Cross-generational prosodic convergence in South Texas Spanish

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip M. Carter ◽  
Tonya Wolford
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
South Texas ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Variability Index ◽  
The Cross

This study investigates variation in the prosodic system of Spanish in the speech of three generations of Mexican Americans living in a Mexican American-majority community in South Texas, United States, characterized by high levels of bilingualism and long-term, sustained contact between languages. Low and Grabe’s (1995) Pairwise Variability Index was used to quantify prosodic rhythm in the Spanish and the English of community members across generations in order to: (1) assess differences between contact and non-contact varieties of Spanish, (2) investigate the cross-generational stability of prosodic rhythm in the community, and (3) ascertain the type of influence from English, if any, on Spanish prosody. Findings show that while the oldest generations maintain separate systems of rhythm in Spanish and English, the youngest generation demonstrates prosodic convergence.

Grammatical change in borderlands Spanish: A variationist analysis of copula variation and progressive expansion in a South Texas bilingual enclave community

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Phillip M. Carter ◽  
Tonya E. Wolford
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
South Texas ◽  
Grammatical Change ◽  
Bilingual Communities

Abstract This study investigates variation in the grammatical system of Spanish in the speech of three generations of Mexican Americans living in a community in South Texas, United States, characterized by high levels of bilingualism and long-term, sustained contact between languages. Two variables are studied using quantitative methods: (1) the extension of the copula verb estar into domains traditionally confined to ser and (2) the expansion of progressive forms at the expense of the simple present. The data reported here suggest changes-in-progress that appear to be accelerated by the linguistic and sociocultural conditions of the community including, especially, lack of access to formal education in Spanish. The sociolinguistic patterning for these variables is compared to patterning for the same variables reported in the literature in both monolingual communities in Spain and Latin America and bilingual communities in the United States.

Good Neighbor in the American Historical Imagination: Mexican American Intellectual Thought in the Fight for Civil Rights, 1930s–1940s

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Mendoza
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Historical Imagination ◽  
American Intellectual ◽  
Good Neighbor

Abstract This article argues that historical narrative has held a significant role in Mexican American identity formation and civil rights activism by examining the way Mexican Americans in the 1930s and 1940s used history to claim full citizenship status in Texas. In particular, it centers on how George I. Sánchez (1906–1972), a scholar of Latin American education, revised historical narrative by weaving history and foreign policy together through a pragmatic lens. To educators and federal officials, Sánchez used this revisionist history to advocate for Mexican Americans, insisting that the Good Neighbor policy presented the United States with the chance to translate into reality the democratic ideals long professed in the American historical imagination. The example of Sánchez also prompts us to reexamine the historiography in our present day: How do we define the tradition and trajectory of Mexican American intellectual thought in U.S. history? This article posits that when Sánchez and other Mexican Americans thought about their community’s collective identity and civil rights issues through history, they were contributing to a longer conversation driven by questions about identity formation and equality that first emerged at the end of the U.S. War with Mexico in 1848. These questions remain salient in the present, indicating the need for a historiographic examination that will change how we imagine the tradition of intellectual thought in the United States.

scholarly journals Biological Risk and Infection Profiles of Young Adult Male Mexican American Gang Members

2018 ◽  
Vol 133 (5) ◽  
pp. 551-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Cepeda ◽  
Kathryn M. Nowotny ◽  
Jessica Frankeberger ◽  
Jarron M. Saint Onge ◽  
Avelardo Valdez
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Density Lipoprotein ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Risk Indicators ◽  
Risk Scores ◽  
Biological Risk ◽  
Adjusted Risk

