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Based on qualitative data drawn from Latino elites, Latino entrepreneurs, and two Latino banks in Los Angeles, we theorize the concept of ethnoracial capitalism , which occurs within racialized groups when group members commodify ethnicity through the sale of culturally-specific goods or when institutions and services are imbued with ethnicity and assumed to form the basis of profitable financial exchanges. We investigate why Latino elites establish Latino-centric banks, and we draw on the perspectives of Latino-elites and middle- and upper-class entrepreneurs to examine whether shared ethnoracial and class resources breed solidarity between Latino elite-owned and -operated banks and the Latino entrepreneurs they target. We find that structural constraints, the state, and class conflict thwarts the possibility of sustaining banking practices rooted in ethnoracial solidarity. Our research provides insights into the fraught intra-ethnic relationships that can occur within ethnoracial capitalistic endeavors that are situated within racist racial projects, such as the U.S. banking system. Ultimately, the sole presence of capital and ethnic financial institutions in minoritized communities does not remedy economic inequalities born of White supremacist racial projects and racially stratified systems, such as U.S. financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2000, Latinos superseded blacks as the largest racial/ethnic minority group in the US, comprising nearly 13 percent of the US population, and by 2050, demographers estimate that their population will have reached 25 percent. Given the size and growth of the Latino population, an important sociological concern is the extent to which the adult children of Latino immigrants incorporate into the US social structure. Focusing on the largest ethnic Latino group, Mexicans (and specifically, the Mexican middle class), this article studies one aspect of the incorporation process - the extent to which they 'give back' to co-ethnics. Based on 40 face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 1.5- and second-generation middle-class Mexicans, the study finds that those who grew up poor and achieved middle-class status within one generation exhibit a collectivist orientation, and 'give back' to poorer kin, co-ethnics and the larger ethnic community. By contrast, those who grew up in middle-class households adopt an individualistic orientation, and display patterns of giving back that closely resemble those of white, middle-class nuclear families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]