Book Review: Carwil Bjork-James, The Sovereign Street: Making Revolution in Urban Bolivia

Abstract

found in the ethnic community of fruteros.” She explains that paisanaje (immigrants from the same hometown) grant new immigrants entry to the network of street vendors, but do not guarantee benevolence or upward mobility. Rosales avoids oversimplifying the lives of fruit vendors as either victims or villains. Instead, she showcases the complex immigrant narratives that reveal how social networks both build and bind the paisano community she studied. In Fruteros, Rosales provides rich vignettes that illustrate her arguments. Chapter 2 shows multiple paisano networks at play. She found that men who immigrated from Dos Mundos had a job as fruteros waiting for them in the United States, but these jobs have a hierarchical structure with new arrivals typically starting at the bottom as “vendor workers” (see figure 3 on page 23). The fruit vendor occupational hierarchy consists of five levels: employer, vendor-boss, independent vendor with truck, independent vendor without a truck, and a vendor worker. We can see how the “ethnic cage” both constrains and enables the movement within the vendor hierarchy, as we get to meet vendors occupying different positions. Chapter 3 shows the positive side of the paisano network by shedding light on how fruteros develop different strategies for protection. These strategies include “claiming space and building alliances; relying on paisano street patrols and alerts; building relationships with police officers to turn them from threats into resources; and performing personal, professional, and symbolic hygiene” (77). Throughout chapter 4, Rosales takes us on a journey where we witness romantic relationships, tragic accidents, fellowship and betrayal, philanthropic work through hometown associations, and informal lending practices based on “respectability” and trust. This chapter explores the private and intimate lives of the vendors living and working inside the ethnic cage. Manuel is the protagonist in chapter 5, whose arrest and deportation Rosales details to illustrate the fragility of the paisano network. We learn how Manuel’s paisano network turned against him after his arrest; in just a few months, he lost his truck, his pushcart, the respect of his paisanos, and was even kicked out of his room by his roommate and working partner. While the vignette offers a compelling argument, the reader is left wondering about less drastic signs of fragility of paisano networks. Finally, chapter 6 shows how class and status relationships in Dos Mundos are replicated in Los Angeles. Interviews with the street vendors’ relatives in Dos Mundos show that social positions occupied in the hometown are reproduced abroad, yielding new forms of inequality. This is an important contribution to the study of immigration and social networks because we can see how the life chances of immigrants embedded in social paisano networks are transnational and connected to the sending context in a dynamic manner. In other words, the premigration experience is not only important at the time of emigration, but the social relations in the sending country or town are active, in constant flux, and a continuous source of influence on the interactions happening in the United States. Rosales’s writing style is engaging, vivid, and has the unique ability to take the reader through the intimate lives of fruteros beyond their work relations. Fruteros would make a good text for courses on the informal economy, immigrant workers, and ethnographic methods. It is also written using accessible language for a general audience. The Appendix provides a thoughtful reflection of Rosales’ positionality.