Tamales on the Fourth of July: The Transnational Parish of Coeneo, Michoacán

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis E. Murillo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Case Study ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Rural Mexico

AbstractThis article traces the significant yet largely unexplored experience of transnationalism in the lived religious experiences of Mexican and Mexican American Catholics by focusing on the parish as a central unit of analysis. Within this analysis, the parish unit is rethought as an analytical unit in two important regards. First, the way in which parish life in rural Mexico has been predominately conceptualized as one whose rhythm revolves around a traditional ritual calendar centered on community celebrations of particular religious holidays and localized votive devotions needs to be replaced. Based on research from an ongoing historical case study (1890-present) of a central Mexican parish, Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Coeneo, Michoacán, and on other parishes, the rhythm of parish life has clearly shifted to celebrations of marriages and baptisms. These religious celebrations of marriages and baptisms in Mexico have become the focal point of identity and community in this transnational Mexican and Mexican American experience. These sacraments of baptism and marriage have multiple meanings that not only include universal Catholic doctrines but also notions of family, community, and a particular appreciation for the sacralized landscape of their Mexican parish. Second, notions of parish boundaries as fixed and parish affiliation as singular must be reconsidered because many Mexicans and Mexican Americans living in the United States consider themselves to be active members in at least two parishes: one in Mexico and one or more in the United States.

El tú como un “mask”: Voseo and Salvadoran and Honduran Identity in the United States

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Woods ◽  
Susana V. Rivera-Mills
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Central American ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
American Spanish ◽  
Linguistic Attitudes

AbstractThis sociolinguistic study explores linguistic attitudes of Salvadorans and Hondurans living in the United States towards the use of voseo, a distinguishing feature of Central American Spanish. Using sociolinguistic interviews and ethnographic observations, the Central American experience in Oregon and Washington is examined regarding linguistic attitudes toward voseo and tuteo and how these influence Salvadoran and Honduran identity in U.S. communities that are primarily Mexican-American. Initial findings point to participants developing ethnolinguistic masks and an expanded use of tú as a strategic approach to integration into the established Mexican-American community, while at the same time maintaining a sense of Central American identity.

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.

Chacón, Eusebio

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco A. Lomelí
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Descent ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Chicano Literature ◽  
Social Activists ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Look Back

Eusebio Chacón was a Mexican American (sometimes referred to as Chicano) figure who straddled the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is someone who was forgotten and overlooked for about eighty years within the annals of Southwestern literature. He resurfaced in the mid-1970s as a key missing link in what is now called Chicano literature, at a time when its literary lineage was blurry and unknown. He was, therefore, instrumental in allowing critics to look back into the dusty shelves of libraries to identify writers who embodied the Mexican American experience within specific moments in history. Both his person and his writings provide an important window into subjects that interfaced with identity, literary formation and aesthetics, and social conditions, as well as how such early writers negotiated a new sense of Americanism while retaining some of their cultural background. Eusebio Chacón stands out as an outstanding example of turn-of-the-century intelligence, sensibility, versatility, and historical conscience in his attempts to educate people of Mexican descent about their rightful place in the United States as writers, social activists, and cultural beings. He fills a significant void that had remained up to the mid-1970s, which reveals how writings by such Mexican American writers were considered marginal.

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.

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.

The Impact of Ethnicity and Socialization on Definitions of Democracy: The Case of Mexican Americans and Mexicans

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodolfo O. de la Garza ◽  
Muserref Yetim
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
The Political ◽  
Direct Experience ◽  
The Impact

This paper argues that Mexican American views of democracy differ significantly from those of Mexicans because of their exposure to the political institutions and culture of the United States. Our results vindicate Diamond's claim that there is no better way of developing the values, skills, and commitments of democratic citizenship than through direct experience with democracy (Diamond 1999). Equally significant is that the study demonstrates that ethnic ties do not determine political attitudes. That is, despite a shared historical background and contemporary cultural commonalities, Mexican views of democracy differ from those of Mexican Americans. Este artíículo arguye que las visiones de la democracia de los mexicano-americanos difieren significativamente de las de los mexicanos debido a su exposicióón a las instituciones de políítica y cultura de los Estados Unidos. Nuestros resultados justifican la idea de Diamond de que no hay mejor manera de desarrollar los valores, habilidades y el compromiso con una ciudadaníía democráática qua a travéés de la experiencia directa con la democracia (Diamond 1999). De igual importancia, el estudio demuestra que los lazos éétnicos no determinan las actitudes polííticas. Esto es, a pesar de compartir un trasfondo históórico y de las concordancias culturales contemporááneas, las visiones de la democracia de los mexicanos difieren de las de los mexicano-americanos.

scholarly journals Exclusive Breastfeeding Experiences among Mexican American Women

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Wambach ◽  
Elaine Williams Domian ◽  
Sallie Page-Goertz ◽  
Heather Wurtz ◽  
Kelli Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Exclusive Breastfeeding ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Breastfeeding Duration ◽  
Mexican American Women ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
American Women

Background:According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hispanic breastfeeding mothers begin early formula supplementation at higher rates than other ethnic groups, which can lead to shorter breastfeeding duration and decreased exclusive breastfeeding. Acculturation, the process of adopting beliefs and behaviors of another culture, appears to influence breastfeeding practices of Hispanic women in the United States. Little is known about Mexican American mothers’ formula use and exclusive breastfeeding within the context of acculturation.Objective:Our study identified perceived benefits and barriers to exclusive breastfeeding and levels of acculturation among Mexican American women living in a Midwestern city.Methods:We used a qualitative descriptive design integrating Pender’s Health Promotion Model concepts. Individual interviews were conducted in English or Spanish (N = 21). The revised Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans was used to examine acculturation levels.Results:Acculturation scores indicated that the majority (66%) of the sample was “very Mexican oriented.” Most women exclusively breastfed, with a few using early supplementation for “insufficient milk production.” Three themes emerged: (1) It is natural that a woman give life and also provide the best food for her baby; (2) Breastfeeding is ultimately a woman’s decision but is influenced by tradition, guidance, and encouragement; and (3) Breast milk is superior but life circumstances can challenge one’s ability to breastfeed.Conclusion:Strong familial/cultural traditions supported and normalized breastfeeding. Barriers to exclusive breastfeeding were similar to breastfeeding women in general, in the United States. Findings support the need for culturally competent and individualized lactation care.

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