Racialized discourses, prestige and consumption: Saga Falabella and the colonization of the imaginary in North Lima (period 2010-2018)

Abstract

This article aims to analyze whether the the perception of prestige and the purchase motivations of the consumers of the transnational Saga Falabella in North Lima respond to an imaginary, according to various authors, still colonized, promoted by the advertising discourse of the aforementioned company. Our hypothesis suggests that these purchase motivations would be related to the prevalence of certain racial elements of the colonial heritage, circumscribed by a desire to improve the race. The development of our argument consists of four parts. The first corresponds to an analysis of the commercial discourse of Saga Falabella and if it is articulated with a certain whitening utopia, taking up categories used in Peruvian academic production. Secondly, it will be analyzed the transformation processes of the last decades in North Lima through their imaginary and, particularly, their consumption habits. In the third section it will be analyzed the current social imaginary of the inhabitants of North Lima and its relationship with other factors such as racism, classism and aspirationality. Finally, the conclusions are presented, where we will argue that today North Lima is in a complex process, where the consumption motivations are still influenced by some racial elements of the colonial heritage, while new attitudes towards consumption are being developed, which pursue youth-global, nationalist tendencies and where the racial factor is presumably no longer (the most) relevant.