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 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.

scholarly journals Predictors of Gestational Weight Gain in Mexican American Women in Los Angeles

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 01-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Mielke ◽  
Nicholas Gorman
Keyword(s):  
Weight Gain ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Gestational Diabetes ◽  
Gestational Weight Gain ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican American Women ◽  
American Women ◽  
Gestational Weight

Background and Significance: Extremes of gestational weight gain (GWG) are associated with newborn and pregnancy complications, postpartum obesity and chronic illnesses. In the United States, Mexican American women are the largest subgroup of Hispanics but have been studied least often. The purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence, characteristics, and predictors of GWG in Mexican American women. Methods: A retrospective, correlational design used data from charts (n=684) in a federally qualified health center in Los Angeles. Prevalence of GWG was inadequate, 22%; adequate, 33%; and excessive, 45%. Risk factors for excessive GWG were hypertension (p = .04), overweight (p = .00), or obese pre-pregnancy BMI (p = .01). Conversely, women who had gestational diabetes (p = .02), ate more snacks (p = .01), were multiparous (p = .03), and less acculturated (p = .03) experienced less excessive gain. Conclusions: Efforts to prevent excessive GWG in Mexican Americans should be targeted to women having their first baby and those with high pre-pregnancy BMI. One strategy may be recommending diet/exercise similar to that used in women with gestational diabetes. For women who are less acculturated and/or who are multiparous, strategies that will minimize inadequate GWG may improve newborn outcomes.

Forging Aztecness: Twentieth-Century Mexican Musical Nationalism in Twenty-First Century Los Angeles

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 127-146
Author(s):  
KRISTINA F. NIELSEN
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Cultural Frameworks ◽  
Music Research ◽  
Siglo Xx

Abstract (Spanish/English)Forjando el Aztecanismo: Nacionalismo Musical Mexicano del Siglo XX en el siglo XXI en Los ÁngelesHoy en día, un creciente número de músicos mexico-americanos en los Estados Unidos tocan instrumentos indígenas mesoamericanos y réplicas arqueológicas, lo que se conoce como “Música Azteca.” En este artículo, doy a conocer cómo los músicos contemporáneos de Los Ángeles, California, recurren a los legados de la investigación musical nacionalista mexicana e integran modelos antropológicos y arqueológicos aplicados. Al combinar el trabajo de campo etnográfico con el análisis histórico, sugiero que los marcos musicales y culturales que alguna vez sirvieron para unir al México pos-revolucionario han adquirido una nuevo significado para contrarrestar la desaparición del legado indígena mexicano en los Estados Unidos.Today a growing number of Mexican-American musicians in the United States perform on Indigenous Mesoamerican instruments and archaeological replicas in what is widely referred to as “Aztec music.” In this article, I explore how contemporary musicians in Los Angeles, California, draw on legacies of Mexican nationalist music research and integrate applied anthropological and archeological models. Pairing ethnographic fieldwork with historical analysis, I suggest that musical and cultural frameworks that once served to unite post-revolutionary Mexico have gained new significance in countering Mexican Indigenous erasure 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.

Rodríguez, Luis J.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine Metcalf
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Steel Mill ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Community Protests ◽  
1960S And 1970S

Luis J. Rodríguez is a Chicano memoirist, novelist, poet, children’s author, and activist. Born in 1954 in Mexico, his family migrated to the United States when he was young. As a youth, he spent many years immersed in the street gangs of Los Angeles while concurrently partaking in community protests and mobilizations that became known as the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It took Rodríguez several years to extract himself from a life of crime and addiction to drugs, though all the while he was writing, painting, and being inspired by revolutionary figures. His first book of poetry was published in 1989, but it was his memoir of gang life, Always Running—La Vida Loca: Gang Days in LA, released in 1993 in the aftermath of the LA riots, that garnered him mainstream literary attention. Always Running and its sequel, It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions and Healing, eighteen years later, can be labeled testimonio for detailing a Latina/o “lived” experience and fighting social injustices. In many ways Rodríguez can be deemed a “classic” Chicana/o author: he addresses the experience of migration and writes in both English and Spanish; he explores themes of prejudice and identity for Mexican Americans in the United States; and he considers the role of heteropatriarchal aspects of Mexican culture in defining his relationships (with women and children). His steadfast dedication to Native American/indigenous spirituality is a more recent focus in his life and writings, situating him among a long list of Chicana/os who have embarked on the “Red Road,” that is, life as indigenous-identified subjects. But what most arguably sets Rodríguez apart from fellow Chicana/o writers is his allegiance—throughout all his works in all genres—to proletarian politics and concerns for the working classes. His critiques of deindustrialization and its subsequent effects, particularly poverty, are reflected, for example, in his depictions of the Bethlehem Steel Mill of LA, where Rodríguez worked.

