impact of the
migration of siblings on their mother, Leticia referred to sadness and loneliness (“se
siente solo”). Leticia’s oldest sister and two of her brothers lived in Nebraska. While the
youngest brother had not been gone long, the other two siblings were well established in
the US. Her sister had visited El Salvador only three times since her departure 21 years
ago. Because visits were infrequent at best, relationships were maintained primarily via
telephone and email.

Emotional pain was a common issue for migrants and their family in El Salvador.

Relationships between parents/children, siblings, and grandparent/ grandchild were all

 

33 . . . . . .
There are currently no data available that estimate how often families experrence permanent and
complete severing of ties.

174

strained by migration. Some people also spoke of a signiﬁcant sense of loss associated
with the migration of a close friend. Teresa experienced serious depression when her two
closest friends moved to the US. She said that she felt abandoned.

An additional component of the ‘disintegration’ is related to changes undergone
by migrants. For some, cultural and identity transformations experienced by Salvadorans
living in the US. were elements of the distance that was perceived to exist as the gap
between experience, knowledge, and worldview grew. Several interviewees noted that
migrant family members who visit El Salvador ﬁnd it unacceptably dangerous and dirty.
A similar culture clash occurs when migrants arrive in the US. Such was the case when
the youngest brother of Leticia and Ana Maria migrated and moved in with his oldest
sister who was well adapted to life in the US. Leticia’s perception was that in the US,
her brother had to adjust to eating prepared foods from restaurants rather than cooking,

and to her oldest sister’s preference for more sophisticated things.

Migration. the Family. and the Consumption System

 

There is a range of interpretations regarding the impact of transnational migration on the
Salvadoran family. The most common perception is that it jeopardizes the ideal unit.
Despite such discourses at all levels of society, migration persists en masse. And when
an interviewee or informant indicated that they were unwilling to migrate, family
integration was not the reason given (with one exception).

Salvadoran families were negotiating familial requirements, many of which are
socially deﬁned. When deciding whether to migrate, people endeavor to prioritize

economic/consumption ‘needs’ or emotional/psychological ‘needs’. Many do not have

175

the ability to adequately (per socially deﬁned standards) meet both. Salvadoran families
exemplify the way that this social institution “adapts strategies variably in response to
structural, cultural, and ideological forces in society” (Parreﬁas 20002336). Furthermore,
because the economic and emotional arenas are intersected, transnational migration
implications are nebulous. Families or individual decision-makers therefore negotiate a
series of tradeoffs.34

According to interviewees, the act of remitting is a way of providing for the
family or meeting economic ‘needs’. Money sent to a spouse or child ensures that their
material needs and wants will be more adequately met. Because she worked in the US,
Marisa’s mother could afford a number of consumables. She sent Marisa to UCA,
bought her a computer and cell phone, and paid for lntemet access and the living
expenses of Marisa and her grandmother. In other cases remittances were sent to parents,
thereby ensuring that mom and dad were provided for. Sons and daughters sent vitamins,
clothing, and other goods to parents and grandparents and covered healthcare costs.
Increasing access to these consumables helped ensure familial well being and
contentment. The high numbers of migrants and migrant hopefuls suggest that many
considered working in the US. to be the best approach to meeting the greatest number of
familial obligations.

Yet, as described, the process of transnational migration also has emotional costs.
Sara’s experiences vividly reﬂect the tension between family uniﬁcation and consuming.
At the time of the study, her daughters lived in California with their father. While Sara

missed them immensely, she was pleased that they had access to a standard of living and

 

34 . . . . .

Of course, there are a varIety of transnational crrcumstances that do not reﬂect this tensron. Some
Salvadorans migrate free of familial obligations to remit. Likewise, some people migrate in order to
reunite family either in the US. or El Salvador.

176

some of the consumables that would not be attainable in San Salvador. Sara no longer
had her children near her—a pain that she argued was made more intense by trauma and
suffering that she underwent during the civil war. Yet the young women held good jobs
in the US. and Sara hoped this would enable them to continue their studies.

The remittances also permitted Sara to live relatively comfortably in San Salvador
without working a full time job. As well as owning a modest home, Sara was able to
engage in other forms of consumption. For instance, she and friends made an excursion
to the beach one Saturday and on top of the expense of getting to the coast, Sara had
money for a nice meal, beer, and Salvadoran pastries (quesadillas) that she bought from a
roadside stand on the return trip. Sara also had access to health care and medication
(sometimes costing as much as $200 per month) for conditions including hypertension.
Extended family beneﬁted from the remittances as well. Sara’s daughters paid the
private school tuition of Sara’s nephew. The ﬁnancial contributions of Sara’s daughters
also enabled the family to throw a birthday party and fairly extravagant ﬁrst communion
celebration for the young boy. Sara’s daughters sent him clothing, for example a $40 pair
of pants. At the same time, Sara told me that she felt a sense of guilt because her
daughters were working instead of studying. She was caught between the desire to be
near her daughters and provide them with consumables, and the economic and social
pressures in San Salvador that encouraged their migration.

Leticia and Ana Maria both spoke of signiﬁcant increases in access to
consrunables that resulted from the migrations of various family members. Ana Maria
explained that the remittances of her older siblings were used to fund the university

educations of younger siblings—herself included. Remittances increased access to

177

clothing, electronics (such as a computer), and a vehicle. Ana Maria said that a monthly
Salvadoran wage could be spent in a day or even a single morning by her sister in the
US. At the same time, family disintegration was a theme for both women. Not only the
emotional consequences of separation, but also the resulting divergences in worldviews
and experiences that created a gap between those who leave and those who stay. Ana
Maria spoke speciﬁcally of a “choque ” or clash when her younger brother migrated to
the US. and lived with their older sister. The siblings had been geographically and
culturally distanced for so long that they did not know each other and had to start their

relationship anew.

Transnational MigLation. Consumpbles. and Love
Transnational migration allows for greater economic security; there are also
psychological and emotional beneﬁts. Consumables in the post-Fordist context can
function to communicate love and affection. Hegemonic processes have shaped the
symbolisms of consumables such that diamonds, for example, are quintessential signs of
romantic love and commitment. Further, as discussed, consumables can play a role in the
well being of loved ones. The crowds at Metrocentro on Mother’s day evidenced the
importance of consumption within the family. Throngs of people made purchases and
celebrated the holiday with remittances or locally earned monies. Families meandered,
enjoyed meals in the food court, and shopped at the department store.

Transmigrants are important participants in the sociocultural system that links
emotions and consumables. In El Salvador, this is exempliﬁed by the jump in remittance

levels during the month of May when Mothers Day is celebrated. Migrant sons and

178

daughters honor and Show love for mother by sending money. As is documented in the
transnational migration literature, monetary expenditures in the form of remittances or the
sending of goods can act as communicators of love (e.g., Parrer‘las 2001). For
Salvadorans, “remittances and gifts sent by parents and relatives that have migrated
constitute... a way of communicating that expresses affection and reinforces family ties
from a distance” (PNUD 2005: 296, author’s translation from Spanish). Shopping and
gift giving “can create a sphere of familial love in the face of a world of money” (Carrier
19932 63). Further, because the gift is often identiﬁed with the giver, the recipient
receives a symbolic piece of the giver (Carrier 1993)—something that becomes more
important with spatial distance. The gifts and remittances symbolize personal sacriﬁces
and hard work. The migrant is often considered to be meeting many of his or her
emotional obligations through gifts and remittances. They are frequently interpreted as
signs of love. A study cited in the PNUD report found that for Salvadoran youth, goods
served to “reinforce and nurture the relationship between children and parents” in the
face of geographic distance (20052296, author’s translation from Spanish). The report
also notes, however, that both children and parents recognize limits to the emotional
functions of consumables. This is also reﬂected in the work of Hondagneu—Sotelo and
Avila (1997), which reveals that emotional connections and proximity are both important
to transnational mothers.

In San Salvador, gifts functioned implicitly and explicitly as symbols of love and
devotion. Immediate and extended family members, friends, and colleagues used
consumables to communicate emotions. This was well exempliﬁed by the complex ways

that consumables were used as part of parental responsibilities. Parents and caregivers

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gave gifts to Show children that they cared. These were both tangible objects and the
consumption of services. Marta, for instance, liked to take her nieces and nephew to the
restaurant Pollo Campero for special occasions. It allowed her to deliver happiness to
them because the kids derived pleasure from playing on the equipment and eating the
fried chicken. In addition to gifts as symbols of love, they functioned in a related way as
rewards. Teresa, for instance, told me about buying a gold chain for her son in hopes that
rewards such as this would help him to behave better. She explained that when he was
deserving of a reward of some sort—for school performance or good behavior—she
would be willing to put the charge on a credit card to ensure she could purchase the item
that he deserved. In this capacity, consumables fostered the connection between goods
and love. They were used to reward and punish—two parental actions that communicate
love and aspirations for the child’s future well being. By withholding or awarding
consumables, parents were disciplining children in a variety of ways. They were
teaching them consumption behaviors and beliefs.

