“You have to look beautiful to sell”: the Senegalese production of trade spaces in Santa Maria (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)

Abstract

This paper deals with the Senegalese street sales in the city of Santa Maria (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), seeking to answer the following question: “how does the production of sale spaces by the Senegalese people, in Santa Maria, contributes to their insertion in the city’s street commerce?” Through an ethnography developed between 2016 and 2017, we propose that the production of sales spaces by these immigrants constitutes a daily practice that positively represents them in the interactions with the clientele and ethnically differentiates them from other street vendors who occupy the same social space.

Keywords
Senegalese migration; street sale; space