The Virgin of Guadalupe as an Iconic Image in Mexican Culture

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlene Villaseñor Black
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican American Women ◽  
Virgin Of Guadalupe ◽  
Peace And Justice ◽  
Iconic Image ◽  
Religious Devotion ◽  
The Hill

According to believers, the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared in 1531 to recent indigenous convert Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac, north of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán, an area in the environs of Mexico City. The series of apparitions culminated with the miraculous appearance of her image imprinted on his native cloak, or tilma. This painting, housed in the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the Villa de Guadalupe in northern Mexico City, has been venerated from the 16th century. The Virgin of Guadalupe is considered the patroness of Mexico, and special protector of its native and mestizo populations. She is perhaps the best-known symbol of Mexico, and her image is very common in the fine and popular arts. She has played a number of roles over the centuries—as object of religious devotion, emblem of national pride, symbol of peace and justice, and feminist icon. Similarly, her image has transformed over time, from the original sacred icon of 1531 to controversial contemporary images from the 1970s. Her image is also frequent in the United States, where 20th- and 21st century Chicana/o (Mexican American) artists represent her in community murals, prints, photographs, sculptures, and paintings. Chicana (Mexican American) women artists have transformed her into a feminist icon, generating controversy and provoking censorship in both the United States and Mexico. Held sacred by many Mexican, Chicana/o, and Latina/o Catholics, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe has never been neutral, but instead, represents the mutability and political potential of Catholic sacred imagery.

The Los Angeles "Zoot Suit Riots" Revisited: Mexican and Latin American Perspectives

2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Griswold del Castillo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
American Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Origin ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
Zoot Suit

The so-called Zoot Suit riots in Los Angeles in June of 1943 made Latin Americans more aware of the negative racial attitudes within the United States toward Mexicans. Through the publicity surrounding the riots, they also first learned of the existence of a large ethnic group of Mexican origin. This knowledge, however, often came with an additional message that the Mexican American culture was not worthy of esteem by respectable people. / Los disturbios llamados "Zoot-Suit" que ocurrieron en Los Angeles en Junio 1943 hizo saber a los latino americanos que las actitudes de los norteamericanos hacia los mexicanos no eran muy positivas. A través de la publicidad durante los disturbios, aprendieron por la primera vez de la existencia de un gran grupo étnico de origen mexicano en los Estados Unidos. Desgraciadamente esta información vino con otro mensaje que la cultura de los mexicoamericanos no era digna de honor por la supuesta gente decente.

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.

Caged Birds

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Lytle Hernández
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Border Crossings ◽  
Ground Zero ◽  
Mexican Community ◽  
History Of ◽  
Immigrant Detention ◽  
The U.S

The fifth chapter continues to chart the rise of Mexican and Mexican American incarceration in the United States. Like Magon’s rebellion, it is a tale that unfolded in Los Angeles and across the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Like the history of immigrant detention, it is a story about the collision of deportation and incarceration. But in particular, Chapter 5 examines how, during the 1920s and 1930s, the politics of controlling Mexican immigration to the United States directly prompted the criminalization of unauthorized border crossings and, in turn, triggered a steady rise in the number of Mexicans imprisoned within the United States. Home to the largest Mexican community within the United States, Los Angeles was ground zero for the politics and practices of Mexican incarceration in these years.

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