Salvadoran children and youth were drawn to many and varied consumables.
Computers, mobile phones, CD3, DVDs, clothing, toys, video games, and many other
goods and services appealed to young Salvadorans. The allure of consumables can be
explained in part by the fun and entertainment factor. The air hockey game at
Metrocentro might well be worth 75 cents because of the pleasure it delivers. The status
associated with some items also contributed to their appeal. Peers were powerful forces
acting on the consumption desires of children and youth. Through friends, for instance,
kids were regularly exposed to a range of goods and status symbols. When she would

visit my home, Teresa’s ten-year-old daughter regularly asked about the origins of items.

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She wondered where my pink striped sheets were from. When I said that they were from
home, she asked me to give them to her because she liked things from the US.
Marketing, media, and consumption sites also worked in hegemonic ways to instruct
children on the importance of consumables, thereby encouraging the connection between
love and gifts. The intensive and extensive insertion of children and youth in the
consumption system created a challenging context for parents. They continually
negotiated the expenses and symbolic ﬁrnctions of consumables. This task was made
especially challenging by the onslaught of consumption-related messages aimed at
children via marketing campaigns. As an example, Sponge Bob Square Pants or ‘Bob
Esponja’ was not only a popular cartoon that might entertain, but also an image stamped
on a broad array of merchandise.

Gendered norms inﬂuenced the degree to which money could compensate for
emotional connections and love. Evidence suggests that in El Salvador (as in the
Philippines per Parreﬁas 2005), there is a perception on the part of children that a migrant
mother who remits has abandoned her children, while a migrant father who remits is
providing for the family (PNUD 2005). Understandings that mother love is distinct from
father love primarily arise from socioculturally deﬁned gender roles. Salvadoran mothers
are expected to be in constant service to their children (PNUD 20052297). “Motherhood
is supposed to be a special kind of human relationship, uniquely important because
uniquely free of the kind of calculating instrumentality associated with the consumption
of objects. It stands for ‘love’, in sharp contrast to ‘money’” (Taylor 200423). However,
“this abstract opposition between money and love does not reﬂect the everyday practices

that intertwine commoditized and affective worlds” (Silvey 2006). Mothers, then, faced

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unique societal expectations regarding the degree to which money and consumables
could be used to meet the ‘needs’ of children. They confronted the realities of their
child’s economic and consumption needs and wants, but negotiated expectations of the
ideal or ‘natural’ form that maternal love should take.

Celestina’s voice is representative of a segment of Salvadoran society concerned
with family consumption. She spoke of how Salvadorans were “renouncing the value of
family unity” for “imperialist consumption.” Celestina argued that in the US. time is
money and people who are not workaholics are considered lazy. In the US, she said,
there is no space or time for the self and family. While Celestina had deﬁnite and well-
articulated opinions, she also communicated a subtle contradiction. Her grown son was
living in the US. where he was able to access certain consumables, in particular
education, which he could not access in El Salvador. Celestina worried about him, but
she wanted opportunities for him and knew that he wanted to be in the US. Celestina
herself felt some draw to the US. because it would allow her to pay off debts. Finally,
her lived reality in terms of her consumption as revealed, for instance, by her large, well-
furnished, and comfortable home was indicative of her own preference for a certain
standard of living. Although Celestina vocalized a belief in the importance of family
unity above consumption, her lived reality was, at best, inconsistent with this conviction.

This was a powerful tension between feeling uncomertable with or critical of
consumption, while at the same time being wrapped up in the system. This tension was
prevalent amongst those who articulated a desire to live outside of the power of the
consumption system. It was also a dominant tension for parents who negotiated their

children’s desires and their own interests in being a good mother or father. Striking the

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balance between needs and wants of the self and the family, and sitting through external
pressures—some of them hegemonic and potent—was a difﬁcult task. Furthermore, the
tacitness of the connection between consumption and love limited the degree to which
Salvadorans were deliberate in and evaluative of their engagement in the system.
Meeting the needs and wants of the family and self is complex and at times
seemingly fraught with contradictions. Children require love, nurturance, care, and
attention in order to develop and thrive. A range of powerful mechanisms deﬁne the
form and function this care should take. Transnational migration demands consideration
of the questions of who should provide this and what, if any, substitutions exist.
Transnational migration offers both solutions and difﬁculties, but so does staying in El

Salvador.

The Famin and Miggation

By all accounts, transnational migration has impacted Salvadoran families. The effects of
separations on familial relationships are multiple, complex, and difﬁcult to measure.
Outside of monetary aid, much rhetoric assesses the repercussions as negative.35 Views
similar to those held by interviewees also circulated widely in the media and other
spheres. Family disintegration was a concern for many. However, as Landolt and Wei
Da argue: “Evaluations of whether a family network is simply being stretched or if a
devastating rupture has occurred, are socially constructed, in part through the multiple
narratives of migration in which family practices are embedded” (20052648). El Salvador

is much like the case of the Philippines, where Parreﬁas shows the suspected negative

 

35 . . . . . . . . .
Some mtervrewees did identify unique beneﬁts, for example. being able to vacation In the US. because
they can stay with family rather than in a hotel.

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impacts of family separation are exaggerated in some ways (2005239). In both countries,
migration is a scapegoat for problematic patterns that are not solely related to
transnational migration. For example, in both the Philippines and El Salvador, claims
that family separation leads to youth delinquency are unsubstantiated or exaggerated. In
the case of El Salvador, for instance, there is no concrete evidence that gang members
tend to be children of migrant parents (PNUD 20052310). A focus on migration in
evaluating the status of the family runs the risk of drawing attention away from important
socioeconomic and political factors that contribute to social and familial problems. In
fact, there is evidence that economic difﬁculties and a lack of community level resources
in El Salvador play a fundamental role in familial problems (e.g., PNUD 20052309).
Linda’s migrant brother, for instance, experienced a serious deterioration in his marriage
prior to his migration to the U.S.—likely at least in part because of the stress his
unemployment put on the relationship. Further, not all patterns labeled problematic are
necessarily so. Camila, as an example, told me that she grew accustomed to and came to
appreciate a greater independence after her husband’s migration. She found that she had
more freedom to spend time with friends, go out and about, and participate in women’s
groups.

Many people and institutions in El Salvador conceptualize the ideal and natural
family as nuclear (or comprised of a mother, father, and children). As part of this, the
husband-wife relationship, as a formalized and permanent unit, has become idealized in
post-colonial El Salvador. This is consistently true at legislative and governmental
levels. However, in practice many couples are not married, but rather are described as

“accompanying” each other. Patterns in El Salvador are not surprising given that the

184

work of a number of scholars has shown that “people’s lived norms always exceed the
simpliﬁcations and stasis of given state ideologies” (Silvey 2006227). Patterns of
accompaniment are in part related to urban/rural locations, socio-economic positions, and
other factors. According to prewar historic evidence, as well as data from more recent
decades, the pattern is not unique to the current context. 36 To further contradict the
nuclear ideal, both Salvadoran men and women are frequently involved in more that one
common law union over the course of their life (e.g., Mahler 1995b and 2001). Such
patterns may be related to the endemic history of labor mobility in El Salvador.
Additionally, simultaneous involvement in two or more relationships at the same time is a
fairly common practice of Salvadoran men (e. g., Chant 2002). Cultural and legal laxness
permit paternal irresponsibility, and men can be conﬁdent that they will not be held
responsible for pregnancies and children (Gaborit 20032210).

Yet the nuclear family is the ideal at institutional and non-institutional levels.
These beliefs contribute to negative interpretations of the impact of migration on familial
processes. While it is certain that migration does split many couples, there are numerous
other factors that also impact these relationships. Understanding the effect of migration
on conjugal couples requires a balance that accounts for sociohistoric, political, and
economic processes that are not functions of migration.

A number of relationships are distanced as a result of transnational migration;
both nuclear and extended family bonds are impacted. For instance, migrants frequently

leave children in El Salvador, and a grandparent or other person raises them (e.g.,

 

"6 Although “there is a paucity of information about gender relations in El Salvador, particularly from the
prewar era“ (Mahler 19992700). there are some studies that provide a historic view. For instance the work
of Nieves (1979) suggests that about one ﬁfth of the impoverished households in her urban study were
consanguineal. Similarly data from both Webre (1979) and White (1973) (both cited in Brewer 1983)
suggests that free unions were prevalent at the time of their studies.

185

Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila 1997). Like many grandmothers, Jacinta was raising her
adolescent grandson in San Salvador while his parents worked in the US. In some cases,
children are eventually brought to the US. via either documented or undocumented
means. These same children sometimes end up back in El Salvador. Or they may remain
in the US, while the parent returns to El Salvador. It is also common for various family
members to move between the US. and El Salvador (see for example, Landolt and Wei
Da 2005). For instance, in order to maintain U.S. residency an individual cannot remain
outside of the US. for more than a given length of time, so some live part of the year in
their home in El Salvador and part of the year with family in the US. J acinta’s children
helped her to obtain U.S. residency and she spent as much time as possible in El Salvador
because she preferred it to the US; but she had to spend regular intervals with children
in Los Angeles because of US. residency requirements. At the same time, the mobility
of those who live in the US. without documentation is extremely limited. In order to
return to El Salvador (for a funeral, for instance), undocumented migrants must choose
between staying there or suffering through a risky border crossing back to the US.