Objectives: Little research has examined the long-term health consequences of gang affiliation among Mexican Americans. The objectives of this study were to (1) measure biological indicators of cardiovascular and metabolic risk, as well as prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), in a sample of Mexican American men aged 25-40 who were affiliated with gangs as adolescents and (2) compare those indicators with a comparable national sample of Latino men. Methods: Using bivariate analyses, we compared blood pressure, body mass index, 4 metabolic and cardiovascular indicators, and 4 infections for 179 Mexican American formerly gang-affiliated men in San Antonio, Texas, and 155 Mexican American men from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We used multivariate models to estimate adjusted risk scores for each sample controlling for age, marital status, and education. Results: Compared with men in the national sample, the unadjusted results showed that men in the gang-affiliated sample had significantly higher mean systolic blood pressure (125.6 vs 120.0  mm Hg, P = .001), diastolic blood pressure (81.4 vs 71.1 mm Hg, P < .001), and C-reactive protein (5.9 vs 3.6 mg/L, P = .04), and a significantly lower mean total cholesterol (164.2 vs 205.5 mg/dL, P < .001) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (91.1 vs 120.1 mg/dL, P < .001). Compared with men in the national sample, more men in the gang-affiliated sample had herpes simplex virus type 2 (64/174 [36.8%] vs 18/147 [12.2%], P < .001), chlamydia (10/176 [5.7%] vs 1/135 [0.7%], P = .02), and hepatitis C virus (85/173 [49.1%] vs 0, P < .001). The gang-affiliated sample had a significantly higher adjusted risk score than the national sample (1.5 vs 1.1, P = .003). Conclusions: Gang-affiliated Mexican American men had significant disparities in biological risk indicators and STIs, which can lead to long-term health implications and highlight the need for tailored prevention strategies. Long-term exposure to psychosocial stressors and subsequent systemic inflammation may also increase the risk for physiological and psychological dysregulation and detrimental chronic health conditions in this population.

Interests Not Passions: Mexican-American Attitudes toward Mexico, Immigration from Mexico, and Other Issues Shaping U.S.-Mexico Relations

1998 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodolfo O. De La Garza ◽  
Louis DeSipio
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
United States Mexico

As Mexico has become more significant to the United States in the past decade, political leaders on both sides of the border have raised questions regarding the role that the Mexican-origin population of the United States will play in U.S.-Mexico relations. Will they become, as many Americans fear and Mexican officials hope, an ethnic lobby mobilized around policy issues affecting Mexico? Or will they abandon home-country political interests while maintaining a strong cultural identity? This article examines Mexican-American attitudes toward Mexico and toward the public policy issues that shape United States-Mexico relations. Our analysis suggests that Mexican Americans have developed policy attitudes that diverge from those of Mexico. Yet, the relationships of Mexican Americans to the United States and to Mexico are sufficiently volatile to suggest caution in concluding that Mexican Americans will take no role in shaping relations between the two countries.

Self-Reports of Spousal Violence in a Mexican-American and Non-Hispanic White Population

1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan B. Sorenson ◽  
Cynthia A. Telles
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spousal Violence ◽  
Mexican American Women ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Hispanic White

As part of a survey of Los Angeles households, 1,243 Mexican Americans and 1,149 non-Hispanic whites were surveyed about their experiences of spousal violence. Questions to assess violence included both perpetration (whether they had been physically violent toward a partner) and victimization (whether they had been the victim of sexual assault by a partner). Over one-fifth (21.2%) of the respondents indicated that they had, at one or more times in their lives, hit or thrown things at their current or former spouse or partner. Spousal violence rates for Mexican Americans born in Mexico and non-Hispanic whites born in the United States were nearly equivalent (20.0% and 21.6%, respectively); rates were highest for Mexican Americans born in the United States (30.9%). While overall rates of sexual assault were lower for Mexican Americans, one-third of the most recent incidents reported by Mexico-born Mexican-American women involved the husband and approximated rape.

Folk Medicine Among Urban Mexican Americans: Cultural Persistence, Change, and Displacement

1981 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Emley Keefe
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Folk Medicine ◽  
South Texas ◽  
Scientific Medicine ◽  
Cultural Persistence ◽  
Depth Interviews

Two large-scale surveys and in-depth interviews with 24 Mexican Americans in three Southern California towns indicate that folk medicine is a persistent but ancillary health care system. Most Mexican Americans know something about folk medicine, but fewer maintain strong belief in it and only a small number of Mexican Americans consult folk healers. Scientific medicine is the primary health/mental health system, having replaced in large part the folk medical system. Folk medicine endures as an alternative, however, primarily in the treatment of health problems that are judged minor and require little extrafamilial attention or that are judged severe and persist despite professional scientific health care. There is also evidence that folk medical terms and treatments have changed and become integrated with scientific medicine in the minds of many Mexican Americans. The findings contrast with research in south Texas and in rural areas where folk medicine appears to be more significant for the general Mexican American population.

