Mushroom Tacos: Multicultural Festivals and Environmental Racism in a Rural Pennsylvania Town

Abstract

ABSTRACT Advancing recent literature that critically examines multicultural efforts to generate socio-economic inclusion, this article studies how, in a small yet affluent Pennsylvania town, multicultural festivals are part of a social milieu in which Latinx immigrants face continuing erasure and exploitation – manifested in precarious health and housing conditions. Utilizing ethnographic and qualitative methods, I show that, although the town’s multicultural festivals aim to give a voice and recognize minority communities, they have in some cases contributed to an environment in which Latinx peoples have for decades been silenced and overlooked, resulting in heightened rates of health issues related to dangerous housing. From a semiotic theoretical approach, the disconnect between increasing performative-visibility and ongoing marginalization of Latinx immigrants can be explained by multicultural festivals relying upon floating signifiers, as well as issues of structural power. My findings shed light on the nuanced cultural ways that the structural social and material suffering of minoritized, immigrant populations is overlooked through the invocation of purportedly emancipatory acts, as well as the lingering effects of the structural force of White Supremacy.