The emotional impact of transnational family separation is signiﬁcant. Many
interviewees conveyed feelings of genuine emptiness due to missing loved ones. In one
case, a potential interviewee declined to participate because she found it painful to
discuss her husband’s absence. However, family separation is not unique to contexts
with high rates of migration. The supposed correlation between migration and familial
problems is overstated in some cases, and unfounded in others. The family is not exactly
‘disintegrating’; in ways it may be changing due to multiple factors—only one of which

is migration. In addition, current household and familial arrangements may not be so

186

distinct from those that preceded the relatively recent increases in transnational migration
rates (e.g., Chant 2002). It is likely that the idealized nuclear family is in fact what
Silvey refers to as an “invented tradition” (2006226). It is also a romanticized tradition as
research increasingly reveals non-nuclear household and familial arrangements to be
common and beneﬁcial to members (e. g., Bradshaw 1995; Chant 1997; Lawson 1998).
The functionality of the diverse households of interviewees is consistent with these
ﬁndings. Women thrived in households comprised of nuclear family members, extended
family, friends, or she alone. Consequently, “multi-local transnational families cannot
simply be branded as an irregularity destined to result in family collapse or as a
temporary setback in the ideal family arrangement” (Landolt and Wei Da 20052628).
Families are not exchanging integration for consumption; rather they are engaged in the
complexities of the neoliberal consumption system. These processes cannot simply be
diagnosed as a case of migration and related consumption being detrimental to the family.
Transnational migration may be no more harmful to families than the economic
and social stressors that characterize life in El Salvador. In fact, migration is foremost a
response to economic and sociopolitical problems. Current prevailing vantage points
from which migration is considered have resulted in an over attendance to the symptom
and a neglect of primary problems. Further, transnational migration as a means to
alleviate economic and consumption limitations is not in itself contradictory to the
maintenance of a uniﬁed family because consumption is, in fact, often a part of efforts to
prevent familial disintegration. This is true on multiple levels. Understandings of the
role of consumption in well being and happiness encourage behaviors that will facilitate

consumption thereby beneﬁting self and family. Similarly, serious ﬁnancial problems are

187

a signiﬁcant stressor, which can be detrimental to relationships, and transnational
migration has the potential to alleviate this strain. Additionally, consumables are
conceptualized as symbols of love and affection, and thereby help to meet the emotional
needs of family. Consumption is thus not per se being prioritized over the maintenance
of a spatially (and therefore emotionally) united family. Consmnption is actually a way
of meeting some emotional needs. But the ever-increasing array of consumables and
associated messages do inﬂuence perceptions of what ‘providing for the family’ entails.
Sklair aptly describes the current transnational context as including a “set of beliefs and
practices that persuades people that consumption far beyond the satisfaction of physical
needs is, literally, at the center of meaningful existence and that the best-organized
societies are those that place consumer satisfaction at the center of all their major
institutions” (200125). Further, in El Salvador, as in many contexts, maintaining intimate
family relations (which requires proximity) and fulﬁlling material needs/wants is a

difﬁcult endeavor.

188

CHAPTER 6

DISCOURSES OF CONSUMPTION, MIGRATION, AND REMITTANCES

Transnational migration has increased access to the consumption system. It is
through remittances that the relationship between migration and consumption is made
especially visible. Remittances are a relatively easily documented facet of Salvadoran
transnational migration and therefore have garnered considerable attention. In this
chapter I explore the discourses regarding migration and remittances in order to further
document the position of migrants in a series of tensions arising from social, political,
and economic forces.

Salvadoran migrants remit at high rates to their families and communities in El
Salvador. This pattern began during the civil war as migrants sent monies to help
families cope with the dire economic situation (Winschuh 1999237). Throughout the
19803, the value of remittances was consistently equal to the country’s export earnings
(Landolt et al. 19992294). Over time, remittances have increased as the number of
emigrants has grown; for instance, between 1990 and 2004 they rose at an average rate of
17.1 percent per year (IADB 2006a). In 2004, an estimated 22% of households received
remittances (PNUD 2005). The amount received by each household varied considerably,
as do estimates of these ﬁgures. According to one estimate the average in 2003 was $150
per month (PNUD 2005) and a 2004 estimate from the National Money Transmitters
Association calculated the average to be $339 per month (Orozco et al. 2005). A variety

of factors make it difﬁcult or impossible to precisely measure remittance ﬂows. For

189

example, because money is often sent via informal channels, efforts to tabulate are likely
to be inaccurate.

A variety of consumables, including clothing and shoes, are also remitted to
families and communities in El Salvador. For instance, Priscila explained that her
brother sent garments, a calculator, a tape player, and toys to El Salvador. Such items are
frequently shipped via private viajeros or travelers who move back and forth between El
Salvador and the US. in order to deliver goods and money. Remittances can also be sent
at a group level when migrant hometown associations organize in order to make
donations to communities in El Salvador. These associations have provided money for
soccer ﬁelds, wells, clinics, and other projects. Migrants are remitting when they cover
the expenses associated with family members applying for visas and residency. And
Salvadorans residing in the US. often pay for the travel expenses of visiting family
members with visas and US. residency. Such is the case for both Magdalena and Jacinta,
whose children cover the costs associated with traveling between the two countries.
Similarly, migrants give or lend the money that is required to bring family across the
U.S.fMexico border via undocumented means.

The migrants who remitted were responding to the perceived needs in the sending
communities. In many cases, they sought to improve the circumstances that encouraged
their own migration. Migrants were often aware of the poverty, violence, and social
unrest from which they escaped, and the conditions that their friends and families
continued to tolerate. Financial assistance was an important mechanism intended to
improve conditions and alleviate poverty in sending communities. Landolt et al. argue

that the contributions made by migrants are motivated, in part, by the perception that the

190

migration will be a temporary one, as well as by the “deep sense of social obligation
towards their places of origin” (19992293). However, the nature of the obligation can
change once a migrant starts his or her own family in the host country (e. g., Marroquin

Parducci 20052471 ). In such cases, remittances may decrease or cease.

Interpretatio& and Implications

Salvadoran migration has stimulated a great deal of discussion; remittances, in particular,
have encouraged considerable discourse. In 2005 these topics were addressed regularly
by the media, the government, academics, and by regional and international institutions.
There are numerous reasons for this attention. To begin, the impacts of remittances at the
macroeconomic level have been signiﬁcant. In 2004 remittances accounted for 16
percent of the Salvadoran GNP (PNUD 2005).

Additionally, migration and remittances have been a concern to the majority of
the population. In 2005, seven out of ten people had family living in the US. (Estrada
and Iraheta 2005). Many Salvadorans also spoke of close friends that had migrated.
Further, the possibility of leaving the country was on the minds of many—according to
one study, between ﬁve and seven out of every ten Salvadorans would migrate if they
could (PNUD 2005). The women that I interviewed conveyed a range of stances
regarding the possibility of emigration. Some were bothered by the idea of traveling to
the US. undocumented, but given the opportunity to migrate legally they would take it.
Paula, an economics major at UCA, found the idea of living in the US. appealing.
Others liked the idea of traveling or studying in the US, but would not necessarily want

to live there. Trini and several other women had traveled or studied in the US, but were

191

establishing careers in San Salvador. And a few, such as Leticia, were certain that they
were not interested in visiting or living in the US. (though some would study or live in a
different country). In all, US-bound migration touched the lives of most Salvadorans,
and as such, remittances were on the minds of many. The discourses surrounding

remittances were both positive and negative.

Positive Discourses

Remittances were sometimes assessed to be overwhelmingly beneﬁcial. The monies
were commonly lauded for the role they played in the reduction of severe poverty.
Salvadoran scholar Antonio Rodriguez wrote: “If it weren’t for remittances, the incidence
of poverty and indigence, above all in rural areas, would increase” (Rodriguez 2004252).
According to the United Nations Development Report, remittances are beneﬁcial because
they can “reduce demand for public services (education, health, housing, etcetera)”
(PNUD 2005274, author’s translation from Spanish). In some cases, they have
supplemented or replaced public social services that were reduced with structural
adjustment programs (Vega 2002; Lungo and Kande 2002). US. scholar Patricia Landolt
argued that remittances improve standards of living by increasing access to health care,
education, and funds that can be invested in agricultural properties (20012234). At the
local level, the efforts of hometown associations have helped meet community needs,
including programs and services affected by the monetary impacts of decentralization
(Lungo and Kande 2002). Remittances have also been credited with decreasing

inequality in El Salvador (CEPAL 20062108).

