Abstract
This article investigates an understudied topic, namely the meaning of owning a mobile home among first- and second-generation Latino/a immigrants in the USA. In mainstream North American culture, living in a mobile home is stigmatized and not typically associated with membership in the middle class. However, in this paper, I argue that Latino/a research participants, individually and collectively, construct a counter-narrative in which mobile home ownership functions as a symbolic marker of upward social mobility and personal success. I conclude that investigating the meaning of mobile home ownership within the context of immigration facilitates new insights regarding the conceptions of home and home making in general. The paper is based on an analysis of 22 in-depth interviews conducted in four mobile home parks near Florida’s Central Gulf Coast. These interviews, completed between 2008 and 2010, were part of a larger study on issues of identity, community, and disaster in Florida mobile home parks.
Published Version
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