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LOS JARDINEROS DE LOS ANGELES:
SUBURBAN MAINTENANCE GARDENING AS A PATHWAY TO FIRST AND
SECOND GENERATION MEXICAN IMMIGRANT MOBILITY
by
Hernan Ramirez
_______________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(SOCIOLOGY)
August 2011
Copyright 2011 Hernan Ramirez
Object Description
| Title | Los jardineros de Los Angeles: suburban maintenance gardening as a pathway to first and second generation Mexican immigrant mobility |
| Author | Ramirez, Hernan |
| Author email | hernanra@usc.edu;hramirezphd@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Sociology |
| School | College of Letters, Arts And Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-03-02 |
| Date submitted | 2011-08-02 |
| Date approved | 2011-08-03 |
| Restricted until | 2011-08-03 |
| Date published | 2011-08-03 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Messner, Michael A. Sanchez, George J. |
| Abstract | This dissertation is the first in-depth study of the Mexican immigrant men who work as suburban maintenance gardeners throughout Los Angeles. Specifically, it is an interview-based study of social mobility among first-generation Mexican immigrant gardeners, or jardineros, and among their U.S.-born young adult children. In it, I ask several key questions, including: Is there a false distinction between entrepreneurship and manual labor? And what can account for the remarkable degree of social mobility that some Mexican immigrant gardeners and their young adult children can experience? After reviewing of the history of this immigrant occupational niche in Los Angeles, I find that self-employed jardineros can earn relatively high incomes through their maintenance gardening routes. The profitability of their routes rests upon several key factors, including: (1) self-exploitation; (2) the exploitation of co-ethnic employees; (3) the exploitation of unpaid family labor; (4) the routine practice of taking on “extra” jobs; and (5) the reselling of plants and other garden materials to clients at marked-up prices. Meanwhile, some of the factors that contribute to the social mobility of the children of jardineros include: (1) work ethic lessons; (2) the positive mechanism of keeping kids occupied with gardening work or under close supervision; (3) fathers’ social capital and know-how; (4) being able to afford good schools; and (5) homeownership. The findings of this study challenge taken-for-granted notions about the fate of Mexican immigrant workers with low levels of human capital as well as the fate of their U.S.-born young adult children. Moreover, the suburban maintenance gardening niche combines elements of ethnic entrepreneurship and subjugated service work in a way that has not been accounted for in the literature on immigrant entrepreneurs. |
| Keyword | immigrant entrepreneurship; ethnic entrepreneurship; manual labor; Mexican migration; social mobility; Los Angeles; second generation; intergenerational mobility; Mexican Americans; maintenance gardening; landscaping; gender and work; Mexican immigrant men |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m |
| Rights | Ramirez, Hernan |
| Access conditions | The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given. |
| Repository name | University of Southern California Digital Library |
| Repository address | USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 7002, 106 University Village, Los Angeles, California 90089-7002, USA |
| Repository email | cisadmin@usc.edu |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume71/etd-RamirezHer-244.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | LOS JARDINEROS DE LOS ANGELES: SUBURBAN MAINTENANCE GARDENING AS A PATHWAY TO FIRST AND SECOND GENERATION MEXICAN IMMIGRANT MOBILITY by Hernan Ramirez _______________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (SOCIOLOGY) August 2011 Copyright 2011 Hernan Ramirez |
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