192

Positive discourses, including those of the Salvadoran government, frequently
referenced macro level beneﬁts. Monies sent by migrants covered 95 percent of the
commercial deﬁcit in 2004 (CEPAL 2005210). Business owners and the government also
argued that remittances stimulated demand for local products and services, and since they
increase buying power, they contributed to growth rates (Vega 20022907). The monies
were credited with strengthening local commercial, restaurant, and hotel industries
(CEPAL 200528). Additionally, many of the efforts of migrant organizations were
development-oriented and beneﬁted communities and the country as a whole. This also
decreased the government’s responsibility for small and medium scale improvement
projects. Further, emigration alleviated the responsibility of the government to ensure
labor opportunities and unemployment services for people who have not had a stable

place within the Salvadoran labor market.

Critical Discourses

On the other hand, while the beneﬁts of remittances were recognized, there were also
numerous discourses of criticism. Remittances evoked concern at the macroeconomic
level. The release of the United Nations Development Report (PNUD) at the end of 2005
highlighted these macro level issues. For at least a decade, the increased imports
resulting from the circulation of remittance dollars led to the diagnosis of El Salvador as
a victim of “Dutch disease.” This is because the excessive liquidity associated with
remittances puts national-level production at a disadvantage. Another symptom of Dutch
disease is inﬂation. So while there is a sense of relief at the cushioning effect of

remittances, there are also concerns regarding the long-term macroeconomic outlook.

193

Some scholars and analysts contested the premise that remittances reduce poverty.
As one migration expert stated: “In spite of the nearly millions of dollars that enter
yearly into El Salvador in the form of remittances, the structure of poverty has not
changed”—some are less poor, but communities are in the same state of poverty, and
many families are dependent on remittances (Andrade-Eekhoff 1997222, author’s
translation from Spanish). Such discourses may be warranted by the ﬁnding that in 2004,
El Salvador was one of only two Latin American countries (the other being Haiti) to
experience a decrease in per capita GNP (CEPAL 2006261). It was also argued that
remittances may actually be creating an “illusion of wealth,” as exempliﬁed by the
“ﬁctitious” post war economy of San Miguel, which was based on remittances rather than
local production (Landolt et al. 19992295). Further, many expressed concern with what is
seen as a dependence on an economic activity that is not sustainable. The volatile U.S.
response to immigrants, as well as the possibility that second generation Salvadorans
living abroad will not remit, led many to conclude that remittances cannot be relied on
over the long term. At best remittances may be a temporary band-aid covering the
wounds of poverty.

Remittances were also critiqued for leading to the denigration of the recipients.
Those who held this view accused recipients of being lazy. This critique primarily
resulted from the increasing difﬁculties with ﬁnding local labor to pick coffee and
perform other similar jobs. At $2.81 per day, Salvadorans were decreasingly interested in
the grueling job. Consequently labor was being imported from the economically
struggling neighboring countries of Honduras and Nicaragua. Locals who turned down

such work were frequently referred to as haraganes or lazy. Generally, remittances were

194

portrayed as the fundamental reason for the need to import labor in rural areas. The
examples of this discourse are many, and include the newsletter of an association of
Salvadoran businesses,37 which argued that the “industrious work ethic” of Salvadorans is
being “suffocated” because they are getting used to depending on the remittances (LOpez
et al. 2005). Similarly, Manuel Calvo, the director of a tuna ﬁshing company, indicated
that there is no longer a “culture of work” or a concept of going to work for a company
everyday (LOpez et al. 2005). These discourses also circulated amongst interviewees and
collaborators. Rosa, for instance, told me that because of remittances, people do not want
to work. She added that they no longer wash or iron their own clothes when they receive
remittances.

The discourse pointed to another Sign of denigration: the unproductive use of
remittances. As Andrade-Eekhoff framed it, receivers were often accused of spending
the monies in inefﬁcient and foolish ways, as well as charged with using them
exclusively for consumption—including ostentatious consumption in some cases
(2005215). Such views came from a broad spectrum of society (see the next section for
more on this). Underlying this was the belief that recipients should prioritize ‘needs’
rather than ‘wants’ or pleasures. Inappropriate uses of remittances were thought to be
evident and prevalent. One Salvadoran friend claimed that large, remittance-funded
homes were easily identiﬁed by their US. building styles. She explained that they
commonly possessed V-shape roofs. Remittance receivers were also said to be the
principle patrons of consumption sites, such as Metrocentro. Collaborators and

interviewees explained the high volumes of people at malls by referencing remittances.

 

3 . . . .
‘ 7 Boletin Ia AsocracrOn NaCIonal de la Einpresa Privada or ANEP.

195

Several implied that this consumption of space, time, and goods at places like
Metrocentro was an indulgence. Similarly, receivers were criticized for consuming rather
than investing or saving. Televisions were the most commonly sited ‘unnecessary’
luxury good. Such condemnations of remittance uses implied that consuming is a
negative behavior (e.g., Samour 2005). Within these discourses regarding remittances,
consumo was a dirty word. Some Salvadorans also claimed that migration and
remittances contribute to the formation of a culture of consumption. Marta and I sat
outside of Metrocentro one day, in front of the mini-amusement park, and lamented the
loss of green space (particularly disheartening to an avid soccer player like Marta). In
considering the prioritization of the proﬁt-generating amusement park over the grassy
area that previously occupied the zone, Marta explained that hers is a cultura consumista.
Criticisms regarding unproductively used remittances were directed at those who
receive remittances, as well as the government. For example, an editorial commentary in
the journal published by the Jesuit run Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) stated that
the Salvadoran government has not been able to “ﬁnd a way of utilizing remittances in
productive activities” (ECA Editorial 20042677, author’s translation from Spanish). An
editorial in el Diario de Hay called on the government to protect the future of the
“victims of consumption and laziness,” or remittance recipients (de LOpez 2004, author’s
translation from Spanish). Government ofﬁcials, such as the mayor of the community of
Cojutepeque, also sought methods for ensuring the ‘productive’ use of remittances. One
proposed approach was to tax remittances sent to El Salvador. At the national level, the

Salvadoran government indicated that they were working to develop projects geared

196

toward investing remittance monies into housing and infrastructure, but pointed out that

they could not intervene in the management of private monies (Anonymous 2005).

Sources of Criticigp

These critiques of remittances were found across socioeconomic strata; they have been a
part of intellectual and economic elite rhetoric for over a decade, and also appeared to be
embedded in the discourses of the non-elite. While people from a range of backgrounds
expressed the concerns that I have outlined, one group represented a signiﬁcant and
problematic incongruity. This segment of the social and economic Salvadoran elite was
engaged directly and indirectly in critiquing remittance uses, and at the same time
encouraged and beneﬁted from the increasing consumption of a range of goods and
services. These elites encouraged consumption both as key agents in hegemonic
processes that undergird the consumption system and as models of conspicuous
consumption.

The Salvadoran Foundation for Economic Development, or FUSADES by its
Spanish acronym,38 well exempliﬁes this group. Salvadoran business owners founded
FUSADES in 1983 as a “center of study and investigation, and facilitator of economic
and social development” (fusades.com.sv). Caribbean Central American Action
(CCAA), an organization initiated with corporate sponsors like Maidenform and Chase
Manhattan, helped to establish FUSADES (Barry and Preusch 1986). Both CCAA and
FUSADES received ﬁinding from the US. Agency for lntemational Development

(U.S.AID).

 

38 . , , .
Fundacron Salvadorei’la para el Desarrollo EconOmico

197

The F USADES power holders are members of the Salvadoran elite. In 2005 the
vice-president was Francisco R.R. De Sola whose family is part of the original coffee
oligarchy. Francisco R.R. De Sola was also President of Homarca SA, a company
involved in the buying and selling of liquid assets and property. At the time of this study,
the De Sola family was invested in both Grupo De Sola and Grupo Cuscatlan—the latter
conglomerate controlled an estimated 45 percent of the country’s GNP in 2003 (Aguilar
and Villalona 2005). The economic interests of Grupo De Sola included companies that
manufacture and/or distribute consumables such as real estate, foods and beverages, soap
products, and tobacco products. They were also invested in imports and exports. In all,
the wealth generating activities of this group were centered on consumption.

Jorge Zablah-Touche’, a member of another elite family, was president of
FUSADES for nine years (1995-2003). The Zablah-Touché family was invested in
Grupo Banco Salvadoreﬁo, as well as a number of other businesses. In 2005 Jorge’s
brother, Eduardo Zablah-Touché, was Technical Secretary to the Salvadoran president,
and was often quoted in newspaper articles covering the topic of migrant remittances. In
one piece in la Prensa Graﬁca, he stated that remittances are often directed towards
superﬂuous consumption and that due to the remittance problem, people are opting not to
work (LOpez et al. 2005).

