Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

2-2026

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Sociology

Advisor

Nancy Foner

Committee Members

Sharon Zukin

Philip Kasinitz

Carolina Bank-Muñoz

Krishnendu Ray

Subject Categories

Sociology

Keywords

Consumption, Ethnic Entrepreneurship, Food Studies, Immigration, Latinos

Abstract

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, there was an influx of news stories about restaurant closures as stay at home orders kept many consumers eating at home. This was especially the case in New York, an early epicenter. However, there were also businesses that were resilient and beat the odds to remain open. These businesses are the topic of my dissertation. Immigrants and their children are key small business owners in the city. I specifically look at Latino-run businesses because Latinos were among the hardest hit in Covid-19 cases and because they are one of the largest growing immigrant groups in New York City. This dissertation looks at how Latino small food business owners were able to survive the Covid-19 crisis. Specifically, I ask: what resources did Latino small food business owners rely on to survive the pandemic? To answer this question, in 2022 and 2023, I interviewed 39 Latino small food business owners, 1 prospective Latino small food business owner, and 1 Latino restaurant manager in New York. I found that Latino small business founders had no single strategy for staying open, but rather chose a strategy based on the resources they have at their disposal. To this end, I constructed three typologies (traditionalist, enterpriser, aficionado) based on the primary capital the Latino small food business owners I interviewed relied on to survive the pandemic: social, economic, and cultural. I found that traditionalists relied on their social networks; enterprisers relied on their access to, and facility with, economic capital; and aficionados on their social networks from their education and previous employment and access to economic capital to get started, then later on their cultural knowledge and facility of social media to get through the pandemic. I argue that Latino small food business owners’ do not have a single set of motivations to run a business, but rather a diverse set of motivations which shape the strategies they employ to survive the major economic crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic. This dissertation helps reveal how small business owners make decisions in times of crisis. Overall, this study contributes to the sociology of immigration, specifically the ethnic entrepreneurship literature by showcasing a modern-day study of ethnic entrepreneurship. This study also contributes to the sociology of consumption, especially the literature on food and consumer tastes by highlighting the role of the makers of food.

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