Pachangas: Borderlands Music, U.S. Politics, and Transnational Marketing

SIX: Ace Hardware: National Corporate Marketers Learn How the Locals Do It

Ace Hardware S I X National Corporate Marketers Learn How the Locals Do It Hispanics are a major market force out there, and more of corporate America is gearing to go after this share because of growth. [We are] doing a major association with Broadway and Ace. The Tejano music industry is growing dramatically. The death of Selena put it into a stall, but it grew dramatically. Everyone is going after Hispanic market share. Ace is not doing enough advertising catered to the Hispanic market. . . . Ace has committed to analyze this. [I/We] want them to affiliate with the Pulido family from the Valley. [The] tradition of Hispanic [is] very family, and Pulido is all family. —a hardware marketer, november 2000 This statement anticipates the process of a group of national corporate officers and marketers learning about and making plans for their next campaign. Central to this process is a discourse about Hispanic market share in which music and family play a prominent role. The commentary above shows marketers beginning to understand the area’s potential: “This is a market with money. How do we reach them?” The sophisticated discourse of marketers in South Texas demonstrates their ability not just to reach markets but to make them. Advertising is metaculture, and this chapter concerns the process of advertising and building markets—i.e., transmitting metaculture and carving out publics. I show marketers creating markets for fellow marketers and their use of pachangas to do so. Their story begins with a pachanga spectacle. Spectacle is something that people look at, not participate in, and this is part of the shift in how marketers deploy pachangas. Four Days until Election Day—Friday,October 3,2000 County Judge Eloy Pulido arranged for us to meet at Broadway Hardware in McAllen to follow up on our interview two days earlier. Around 11 a.m., I pulled into a hardware superstore wondering why a county judge would spend five hours in such a place. I walked past workers rearranging items such as fertilizer and looked without luck for the judge. Doubts stirring, I asked a worker if he knew about Judge Pulido’s event. He looked blank and called over an assistant manager, who explained that Pulido had already been there last week. He explained that the Broadway Hardware in Edinburg was hosting an event today and that he might be there. Relieved, but running late, I exited into the ninety-degree heat and drove half an hour to the store a block away from Edinburg’s courthouse and town square. PA C H A N G A # 1 : T E A C H I N G A C E This event was a true twenty-first-century circus. Immediately upon turning east of the square, I heard the music. Two black vans with neon pinkand -green radio call signs stood at the front of the parking lot with speakers facing multiple directions. Beside the trucks a couple of young men with microphones emceed the live broadcast. Their rapid banter flashed between Norte ño songs, inviting (in Spanish) the community to join them at the Broadway Hardware pachanga right off of the square in Edinburg, featuring a raffle and fajitas (a tortilla filled with meticulously barbecued beef and pico de gallo— a chunky hot sauce made of tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and jalapeños). Circling the full parking lot, I caught the glorious scent of marinated beef grilling over mesquite wood. I finally parked and walked toward the large blue-andwhite -striped tent, which was filled with heavy black cast-iron barbecue pits (not to be confused with the lightweight butane pits found in the Midwest). Outside of the tent perched two trailers ready to serve fajitas and soft drinks. Anxious to get away from the heat, loud music, and smoke, I entered the store. I met the South Texas general manager of Broadway Hardware and representatives from Ace’s national field office and media marketing teams. I learned that this was not just an event to generate local, regional, and transborder excitement about hardware, but also a display for Ace Hardware’s corporate office, which flew down a team of planners and marketers highly interested in learning more about Hispanic marketing and transborder sales. 148 Pachangas This live-music event was the grand finale of their field trip before returning to their regional and national offices in...