The economic and political models and strategies outlined directly by FUSADES,
and indirectly by members of the De Sola and Zablah-Touché families, have been highly
inﬂuential in the shaping of national policies (PNUD 2005). The role of FUSADES in
neoliberal economic policy and its impact on the country are outlined in the United

Nations Development Report (PNUD 2005). At the same time, F USADES has critiqued

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the use of remittances for consumption and called for their ‘productive’ use (Pedersen
20042246). Because FUSADES is a voice of authority the organization is often asked to
comment on the topic of remittances. For instance, in a discussion of the “dark side” of
remittances, a July 2005 newspaper article quoted the Executive Director of FUSADES,
Alvaro Guatemala (Segura 2005).

Salvadoran elites, who were heavily inserted in the consumption system, were
also key ﬁgures in the government. Alfredo Cristiani, president of El Salvador from
1989-1994, was a principle shareholder in Grupo Cuscatlan. At the time of this study,
this conglomerate was directly and indirectly invested in a series of consumption-related
industries. Investments included: agricultural industries, a computer import company,
plastics, real estate, an electronics chain, and a company that produced construction
materials. As noted, Cuscatlan was also a popular remittance service provider. The
transnational ties of these elites and conglomerates contributed to their inﬂuence and
authority. For instance, Ricardo Poma was a member of the David Rockefeller Center for
Latin American Studies at Harvard. Such ties—be they philanthropic, professional,
personal, or otherwise, help to cement links between dominant hegemonic forces in the

US. and those of El Salvador.

Illuminating Inconsistencies
I present these discourses and examples of their sources in order to make transparent the
consistencies and inconsistencies in approaches to and perspectives on consumption and

transnational migration. The contradictions and their implications are particularly critical

199

because of their prevalence. Further, the situation results in a number of negative
consequences for migrants and their families.

A critical concern is with the tremendous incongruity between the hegemonic
promotion of consumables and critiques of the use of remittances for ‘consumption’. In
2005, powerful members of the elite cultivated and beneﬁted from the consumption
system. The linkages between consumption and happiness were a powerful component
of this system. Although the links have multiple roots, in San Salvador marketing,
consumption sites, the media, and highly visible consumption practices of Salvadoran
elite and transmigrants sustained them. Additionally, power holders in El Salvador
encouraged transmigration because of the commercial and macro beneﬁts. At the same
time, power holders engaged in discourses of critique, according to which many
consumers (including many migrants) were expected not to participate in the system of

meanings, symbols, and pleasures. This was the case despite the fact that participation

 

was encouraged and fostered by both highly sophisticated methods and dominant societal
expectations.

Further, because numerous power holders beneﬁted substantially from
consumption, there was a signiﬁcant conﬂict of interest in assigning them the task of
identifying and solving the remittance ‘problem’. Institutions that inﬂuenced policy,
including government, grupos, and organizations such as FUSADES, were intimately
connected—in some cases they were one and the same. The power of these bodies was
tremendous, both in terms of direct policy inﬂuence, as well as indirect inﬂuence on
societal norms and expectations. The views of these groups were biased by their

intensive and extensive insertion in the consumption system. This scenario led to

200

contradictions, inconsistencies and incongruities, as well as the impossibility of any
semblance of objectivity.

Related to this, critiques of the ‘unproductive’ use of remittances were
problematic. Categorizing expenditures is a subjective endeavor. Presumably, spending
remittances ‘productively’ would be closely related to meeting ‘needs’ in either the short
or long term. When remittances are used to buy homes or invested in other ways, this
can be thought of as a productive use of money and a tactic to meet familial needs. Yet
the category of ‘productive’ is subject to the exact ambiguities to which the category of
‘needs’ is subject. Expenditures put towards home building, such as top of the line
plumbing ﬁxtures, might be categorized as unproductive or luxury expenditures. They
may also be considered sound investments. Likewise, tuition at a prestigious university
may seem to be a productive use of remittances to some because it is an investment in
human capital, while others might consider it more appropriate to spend less on tuition
and instead save or invest money.

There is no universal way to deﬁne the line between productive investments and
luxury expenditures. In the case of Mexico, evidence from one study suggests that
remittance-receiving households are no less ‘productive’ than those households that do
not receive remittances (Zarate-Hoyos 2004). In other words, there is not substantial
variation in the ways that households manage ﬁnances, yet Salvadoran migrants and their
families were more likely to be analyzed and criticized. Such critiques are also
problematic because, as Ngai well articulates, the “social imaginary of ‘modernity’ is to
be not only a ‘producer’ to produce but even more importantly a ‘consumer’ to

‘consume”’ (20032482). The state and key power holders valued and rewarded

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consumption. Numerous hegemonic factors, in particular those that shape the
consumption system, impacted how remittances were used; however, in San Salvador it
was the migrant and his or her family that was most frequently criticized for the
unproductive use of money.

Discourses regarding migration and remittances also revealed a focus on these
topics at the expense of other concerns. While the macroeconomic impacts of
remittances are signiﬁcant, the emphasis on these distracts from other important issues.
Discourses of Dutch disease, as revealed in the work of David Pedersen, (2002) have
pulled attention from other local and transnational factors that foment poverty and
inequality. Drawing on the work of Coronil (1997), Pedersen suggests that the symptoms
associated with Dutch disease are not new for El Salvador; rather they are realities of
neocolonialism. Migration and remittances are important but do not merit greater
concern than do the mechanisms encouraging their occurrence. Neoliberal frameworks
and the consumption system instead warrant increased attention and concern. Because
the symptoms of the problem have been attended to instead of the real causes,
improvements are miniscule or absent. It has been the economically, politically, and
socially marginalized, in other words a large portion of the migrant population, who
suffer as a result of the superﬁcial treatment and at times complete neglect of the base
problems.

That migration has distracted from fundamental issues is also exempliﬁed by the
assumed relationship between laziness and remittances. This supposition is problematic
on several levels. First, for the most part, the impacts of low wages and poor labor

conditions was not addressed in many of the mainstream explanations for why it is that

202

people are choosing to live on remittances or migrate rather than seek wage labor in El
Salvador. Instead of considering unjust conditions associated with neoliberal markets,
remittances have become the scapegoat for explaining the new pattern of ‘laziness’ in El
Salvador. These negative discourses represent unjust mechanisms of labor discipline.
Second, this ‘laziness’ can also be seen as the consumption of leisure and time—a
consumable enjoyed by many of the non-poor in El Salvador. In a household where only
one salary was required, for example, it was not uncommon for a wife to stay home.

' Domestic servants handled house cleaning, cooking, and childcare, leaving the woman
with a great deal of leisure time. The remittance receiver is no different—they are now
able to enjoy leisure time. In some cases, recipients were of retirement age and were able
to stop working because of ﬁnancial support from children or other family members. In
such cases, remittances ﬁinctioned as a pension.

Furthermore, these discourses distracted from the variables of age and gender.
Women, children, and aging parents were the primary remittance receivers. Concluding
that remittance receivers are lazy implies that women, children, and the elderly are
indolent. The vulnerabilities of these groups were lost in the discourse of laziness. In
addition, gender and socioeconomic status play roles in institutional access. For instance,
women have had less access to the Salvadoran banking system (Mahler 2000). Thus
concerns with the investment of remittances need to take into account non-migration
related social structures in expenditure patterns.

Still another inconsistency is found in the focus on the practices of the poorer
families and a disregard for the behaviors of the non-poor. These discourses ignored the

transnational and consumption behaviors of the middle classes and the wealthy. In part,

203

such patterns reﬂect the view that non-poor groups use ﬁnances more productively, or
perhaps that the non-poor can afford to choose to be unproductive. Analysis of the
discourses also revealed the common assumption that migration is a strategy used by
poorer groups, when in fact evidence suggests that the middle classes have migrated via
both documented and undocumented routes. The wealthy are also highly mobile, often
through legal routes including US. visas, residency, and citizenship. These movements
impact the ﬂow of money and the consumption system. It is not only the poor who remit;
middle and upper middle class members participate in transnational monetary ﬂows and
there is little to no evidence to suggest that their involvement in transnational processes
was being adequately captured in the discourse. In other words, people across economic
strata were immersed in the meanings associated with consuming, and took strides to be a
part of the symbolic systems. Yet it was primarily already marginalized groups who
were critiqued for participating in these systems and attempting to be included.

Together, the neoliberal economy and dominant hegemonic processes ‘produce’
consumers. Consumption is fundamental to the economic growth agenda of
neoliberalism. Hegemonic forces therefore stimulate consumption systems. Meaning is
created and circulated, in particular, via transnational circuits of power. Salvadoran elites
are important agents in these processes. But there are inherent contradictions in the
efforts of power holders to create and maintain both producers and consumers per the
neoliberal framework. Rather than addressing these contradictions, migrants, the poor,
and marginalized people were targeted as explanations for problems. Salvadoran power
holders avoided implicating their own behavior in diagnosing problematic conditions. If

there were some aspect of the system malfunctioning, it must be a cog in the machine

204

 

(i.e., migrants) rather than a problem with the system itself. In San Salvador, conﬁdence
in the neoliberal model was so great, as was animosity towards alternative models, that
the dominant players in world economies and politics rarely doubted it. As the
‘symptoms’ were the focus, the source problem was misdiagnosed and therefore

metastasized.