scholarly journals Acculturation Factors Related to Obesity of Latino American Men Nationwide

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1421-1430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy L. Ai ◽  
Hoa B. Appel ◽  
Jungup Lee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Minority Population ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Latino Paradox ◽  
Latino American ◽  
Acculturation Factors

Obesity is a public health epidemic, particularly among underrepresented populations. With a large proportion of immigrants, Latino Americans comprise the largest minority population in the United States. This study examined the association of acculturation factors with obesity among Latino American men ( n = 1,127) using the National Latino and Asian American Study. The result identified two acculturation-related factors (being U.S.-born and living in the United States for the longest period/5-10 years) as positive correlates. In contrast, a different study on obesity in Latino American women demonstrated discrimination, but not the above factors, as significant correlates. The men’s pattern suggests that the Hispanic/Latino paradox might have greater implications for men with respect to weight issues. Furthermore, Mexican American and Other Latino American men presented a greater likelihood of being obese than Cuban and Puerto Rican men. The findings, if replicated in prospective research, suggest the need for gender- and ethnic-specific intervention for obesity in Latino American men, particularly for the largest subgroup, Mexican Americans.

Procedural (In)Justice as Inclusivity and Marginalization: Evidence from a Longitudinal Sample of Mexican-American Adolescents

2021 ◽  
pp. 002242782110039
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Thompson ◽  
Theodore Wilson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
The United States ◽  
Segmented Assimilation ◽  
Group Engagement

Objectives: Treatment by law enforcement officers, as representatives of the state that interact with individual citizens, may signal to individuals their political and social inclusion within society. Hispanics, as the largest minority group in the country that oftentimes must navigate two cultural identities, may be especially sensitive to the treatment of police. We test the group engagement model’s implication that procedural justice—or lack thereof—may promote or hinder attachment to the United States and/or Mexico among Latino/a adolescents and young adults. Methods: Using a fixed effects panel design with a subsample of Mexican Americans from the Pathways to Desistance Study, we examine whether changes in subjective procedural justice evaluations of the police are related to changes in National identification. Results: Changes in procedural justice perceptions are significantly related to changes in Mexican identification, whereas procedural justice is not related to changes in Anglo identification. Although, consistent with segmented assimilation theory, the relationships between changes in procedural justice and Mexican/Anglo identification may be stronger among participants born in the United States. Conclusions: The findings are generally consistent with the group engagement model of procedural justice and suggest procedural injustice may alienate Hispanics.

scholarly journals Social Determinants of Polypharmacy in First Generation Mexican Immigrants in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 86-90
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari ◽  
Mohammed Saqib ◽  
Cheryl Wisseh ◽  
Mohsen Bazargan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Born

Introduction: Socioeconomic status (SES) indicators are among the main social determinants of health and illness. Less, however, is known about the role of SES in the epidemiology of polypharmacy in immigrant Latino Americans living in the United States. This research studied the association between three SES indicators, education, income, and employment, and polypharmacy in older first generation Latino American immigrant adults. Methods: Data was obtained from the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging (SALSA, 1996-2008). A total of 632 older first generation Mexican-American immigrants to the U.S. entered this analysis. The independent variables were education, income, and employment. Polypharmacy was the outcome. Age, gender, physical health, smoking, and drinking were the covariates. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the data. Results: Employment was associated with lower odds of polypharmacy. The association between education and polypharmacy was above and beyond demographic factors, physical health, health behaviors, and health insurance. Neither education nor income were associated with polypharmacy. Other determinants of polypharmacy were poor self-rated health (SRH) and a higher number of chronic medical conditions (CMCs). Conclusion: Employment appears to be the major SES determinant of polypharmacy in older foreign-born Mexican Americans. Unemployed older Mexican American immigrants with multiple chronic diseases and those who have poor SRH have the highest need for an evaluation of polypharmacy. Given the age group of this population, most of them have health insurance, which provides an opportunity for reducing their polypharmacy.

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