Summary

This paper analyzes the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, wherein it addressed ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims brought forth by a lawful immigrant. It goes on to examine ensuing applications of the Padilla decision by Federal Circuit Courts in United States v. Orocio and United States v. Chaidez. In Padilla v. Kentucky the Court held that legal counsel must advise immigrants facing legal charges of the risk of deportation. The Circuit Courts provided contradictory interpretations about whether or not the Padilla decision should be applied retroactively. The paper goes on to point out that most immigration matters are decided by immigration judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). It further holds that since federal judges and state courts have little experience adjudicating immigration matters, the action of determining whether an attorney has rendered effective counsel concerning immigration matters become even more difficult. The paper contends that regardless of the various interpretations of the Padilla decision by the Circuit Courts, changes at the local, state, and Federal levels are needed to ensure that the Sixth Amendment rights of those with immigration statuses are protected. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Using data from the 2007–2009 Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) supplement of the Current Population Surveys (CPS), this study explores the relationship between poverty and the health of children from various racial/ethnic minority and immigrant families in the Midwest. Findings show that: (1) Racial/ethnic minority children experience poorer health than Non-Hispanic White children; (2) Increased poverty among children predicts poorer children’s health; and (3) Immigrant children have poorer health than natives, and second-generation immigrant children have poorer health than first- and third-generation immigrant children. This study demonstrates the health disadvantages of Midwestern children from racial/ethnic minority families faced by poverty. The gap in children’s health between Non-Hispanic White and minority children persists even after accounting for the effects of immigrant status, poverty, family structure, parental education, health insurance coverage, and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan residence. Improving the economic well-being of all racial/ethnic minority and immigrant families would improve children’s health. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

When formulating farm and immigration policy for the nation, it is vital that lawmakers consider the long-term consequences of the programs they put into place. The H-2A visa program has served to bring numerous temporary workers to the United States to work in agriculture—but at what cost? This article chronicles the experiences of many farmworker advocates regarding a pattern of exclusion of U.S. workers by employers, who seemingly prefer H-2A workers. The article further argues that, particularly in states like Michigan, where a large percentage of seasonal farmworkers travel with their families, over-utilization of the H-2A program could undercut efforts to improve labor conditions and strengthen the fabric of farm communities. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Failure of academics to recognize a distant Mexican past and current Mexican presence outside the Southwest has been the result not simply of neglect, but also the racial biases that inform the paradigms of dominant knowledge, and have broad implications. Notions like region and border exist in historically specific and often highly political contexts... View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

The present report originated in a MSU policy analysis class taught during 1996. The professor and students agreed to construct a class that represented a grounded experience in policy analysis touching upon a current and relevant issue. We began exploring the policies surrounding the education of migrant children in Michigan. Our goal was to learn about the policies related to the of education of migrant workers' children and to develop an understanding of the issue's complexities. We knew our work would be limited by time, financial, and political constraints. These constraints limited our work to an exploratory inquiry supported by literature reviews and informational interviews with key individuals in selected Michigan sites. We chose this "invisible" policy issue for several reasons. Migrant education offered us the opportunity to examine current reform tendencies to provide access to quality education for all children, the preparation of teachers to support select populations, the organization of schools to accommodate these children in response to vague policy mandates, and power issues affecting the different constituencies and stakeholders. Thanks to the support of the Julian Samora Research Institute, the Michigan Department of Education, and various individuals, we held face-to-face interviews with policymakers, teachers, and migrant children and their families. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Despite U. S. government efforts to provide healthcare services to migrant workers, this sector of American society continues to experience problems accessing the healthcare system (Sakala, 1987). High mobility, overcrowded living conditions, demanding work schedules, low income and low educational attainment, discrimination, language, and cultural barriers generally play important roles in migrant workers’ health status and health service utilization (Commission on Civil Rights, 1977; 1978; 1983). View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

The author suggests how one acdemic institution, California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) is planning for a distributed learning and distance education program, utilizing the latest technologies and innovative pedagogy to meet the needs of all underrepresented and under-served students. This need is especially high for the Latino/a population of the Salinas Valley, where some of the poorest Latino populations in the nation can be found. The university's students, faculty, and staff represent a geographically and culturally diverse group of people, whose richness is mirrored in CSUMB's commitment to the establishment of a multilingual, multicultural, and intellectual community. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

An earliery version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C. in November, 1997. Recent research designed to explain differences in health and illness among ethnic minorities often focuses on cultural influences on behavior and lifestyles, viewing individual behavioral choices as based on cultural beliefs and traditions. Commonly, ethnic culture is operationalized and measured as "level of acculturation," which is then correlated with various health outcomes. In this paper, the conceptual basis of "acculturation" in health research is examined. It is argued that the notion of culture is poorly articulated in this research, relying instead on "common-sense" ideas about the origins of valued and disvalued ideas and behaviors. As a result, acculturation health research is driven by a priori evaluative assumptions about the sources of rational and irrational behaviors. While failing to explicitly define ethnic and "mainstream" culture. ethnic culture is implicitly concieved as foreign, exotic, and antithetical to rationality; at the same time "mainstream" culture is viewed as its opposite. The model is rife with historical and conceptual difficulties. It is derived from folk wisdom about rationality and progress, which is galvanized in the ostensibly scientific construct of "acculturation." View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