Critiques in the US.

Similar to elites in sending countries, privileged people in industrial countries often
lament that the poor ﬁ'om developing countries attempt to access their standard of living
(e. g., Bauer 2001). Salvadoran immigrants are one group beleaguered by such views. A
complex array of issues shapes public responses to immigration. Economic concerns
become interlaced with ideas about race and ethnicity. Safety issues can also be relevant,
as perceptions of criminals and terrorists are also interlaced with race and place. Further,
concerns with immigration are bound up in notions of national identity.

I posit that consumption is another important factor in the animosity directed at
immigrants in receiving contexts. In the US, anti-immigrant sentiments are related to
fears regarding the impacts of incoming labor on the ability of citizens to consume.
Discourses include the concern that immigrant labor will take jobs from citizens who
have greater entitlement to local employment. Job ‘theft’ may result in unemployment
among citizens, which in turn limits their capacity to consume. Another concern is with
the use by immigrants of public services, in particular education and health care.
Because of their supposed clandestine use of such services, immigrants are thought to be

draining resources. Many believe that they are not contributing economically; in

205

particular that they are not paying taxes, so their use of public resources ultimately
compromises the quality of these services. In this case, at issue is the quality of
consumables. Further, taxes may need to be increased in order to offset the expenses
suspected to incur because of immigrant use of services. Increased taxes leave citizens
with less money to use on consumables of their choice.

The critical views of immigrants, in particular the undocumented, result in a series
of negatives in the US. In ways, undocumented laborers in the US. are dehumanized
and most deﬁnitely criminalized. Raids in 2006 at meat processing plants typify these
views. In December, hundreds of workers were rounded up in several states for working
without documentation or using the identity of another to gain employment. That the
workers were considered to be less than human was evidenced in a number of ways.
First, the timing of the raids: they occurred on the day that the Feast of the Virgin of
Guadalupe—an important celebration in Mexico (where most of the workers were from).
They also occurred shortly before the Christmas holiday. Second, the implications of the
incarcerations and deportations for family members were not considered. On the day of
the raids, children of the detained stood outside of schools awaiting a parent to pick them
up (Casey 2006). In Colorado, at least 100 children were left parentless following the
raids (Oak Kim and Ramirez 2006). Third, the motives of the workers, namely to ensure
the well being of their families by working in less than desirable jobs by US. standards,
appear to have been of little concern based on coverage of the raids. This relates to the
idea that undocumented workers are criminals. Again, the motives of those who enter the

US. are infrequently explored in mainstream discourses of immigration. To simply enter

206

‘illegally’ puts Salvadorans in the category of criminal and thereby limits their needs and
rights as a human, as well as those of their families.

In dominant U.S. discourse, immigration is rarely if ever framed as a process that
is ﬁrmly situated in the transnational neoliberal context. The power of the consumption
system and the hegemonic role of the US. in its form, function, and proliferation are not
addressed. Transnational ties between power holders and elites are disregarded. The
neoliberal drive to construct consumers does not enter into the conversation. That
transmigrants strive to access well being, status, and happiness via consumables, as they
are increasingly enculturated to do, has not been a concern at the policy level, in the
media, or amongst the general public.

The views regarding Salvadoran transnational migration are many and varied.
There are both positive and negative implications of the process, and positive and
negative interpretations of the processes and its implications. In all, the critical
discourses are many and these contribute to the mountain of tensions negotiated by
transnational migrants and their families. Further, these tensions are exacerbated because
the discourses are fraught with inconsistencies and contradictions, particularly amongst

key power holders.

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CHAPTER 7

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Family and friends of transnational migrants experience the San Salvador context
in speciﬁc ways. This dissertation has focused on the complexities, sophistication, and
promises of the consumption system as an inescapable element of that context. The
processes occurring in El Salvador are not entirely unique to that locale and research in
other contexts reveals striking similarities. Ngai’s work, for instance, shows comparable
patterns in China where consumption is both the “motive force in the drive to modernity”
and the “measure of development” (20032469). Similarly, the research of Mills exposes
in-country Thai migration to be in part a response to the “intensiﬁcation of consumption
desires” (1999273). Through this ﬁnal discussion, I consider these related ﬁndings from
other locales and I review the critical concerns regarding neoliberal development,
transnational migration, the consumption system, and related hegemonic processes in San

Salvador.

The Consumption System and Transnational Migration

Elements of the neoliberal economy in Latin America, according to Bauer, include “a
new business spirit... an abundance of imported consumer goods” and “a high-riding new
rich” (20012201). These elements of the neoliberal system foment the Salvadoran
consumption system. The strength of neoliberalism, and the various hegemonic
mechanisms that transnationalize it, make consumption-related meanings and symbols

pervasive and powerful. This power rests, in part, on mechanisms of social reproduction

208

within the consumption system. Advertising, for instance, “is not just a business
expenditure undertaken in the hope of moving some merchandise off the store shelves,
but is rather an integral part of modern culture” (Leiss et al. 200525). In San Salvador,
other mechanisms including ﬁlms, television, and consumption sites, combine with
advertising to form powerful instruments of hegemony. Simultaneously, neoliberal
markets help ensure that consumables are plentiful. Throughout Latin America, imports
are “restrained only by the capacity of fervent consumers to buy” (Bauer 2001211).
Under the neoliberal development framework, consumption is largely valued and
rewarded. This is the case in San Salvador, which is dense with consumption sites,
sophisticated marketing, and transnational mechanisms that circulate consumption-related
messages.

Between the power of the dominant consumption system and the signiﬁcant
limitations in access to it rest a number of inconsistencies. Consumption is signiﬁcant in
many arenas of life, and its importance is growing as the mechanisms of diffusion
strengthen. The often-hegemonic spread of consumption-related symbols and
signiﬁcations, in particular its potential to deliver well being and happiness, outpaces the
means for engaging in this system. Many are excluded from participating, and yet are
constantly informed of the beneﬁts of inclusion. In response, labor has adopted
mobilization as a method to enhance the ability to engage in the consumption system.
Migration increases access to consumables that promise to improve quality of life. Yet
migration carries with it risks of negative consequences, and migrants assume much
hardship as part of the effort to move from a life deemed lacking because of its dearth of

consumables to a life in which consumption-related status and pleasures are accessible.

209

Not only are there signiﬁcant dangers along the migrant trail, but there are also some
general patterns of both mental and physical health problems amongst ﬁrst- and second—
generation migrants living in the US. (Portes and Rumbaut 2006). Further, evidence
increasingly suggests that beyond a certain economic threshold there are signiﬁcant limits
to consumption-induced happiness, yet these limits are shadowed by the power of the
system.

In the case of El Salvador, migration may offer as much or greater access to that
system than does local education and training. As discussed in earlier chapters, migration
to the US. has become a right of passage for youth. The views expressed in the
interviews that I conducted suggest that for many, migrating to the US. is considered a
more certain way to ensure access to consumables such as security, education, healthcare,
homes, cars, and other goods. Rosa told me that her son, Jose, invested less energy in
schoolwork once it became certain that his US. residency papers were in the ﬁnal stages.
When I interviewed José, a high school student, he explained that in the US. there is
greater promise of a career. Though he did not elaborate, perhaps he knew that education
credentials from El Salvador would not be assets in the US.

Similar patterns have been found in the case of Belize. The work of Matthei and
Smith revealed that transnational migration is embedded to the point that children play at
migrating to the US; it is “a game which involves an imaginary journey to the United
States and triumphant return with elaborate gifts for everyone” (19982282). Migration
also ﬁts prominently in conceptualizations of ‘the future’ that are held by many
secondary school students in Belize. This results in feelings of apathy toward education.

For locales with high emigration rates, additional research is needed to more clearly

210

understand perceptions regarding the roles of migration and education in securing future
consumption and contentment.

Ngai’s (2003) work reveals that the urban migrations of women from rural China
are also a response to the consumption system. In China, this system results from state
level policy aimed at inserting the national economy into the global market (2003). In
this context the consumer is more highly valued than the producer (20032482). Chinese
labor, like that of El Salvador, mobilizes as a response to the interconnected systems of
neoliberalism and consumption. The rural Chinese women “search for ‘modernity’ and
in their hopes to improve their lives, migrant workers perhaps possess an even greater
consuming passion” (20032484). As part of this image of modernity, the neoliberal
system links consumption with well being.

The connection between migration and consumption is also revealed in the
movement of women from West Java to Saudi Arabia. The research of Silvey (2006)
shows how these women migrate in hopes of increasing access to consumables.
Transnational migration allows for satellite dishes, remodeled and repainted homes, and
refrigerators. Faced with unemployment in their home country, women choose to
separate from their families and homes in order to increase the participation of
themselves and their families in the consumption system. According to Silvey, the
income earned via migration “came to be viewed as necessary only after women’s

migration and higher levels of consumption became a widespread possibility” (2006224).

