In this remarkable study, María Luisa Amado relies on twelve years of intensive fieldwork among street vendors in Panama City, Panama. With keen insight and a sure hand, she brings us into their lives, their woes, and their small triumphs at the core of the informal Panamanian economy. Like her earlier book on Mexican immigrants in the Atlanta labor market, this book offers rich descriptive interview materials interpreted through a solid theoretical framework. It documents, at the ground level, protracted struggles over urban space in an era of neoliberal economic reform, gentrification, and expanding tourism. But this is not a book about Panama alone; its themes and analyses are applicable globally, to every urban locale where the informal economy sustains a sizable portion of the population.

John Boli, professor emeritus, Emory University

A thoughtful and compelling insight into the lives of Panamanian street traders who face multiple layers of socio-spatial exclusion.

Verónica Crossa Niell, El Colegio de México