Spanish gold: Stereotypes, ideology, and the construction of a U.S. Latino market∗

Abstract

A textual analysis of articles in advertising trade magazines shows how the U.S. Latino population was transformed from an “invisible market”; into “Spanish gold”; through the redefinition, but not the elimination, of traditional stereotypes: though basic elements of the stereotypes persist, values useful to advertisers are now assigned to the stereotyped ascriptions and behaviors. The analysis also shows that existing stereotypes of marginalized groups constrain and shape market recognition of minorities; that is, the market is ideological. Finally, the advertising trade press's attempts at defining a “Latino market”; can be seen as an exercise in what Omi and Winant have called “racial formation”;: “the process by which social, economic and political forces determine the content and importance of racial categories, and by which they are in turn shaped by racial meanings.”;