A01=J. Buchenau
Author_J. Buchenau
Category=JBFH
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
History
Product details
- ISBN 9780826330888
- Weight: 431g
- Dimensions: 164 x 227mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jun 2004
- Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The history of Casa Boker, one of the first department stores in Mexico City, and its German owners provides important insights into Mexican and immigration history. Often called 'the Sears of Mexico', Casa Boker has become over the past 140 years one of Mexico's foremost wholesalers, working closely with US and European exporters and eventually selling 40,000 different products across the republic, including sewing machines, typewriters, tools, cutlery, and even insurance. Like Mexico itself, Casa Boker has survived various economic development strategies, political changes, the rise of US influence and consumer culture, and the conflicted relationship between Mexicans and foreigners. Casa Boker thrived as a Mexican business while its owners clung to their German identity, supporting the Germans in both world wars. Today, the family speaks German but considers itself Mexican. Buchenau's study transcends the categories of local vs. foreign and insider vs. outsider by demonstrating that one family could be commercial insiders and, at the same time, cultural outsiders. Because the Bokers saw themselves as entrepreneurs first and Germans second, Buchenau suggests that transnational theory, a framework previously used to illustrate the fluidity of national identity in poor immigrants, is the best way of describing this and other elite families of foreign origin.
Jurgen Buchenau is associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He is the author of ""In the Shadow of the Giant: The Making of Mexico's Central America Policy, 1876-1930"".