211

The Neoliberal Context

The neoliberal market encourages mobile labor forces. Within the system of free and
open markets, labor endeavors to ﬂow unfettered like goods and money. Ngai (2003)
exempliﬁes this in her examination of rural to urban migration in China. She reveals:
“The worker’s physical body has to be liberated before her labor power can be inserted
into the world of production and consumption” (20032482). Transnational labor
migration is both a conduit of as well as a response to the neoliberal economic system. In
the case of Maldova, for instance, structural adjustment policies in the postsocialist
political context led to a reduction in state-led job creation and social service programs;
the lack of these services encouraged migration (Keough 2006). But while many
countries embrace the neoliberal economic model, there are many barriers to the mobility
of low-wage laborers.39 As a result, there are high costs that are primarily assumed by
the migrants and their families.

In receiving countries, transnational labor is met with varying degrees of concern,
animosity, tolerance, and appreciation. At present, anti-immigration sentiment and policy
are pervasive in the US. and elsewhere. Legislators and constituencies are putting
signiﬁcant pressure on government agencies to curtail undocumented migrations and
punish undocumented laborers as well as those who employ them. Further, many oppose
the creation of legalized channels of entry for migrant laborers.

In host contexts, immigrants are frequently understood to be a drain and a burden
rather than viewed as participants in the neoliberal and consumption systems. Migrant

labor is dealt varying forms of castigation and hardship, in particular if immigrants are

 

q

. 9 . . .
i There are other examples of the neoliberal model being obstructed. such as continued heavy
subsidization of agricultural products in the US. and Europe.

212

undocumented. The barriers to prevent undocumented entry are many and signiﬁcant.
As a result, death and injury are possible on some transmigrant routes. Once in the US,
there are severe restrictions on social and economic participation. Undocumented
immigrants have limited employment options, relatively few workplace protections, and
inadequate access to recourse when their rights are violated. Similar patterns are seen in
other contexts. For instance, women migrating from West Java to Saudi Arabia face a
range of abuses including sexual assault, torture, and labor violations (Silvey 2006).

The threat of deportation is also signiﬁcant in many host sites. In the European
case “racial security” is a concern; in other words, there is a need to protect “white
civilizations” from non-whites, non-Christians, and non-Europeans (Fassin 20052381).
Silverstein argues: “In spite of repeated critiques of race as a scientiﬁc concept and
analytic model, race remains salient in the everyday lives of immigrants in Europe, as an
inescapable social fact whose vitality and volatility only appear to be increasing”
(20052364). He also argues that it is both cultural differences and immigrants’ “presumed
intimate relationship to mobility” that leads to racialization (20052366). Similar attitudes
and beliefs inﬂuence legislation in the US. and elected ofﬁcials often take a stern stance
on immigration in the midst of elevated concern with the issue.

Undocumented immigrants are denied numerous other beneﬁts associated with
legal residency. In the US. they cannot obtain a legitimate social security number, and
all that goes along with it is restricted as a result (housing, utilities, credit, and so on.)
Many public services are also restricted, including federal programs for low-income

families. Access to public health care services is severely limited or denied. Immigrants

213

may not be able to participate in English courses and other educational programs that
require documentation of residency.

In the US. today, elections and legislation reveal that many believe that
immigrants (particularly from Latin America) are (at least in part) to blame for
unemployment and other complex problems. Instead of addressing macro triggers,
immigrants are targeted, criticized, and in some cases hated. Media coverage of the issue
rarely (if ever) addresses the role of elites, nation-states, and transnational economic
systems behind migration processes and local socioeconomic issues. Rhetoric on the
subject rarely incorporates concern with the impacts of neoliberal frameworks and
hegemonic processes on sending countries. Likewise and related, there is virtually no
discussion of the dearth of social safety nets in both sending and receiving contexts.
Virtually absent from immigration rhetoric is the relationship between the consumption
system and transnational migration. Migrants are critiqued, and occasionally so are those
that employ them; but rarely are the roles of broad scale political, economic, and
sociocultural factors that undergird transnational labor ﬂows and consumption systems
taken into account.

The tensions between the neoliberal system and the many limitations on labor
mobility are signiﬁcant. Important in this dynamic is the consumption system. It is an
element of the neoliberal system, a mechanism that encourages labor mobility, and it
inﬂuences the responses of host countries to the ﬂow of labor. The US. consumption
system summons labor that will work for low wages and in poor conditions. Immigrant
labor has been important to high U.S. productivity (another element of the consumption

system). And immigrant services are a popular consumable, for instance in homes

214

(including nannies and gardeners), hotels, and restaurants. Despite their function in the
consumption system, the anti-immigrant barriers are many. Migrants and their families

carry the negative consequences of tensions resulting from the contradictions.

Consumption and the Family

Within this neoliberal consumption system, Salvadorans choose between meeting the
emotional needs of members (as a function of family uniﬁcation) and meeting the
consumption needs and wants of family members (at the expense of proximity). As
outlined, the geographic distance and other barriers that limit contact can stretch families
emotionally. Families are also stretched economically by employment and wage
limitations, as well as the cost of living in El Salvador. At the same time they are
immersed in a hegemonic system that links consumption and emotions. Negotiating
material needs and wants, emotional requirements, and familial integration was a
challenge for Salvadorans. References to both the economic beneﬁts and family
disintegration revealed that the tension is part of the daily lives of migrants and their
families.

Such patterns are not unique to El Salvador. Silvey (2006) found that women
from West Java migrate to Saudi Arabia because: “In strictly materialist terms, they are
forced to choose between either staying unemployed and living with their children and
spouse or giving up their contact with their families for two to three years to earn some
money” (2006224). Thus Indonesians migrate to meet subsistence needs of the family
and to “possibly also open up new consumer possibilities for them” despite negative

emotional repercussions (Silvey 2006224). For these women, migrating is something that

215

makes sense and “the migrants tend to see at least maternal absence as easily congruent
with good mothering and strong ‘family values’” (2006224). Laboring abroad provides a
means to meet the ‘needs’ of their families, especially children.

Maldovan women also choose between unemployment (in the context of increases
in the cost of living) and migration (Keough 2006). Working in Turkey augments access
to consumables for their families, including university education, large weddings, violin
lessons, home improvements, and washing machines. The women “argue that in going
abroad to work, they are selﬂessly sacriﬁcing for their children and thus are more
resourceful” (20062432). Further, the women “claimed they would not go anywhere if
things were stable in their village and if they had a job that paid enough” (20062446).
Despite personal and societal concerns with family unity, high numbers of Maldovan

women and men migrate in search of wage labor.

The challenge of prioritizing and identifying needs and wants, and also electing
how best to meet family needs and wants is made more difﬁcult by limitations on the true
mobility of that labor. In many cases, undocumented workers are severely restricted in
their capacity to return home, thereby further limiting their ability to nurture emotional

connections with children, other family members, and ﬁiends.

Criticisms in Home Countries

Still another encumbrance is born by migrants and their families because they are

frequent targets of criticism in the sending context; the critiques are many.40 In the

 

40 . . . .
At the same time and to varying degrees depending on the context and gender of the migrants, they are
also celebrated and commended for their migration. remittances. and contributions to development.

216

sending context, migrants negotiate the tension between accusations of ostentatious
consumption and the sanctioned hegemonic mechanisms that encourage (and perhaps
demand) consumption. In the El Salvador case, migrants and families were the focus of
critique while elites, who played greater roles in both the establishment of processes that
encourage migration and ostentatious consumption, were rarely if ever targeted. Many of
these same elites participated in the creation (knowingly or unknowingly) of a system
that demands ever-increasing consumption rates. Because of their monopoly on power
positions and socioeconomic institutions, they played fundamental roles in the
embedding of the dominant consumption system in El Salvador.

Transnational migrants are positioned such that they must weather the
implications of the contradictions in political and economic elite discourse and
comportment. In previous chapters, I outlined these contradictions, in particular
condemnation of remittance uses by those who beneﬁt directly from consumption. I
explained that in El Salvador, remittance receivers were criticized for using the monies to
purchase ‘wanted’ consumables, rather than ‘needed’ items. Such discourses came from
across socioeconomic strata. Some Salvadorans also criticized people for prioritizing
desires above needs (e. g., Samour 2005). Because the line between needs and wants is
unclear, such condemnations are problematic. Each individual or group deﬁnes the
categories, and sometimes sets different standards for socioeconomic groups to which
they do not themselves belong. Thus wealthy elites likely formulate conventions for
distinguishing their own needs from wants that are quite distinct from the expectations
they hold for other groups. The critique that remittances are used on consumption or

consumo, which often implies wants or luxuries, exempliﬁes this.

217

Further, migrants are scapegoats for broader social, political, and economic
patterns. This is exempliﬁed by the accusation that Salvadoran remittance recipients
have become too lazy to work. Media coverage of this issue rarely if ever included
fundamental national and transnational factors impacting labor patterns. As discussed,
wages, a lack of social safety nets, poor working conditions, and strong barriers that
prevent labor organization are fundamental to understanding Salvadoran labor patterns.
There is signiﬁcant danger of such discourses distracting from neoliberal problems and
discouraging recognition of a need for their resolution.

