This master’s report presents a literary criticism of the novel ¡Caramba! by Nina Marie Martínez that attends to both genre and mass culture theory. The novel, when recognized as a multigenre text consisting of both chick lit and Chicano literature conventions, reveals how informal economies employ methods of cultural appropriation in order to articulate an oppositional voice. In particular, Martinez’s literary intervention of the trademark symbol subverts dominant forms of consumption (and genre) to expose how her protagonists emerge as subjective, discerning consumers in her fictional Californian town. / text