Focus on the Family

One of the keys to success in any educational setting is a strong support group to go back home to when a student is in distress.  The question that is poised is: How homogeneous are Latino families as a whole?

With Puerto-Rican Americans, Cuban Americans, South American, and Mexican Americans, Latinos in America are a unique group of individuals that have a wide variety of family structures and environments.  Much of the variance in these families are effected by the level of poverty usually for Latinos being largely in a lower socioeconomic condition than their White and Black counterparts.  Francis Fukuyama's (2001) research  showed that with this poverty, many effects such as single parent households, a higher rate of birth defects, increased drug and alcohol problems, and impoverished living conditions. Though while living largely in poverty, Latino Americans hold a strong work ethic to improve their condition and a devotion to their families (p. 3).

When examining the stigma of the traditional Latino family it is often characterized as a male dominated household.  In Maria's case, being Mexican American, this is slightly altered with the woman being on a pedestal but at the same time thought of as weak.  In Glenn Hawkes and Minna Taylor's (1975) research, they looked  into seeing if this stereotype holds true to the culture.  What was found is that Mexican American families are affected by how connected with they are to their heritage and how acculturated they were to the homogeneous customs and culture (p. 809-810).  For the most part, families are structured as more egalitarian or equal. Both the male and female share power and decision making. Bilingual families were "more likely to be wife-dominated and less...egalitarian" (p. 810).  Urbanization is another factor that controls family structure.  A family that lives with a large Latino population compared to a family living in a White neighborhood, people are more likely to conform to the family structure of their counterparts.

When looking at Maria's family, her parents can be found using more of an egalitarian system for their decision making.  Regardless of a family structure, higher education institutions must be aware of the conditions of traditional ethnic groups .  These families may not have Internet, consistent computer access, or cell phones.  Traditional mail and newsletters may be the only way to advertise to parents and students.  In these family structures, like many families, a strong role model emerges and the need to mirror this in the college setting is especially important for Latino students.  This allows for these students to have a connection to the university and support group in order to establish a foundation to build their college career upon.

Fukuyama, F. (1993). Immigrants and family values. [Electronic Version]. Commentary, 95 (5). 1-7. from EBSCOHost.

Hawkes, G.R., & Taylor, M. (1975) Power Structure in Mexican and Mexican-American Farm Labor Families [Electronic Version]. The Journal of Marriage and Family, 37(4), 807-811. from Google Scholar.