Ricardo B. Contreras and David Griffith
Department of Anthropology/
The Nuevo South Community Research Initiative
East Carolina University
Southern Anthropological Society
Wilmington, March 14, 2009
Funded by the Center on Diversity and Inequality
Research and the Department of Anthropology,
East Carolina University.
In partnership with the Association of Mexicans of North
Carolina (AMEXCAN).
To identify the Latino small-businesses of
Pitt County
To characterize the social and cultural
processes, including trust and social
capital, involved in the establishment
and development of these businesses
To characterize the role Latino smallbusinesses play in their communities
Purposive sample
15 stores in Pitt County
 Tiendas
 Carnicerias
 Hair salons
 Restaurants/taquerias
 Tax services
 Store owners:
 Guanajuato
 Nayarit
 Veracruz
 Michoacan
 Guadalajara
 Tamaulipas
 Sinaloa


The creation of spaces that are comforting and the
development of loyalty and allegiances
 Developing trust ultimately benefits businesses by
securing a clientele that allows them to be
competitive
 Providing quality services and selling products that
are valued by customers builds trust.
 Trust: customers, community, other Latino business
owners, suppliers

Credit
• Compensate for lack of access to formal financial credit
• Trust is credit (crédito). “Construir crédito es que la gente
crea”.
Competition
• Vis-à-vis mainstream businesses such as Wal-Mart, Food
Lion, Family Dollar
• Vis-à-vis other Latino businesses
Clientele
• Secure clientele. Clientele is the cultural capital. “La mayoría
nos enfocamos en nuestra gente, nuestros clientes.”
“Entendemos a la gente”.
• Recommendations: “Si hace uno un buen trabajo, solo se
está recomendando.”
• The customer is a primo: “A todos les digo primo. Yo creo que
lo principal es la atención al cliente, ponerse en el lugar de
ellos…a tratar bien la gene, a ganarnos la confianza…”
Phone
cards
Quality
Direct
assistance
Products
rooted in
culture
Information
local
resources
Money
wiring
Space for
social
interaction
Cashing
checks
Culture
brokerage
role
Competence
is based on
common
experience
Trust is
multidimensionalTrust as a web
• Connect customers with services and local resources
• Bridge cultural gaps, translating and interpreting documents and
information
• Gate keeper: access to organizations sympathetic to immigrants
• Business owners’ competence in developing trust with clientele
reflects their shared life experiences.
• This common life experience is fundamental in providing quality
services (service and products valued by people). “I know what
they want because I am one of them.”
• Generally, Latino small businesses start with the help of friends,
relatives, or acquaintances. Lend money, make contacts,
facilitate processes, provide social support.
• Although not always readily acknowledged, there seems to be a
loose system of mutual support among Latino small business
owners. They meet at church and help each other on some
occasions. There is no formal organizational structure linking
them.



Further explore the multidimensionality of trust and examine
relationships of reciprocity. Systemic view.
 Customers
 Community
A system
 Latino store owners
 Suppliers
How are trust and reciprocity represented in these relationships?
 In what ways these representations differ from actor to actor?
 The web view: How do these different representations or expressions
of trust and reciprocity help to sustain the system as a whole?
Applied: Translate findings into an implementation project.
 Training?
 Mutual aid associations?
 Access to formal financial credit?
 Stores as vehicles to disseminate health information and knowledge?