The problem of an underdeveloped Mexican-American business class has traditionally been examined from an organizational perspective. This article examines for the first time the formation of a business class in a traditional southwestern city from an ideological perspective. In many of the cities of the Southwest, old business elites have been almost completely replaced by a new elite, in contrast to the continuity of development of elites for other social groups. This basic problem forms the core of the analysis, which is based on archival and interview data. Two generations of business elites in Tucson, Arizona, are examined-the generation that roughly spanned the period 1880 to 1950 and the contemporary generation. The study shows that the existence of twso normative enclaves for Mexican ancestry entrepreneurs, one based on mainstream capitalism and the other ont traditional cuilture, has complicated the lives of both the old and thle new elites.
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