Similarly, a focus on the role of migration in macroeconomic problems, such as
Dutch disease in the case of El Salvador, distracts from migration triggers. Likewise,
Maldovan migrant women are held accountable for supposed social disorders that are in
fact symptoms of economic dislocations that result from the transition from a socialist
state to a neoliberal one (Keough 2006). Powerful triggers, in particular the neoliberal
development model and consumption system, are fundamental to local and transnational
conditions that encourage migration. The consequences of migration that are labeled
negative, in particular those related to remittances, are at least in part symptoms of
neoliberal frameworks and the transnational market. If those consequences are deemed
problematic, overarching factors contributing to the symptoms need to be highlighted and
addressed. Migrating and remitting are not pathologies (as the label ‘Dutch disease’
resulting from remittances implies); rather they are behaviors that represent efforts to
conform to dominant social, economic, and political ideologies.

Research from other contexts reveals the pervasiveness of these patterns of

critiques. In particular, they reveal the ways that critiques are gendered. Parrer’ias’

218

(2005) work in the Philippines documents a series of ‘problems’ that have been attributed
to migration. Migration from the Philippines is a response to deﬁcits in public services,
unemployment, and low salaries. However, it is migrant mothers who are criticized, in a
number of arenas, for failing their families. Academics and media sources “assert that
children growing up in the Philippines without their parents, particularly their mothers,
are prone to delinquency and declining moral values, particularly materialism” (2005:39).
These conclusions, Parrer‘ias argues, are not backed by scientiﬁc evidence. In fact, her
data suggests that transnational migration does not “necessarily lead to extreme cases of
emotional disturbance and delinquency among children” (2005239). This research makes
transparent patterns of critiquing migrants and migration for supposed social ills while
the factors encouraging migration, in particular the negative impacts of debt payments on
the country’s public expenditures, are not addressed. Neither are other socioeconomic
and political patterns of inequalities including gender disparities, that exist in the
Philippines and at the transnational level.

Silvey found similar patterns in West Java. She notes that activists and policy-
makers refer to family disintegration and divorce as the “costs to the family” of women’s
migration (2006233). Silvey argues that in fact, migrants and their families are paying the
price for development and modernity (2006235 ). Migrant women in Maldova are also
blamed for social disorder (Keough 2006). They are “represented as irresponsible
mothers, immoral wives, and selﬁsh consumers” (20062432). Local narratives on the
topic also reveal the belief “that women and not men are at fault for a man’s drinking and
philandering, the abandonment of children, the break up of families, and even the

dissolution of their communities” (20062445).

219

Such patterns of critique are also found regarding in-country migration. Ngai’s
work reveals that women who migrate to cities in China are verbally and non-verbally
critiqued and discriminated against when they try to participate fully in the urban
consumption system. In China, the state encourages consumption by extending holiday
breaks so people can “travel, shop, and enjoy a restaurant meal” (20032471). In other
words, Chinese citizens are encouraged to use leisure time for consumption. However,
rural to urban migration, as part of efforts to participate in the consumption system, does
not result in recognition of migrants as “the ideal consumer-citizen” (20032472). Rather,
the factory workers are thought by some to be “aping a position of apparent mastery”
(20032472). Ngai argues: “The privilege of global capital and global consumption over
labor and place-based production is always ideological and works to mask social
distinctions, class inequalities, and class grievances, though it is not powerful enough to
shatter class formation” (20032473). For example, an insult thrown at the factory workers
when they visited a theme park, communicated the view that the women are “abject
subjects who should remain in their factories and not wander into places where they
clearly did not belong” (20032485). The women encounter similar hurniliations in other
contexts, including hair salons and busses. These examples demonstrate general
characteristics of sending country critiques, as well as the gendered blame aimed at

migrants.

Questions and Concerns

A series of questions is illuminated through the analysis presented here. To begin,

greater documentation of elite consumption beliefs and behaviors, as well as

220

interpretations of consumption, is needed. The call to attend to the top echelons of
society is not new, but the access points continue to be limited. Nevertheless, the issue of
consumption demands analysis from all vantage points. For instance, what are the
variables that inﬂuence how people classify consumables as needs or wants, and what can
we learn about the disciplinarian functions of socioeconomic reference groups?

Similarly, how does religion inﬂuence consumption discourse and behavior?
Research on consumption in New Guinea, for instance, showed how a popular Christian
youth group aimed to help young people negotiate “a rapidly changing contemporary
world of compelling material desires and elusive satisfactions” (Gewertz and Errington
19962486). In the context of El Salvador, where religion has an important history and
currently holds signiﬁcant power, this consumption—religion link demands exploration.
Preliminary evidence from San Salvador suggests that religion can play an important role
in shaping the consumption system. A Salvadoran evangelical group, Iglesia Elim, sets
limits in this arena. For instance, women are not permitted to wear make-up and cannot
wear slacks—only dresses or skirts. At the same time, the two largest churches in El
Salvador encourage consumption in varying ways and to varying degrees. The
evangelical church, Tabemaculo Bautista Amigos de Israel (commonly referred to as
TOBY), encourages participation in the consumption system. For instance, at a Father’s
Day celebration, the church gave away six televisions to fathers in the parish, as well as
car CD players. TOBY is a large and powerful institution and the ruling political party,
ARENA, has a number of ties to the church. Similarly, the Catholic Church has a chapel
in the opulent Galerias mall. Services are held during the lunch hour most days of the

week. Whether or not this is deliberate, the presence of the chapel in the mall is a

221

powerful symbol. The location sanctions the space that surrounds it. The chapel’s
location also blurs the distinction between religion and consumption, praying and
shopping.

Another under-explored area is that of private credit in poorer countries in
general, and El Salvador in particular. Public debt in poorer countries and payments on
debts to international lending bodies is frequently discussed, but relatively little research
has explored the debts of households and individuals in these contexts. We need further
documentation of present patterns and their implications. How are beliefs and behaviors
related to credit and debt also sociocultural ideologies embedded within economic and
consumption systems? And what are the webs of power and hegemony within this
system?

I have introduced the topic of gender differences in expectations of meeting the
emotional and economic needs of children. More research is needed across disciplines to
understand the (in)effectiveness of consumables in communicating love. Can a parent’s
inability to provide certain consumables be interpreted as a sign of a deﬁcit of love?
What are the differences in expectations of fathers versus mothers? For instance, on
Father’s Day, a television show in El Salvador ran a segment where children were asked,
“what is it to be a father?” One boy said that his dad works. The interviewer asked if he
wants his dad to work more and the boy replied afﬁrmatively. When asked why, the boy
replied, “so that we will have more money.” The roles of mothers and fathers in the
consumption system, and gendered consumption patterns more generally, require greater
attention. Such analysis will further illuminate the symbolisms inherent in the dominant

consumption system, as well as limitations of consumables.

222

Concludimg. Though_ts

Salvadoran transnational migration, consumption, and neoliberal development are
interrelated processes. Analysis of their linkages reveals serious contradictions and
tensions that are problematic in many ways and for many groups. Migrants and their
families are one key group negatively impacted by these problems.

The research and analysis expose important processes and interrelationships. In
doing so, it helps to meet the need for “detailed historical maps of the circuits of power”
(Kaplan 19942148 cited in Radcliffe 2001). As Sklair states, “Globalization is driven by
identiﬁable actors working through institutions they own and/or control” (200121). This
dissertation also makes transparent the power of the socially created consumption system.
While forms and degrees of engagement vary, emersion in the system is encouraged by
the cumulative effect of the mechanisms of reproduction. People from across
socioeconomic strata are drawn into the system resulting in replication and reiﬁcation.
Certain individuals and groups do hold substantial power within the system, but these
individuals and groups are part of the same system, thus motivated and inspired by the
same promises of satisfaction, happiness, and status. By exploring these topics, the
dissertation provides critical baseline data on the consumption system in San Salvador.

A signiﬁcant ﬁnding of this work is that migrants and their families face the
fallout arising from tensions between the neoliberal demand for mobile labor markets
versus the impediments and resistance against labor mobility. They are a group trapped
between the powers of the consumption system and exclusion from that system. The
effort to deal with the latter contradiction results in their being positioned unfavorably

within the former contradiction. Transnational migrants and their families also struggle

223

to negotiate the needs and wants of their families. And lastly, a series of harmful and
distracting criticisms and judgments are aimed at migrants and their families in both the
sending communities and receiving countries. In the case of receiving communities in
particular, these ways of thinking also foster harmful practices.

In this dissertation, I focus on the burdens born by transnational migrants and
their families given certain power circuits and the interrelationships between several
processes and systems. In my view, the data and analysis reveal problems, inequities,
and injustices. Further, I show that the gaze is frequently misdirected, such as in the case
of scapegoating migrants in both sending and receiving contexts. A key aim of this work
is to make such patterns more transparent with the hope that it can in some way

contribute to rectifying injustices.

224

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