Latino families and socialization

Significance: Family relations and socialization patterns of Latinos affect relations between this group and non-Latinos as well as Latinos’ survival and upward mobility in the United States. These patterns also influence intergenerational relations and well-being within Latino families.

The implications of family and socialization among Latinos is especially significant to racial and ethnic relations in the United States because Latinos are the fastest-growing populations in the nation. The group known as Latinos encompasses numerous subgroups traceable to various regions of the Americas and the Caribbean and a wide range of socioeconomic, cultural, and national backgrounds. Generalizations about such a diverse group therefore will not apply to many groups and individuals who are Latinos. Nonetheless, some common family characteristics and socialization patterns exist among the major Latino groups in the United States: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans. These patterns of commonality are a result of similar historical experiences and colonial conditions, cultural continuity, proximity to or contact with their homelands, and exposure to discrimination. Therefore, although the first Mexicans became Americans through annexation of northern Mexico, Puerto Ricans through their commonwealth status and political territorial relationship with the United States, and Cubans through their arrival as refugees, each group had to survive and adapt to a dramatically different social, cultural, political, and economic context in the United States. These historical conditions generated common family characteristics and socialization patterns.

Family Characteristics

Although Latino families are in flux, continuing to adapt, families in the major Latino groups can be characterized in terms of familism, extended kin structures, myths of machismo, and biculturalism. “Familism” refers to the priority placed on the family as opposed to individual interests. Family unity is believed to be central to life among many Latino families. In addition to this emphasis on family solidarity, sociologist Maxine Baca Zinn identifies other dimensions of familism among Mexican families regarding family size (demographic familism), multigenerational households (structural familism), and interaction in kinship networks (behavioral familism). These additional dimensions of familism explain the prevalence of extended kin structures among Latino families, which often provide emotional and financial support. Extended family formations also extend to nonrelatives or fictive-kin. The compadrazgo system, for example, establishes relations between parents and godparents or coparents, further locating the Latino family within a larger network of support and reciprocity. In addition, respeto (respect and support for elders) remains a viable value within the extended family structure. This is an important indicator of multigenerational relations, which is central to the extended family structure.

Extended family structures are also central to generating economic resources among Cubans, in spite of blocked financial opportunities within mainstream markets of the United States. Using these extended family structures, Cuban exiles in the early 1960s generated funds for investment within ethnic enclaves. In this way, kinship relations extended to the communal level, creating ethnic communities and generating upward mobility.

Although popular notions describe Latino families as the epitome of patriarchy, authoritarianism, and machismo, more recent research suggests that Latino families are no more patriarchal than mainstream American families. In fact, Latino families continue to move toward egalitarian familial relations as Latinas continue to achieve higher familial status from their labor force participation and control of the household. Sociologist and legal scholar Alfredo Mirande dispels many myths of Latino masculinity by showing some aspects of Latino male sensitivity, emotional expression, and egalitarian family relations between Chicanos and Chicanas.

Although Latino families in the United States maintain cultural continuity, they undergo a hybridization process, incorporating new cultural forms into their traditional culture to adapt to changing social conditions. Therefore, Latino families are neither equivalent to mainstream American families nor replicas of traditional families in their homelands. For example, Puerto Rican studies professor Hector Carrasquillo describes the innovative strategy of fusing mainland US values and the English language with traditional Puerto Rican culture and the Spanish language. A similar process of hybridization also seems evident among Chicanos in the Southwest.

Socialization and Psychological Well-Being

The complex history of racial and ethnic relations that shaped Latino family characteristics can affect socialization and individual well-being. Social work professors Andres G. Gil and William A. Vega noted the important role of the family in buffering stress associated with immigrant adaptation among Cuban and Nicaraguan families. They showed that low family cohesion was related to parent-child conflicts and poor adolescent self-esteem in the context of acculturation pressures.

Social scientists Kathleen Ethier and Kay Deaux explored the experiences of Hispanic students at two predominantly white Ivy League universities and analyzed the relationships between strength of cultural background, ethnic identification, self-esteem, and perceptions of threat to Hispanic identity within dominant Euro-American institutions. Based on interviews, the researchers found that the majority of Hispanic students felt their ethnic identity, derived from their family socialization, was an important dimension of the self. Strength of ethnic identification was found to buffer perceived threats and to increase collective self-esteem among Hispanic students.

Exploring extended family systems, self-esteem, and support for Hispanic elderly, social work professor Juan J. Paz showed that family support is a major source of positive self-esteem for the elderly. Hispanic elders tend to hold a collective self-identity embedded in the family, and therefore, emotional and social support from the family has positive social psychological outcomes. On the other hand, researchers Robert Strom, Lydia P. Buki, and Shirley K. Strom revealed higher levels of frustration among Spanish-speaking grandparents with the English-speaking younger generations than among bilingual grandparents. This implies that cultural and language departure create negative well-being among the Mexican American elderly.

Bibliography

Ethier, Kathleen, and Kay Deaux. “Hispanics in Ivy: Assessing Identity and Perceived Threat.” Sex Roles 22.7–8 (1990): 427–40. Print.

Gil, Andres G., and William A. Vega. “Two Different Worlds: Acculturation Stress and Adaptation among Cuban and Nicaraguan Families.” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 13.3 (1996): 435–56. Print.

McAdoo, Harriette Pipes, et al. Family Ethnicity: Strength in Diversity. Newbury Park: Sage, 1993. Print.

Mirande, Alfredo. Hombres y Machos: Masculinity and Latino Culture. Boulder: Westview, 1997. Print.

Strom, Robert, Lydia P. Buki, and Shirley K. Strom. “Intergenerational Perceptions of English Speaking and Spanish Speaking Mexican-American Grandparents.” International Journal of Aging and Human Development 45.1 (1997): 1–21. Print.

Taylor, Ronald L., ed. Minority Families in America: A Multicultural Perspective. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 1998. Print.