The advent of Internet and distant learning technology is transforming higher education at a rapid pace. Over the last decade, there has been a phenomenal growth of non-traditional institutions providing degree programs to career-track learners. The 1993-94 Peterson's Guide listed only 93 "cyberschools." Peterson's 1997 Distance Learning Guide included over 760 and the numbers are increasing annually. With population growth rates projected to explode for many Latino populations in this country, what impact do these "virtual" institutions have on higher education and how does this affect ethnic diversity? Capping a 3-year national study of Latinos and Latinas in graduate education and beyond, the author further interviewed Latino students and faculty at Walden University, an accredited, distributed learning graduate school, and found cultural patterns that could radically change higher education. Attracting career-bound practitioner scholars, Walden achieves high minority enrollments (around 37%) and significant diversity in doctoral production, unaided by either minority recruitment or retention programs. Despite the current state of Low Context (limited personal contact) learning technology, Walden generates a High Context (student-oriented, multimedia) learning-centered culture which fosters a very interactive Internet community that is reshaping traditional methods of graduate education. Findings comparing Walden University with traditional resident institutions suggest that differences in organizational cultures and context hold important clues for explaining patterns of attraction and rejection among ethnic groups in academia. These cultural patterns offer new strategies for reframing the current model for enhancing diversity and attracting Latinos to higher education. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This paper was presented at the conference "Latinos, the Internet, and the Telecommunications Revolution," sponsored by The Julian Samora Research Institute, in conjunction with the College of Social Science at Michigan State University, Tuesday, April 27, 1999. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This article analyzes the election of Chicanas to public office in Texas since the Chicano Movement and discusses the factors that promote and impede their election and performance in office. Ethnographic interviews were used to gather data on the experiences of Chicana candidates for County Judge in Texas. These findings are set in the larger context of women in politics. While gains have been made by Chicanas in all local elective offices, some positions remain elusive and electoral parity has not been reached. In addition to electoral barriers, Chicanas face impediments to office holding, once the election is won. Gender discrimination is not the major factor in gaining public office, rather once in office the internal competition and conflict with male officeholders presents formidable obstacles for re-election and tenure. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Recent information points to the fact that there is a critical shortage of skilled technology workers in the United States. A Virginia Polytechnic Institute study found an astounding 346,000 unfilled positions across the country. The U.S. Department of Labor projects that more than a million new high-tech workers will be needed between now and the year 2006. It is a predicament that holds dire implications for the American economy, but also offers bright opportunities for people interested in high tech careers (Fletcher, 1998). View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Since the Chicano/a cultural renaissance of the 1960's and 1970's, the Midwestern United States has emerged as a geographical reality in Chicano/a literature, sometimes merely as a common destination for Chicano/as seeking work, but more and more often as a site of vibrant Chicano/a communities. This paper examines the divergent perspectives and attitudes in this literature toward the Midwest, and toward Chicano/as and Mexicans who have made their homes there. The first section examines texts by Pat Mora, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, and Wendell Mayo, focusing on the ways in which these texts offer the Southwest as the true Chicano/a homeland and suggest that the experience of Chicano/as in the Midwest is one of exile and isolation. The second part of this paper discusses texts by Tomás Rivera, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, and Hugo Mart°nez-Serros, and explores representations of transnational and heterogenous communities of Chicano/as and Mexicans in the Midwest. This analysis reveals the limitations of a conception of Aztlán narrowly associated with the Southwest, and suggests that the complexities of Chicano/a identity demand greater attention to the diversity of regions in which Chicano/as live and work. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This paper attempts to provide a century long overview of U.S. immigration policy. Rooted in research conducted at the Presidential libraries the article seeks to explain the motivations behind the dramatic changes in U.S. immigration policy in 1965. The article argues that, even today, the Congressional debate is propelled by the National Origins legislation of 1924. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

A debate is taking place in the country about the universal service provision of modern telecommunications services. The debate revolves around two questions. First, if many communities, and significant segments of the population, are not able to participate fully in the modern Information Age will it result in their impoverishment? Second, if there is too great a policy and regulatory intrusion in the market place will that cause significant misallocation of resources causing the entire society to be impoverished? It is a debate with a mixture of facts and some conjecture. The purpose here is to bring forth the basic telecommunication facts, as we currently know them, relative to rural and Latino communities. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Almost 40 years ago, from September 1967 through September 1969, I was a doctoral candidate in Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University. As a Chicano from California, I missed my family and relationships with raza. In 1969 I decided to step out of the academic groove and enlisted as a volunteer with Michigan Educational Opportunity Program, a derivative of the federally-funded programs of the Office of Educational Opportunity. My “mentor” and supervisor was Ubaldo Patino. The “notes” which follow are from my daily log. They record the actual names and places of my job. I leave this information intact, primarily because some of the people — like Mr. Patino — deserve to be remembered for their dedication and service to migrant workers in Michigan. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

When he wrote the passage above to his wife, Josefa Moreno, Pablo de la Guerra probably did not expect that more than a century later historians would be mulling over the more personal and earthly realities of his much celebrated public life. A politician whose career spanned the Mexican and Euroamerican periods in Alta, Calif., he is the subject of a number of articles and one dissertation. Most of these studies deal with his civic contributions and those of the de la Guerra family. Indeed, de la Guerra’s letters to Josefa Moreno de la Guerra provide a rare window through which one can explore the microcosm of family, gender, and generational relations within the context of political, economic, and cultural turbulence, which followed the American conquest and annexation of California. Because of his role as a statesman, Pablo was an absentee husband, father, and businessman who heavily relied on Josefa in order to complete his socially constructed and expected duties as a patriarch. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Racism resembles bacteria. It has an uncanny ability to resist cures. Like bacteria, racism includes variants with unusual traits which have the ability to withstand an antibiotic attack on a microbe. For the moment the drug or laws kill the defenseless bacteria, “leaving behind — or ‘selecting,’ in biological terms — those that can resist it. These renegade bacteria then multiply, increasing their numbers a millionfold in a day, becoming the predominant microorganism.” My point is that we once believed that racism had been defined and that we were on our way to eradicate this ugly social disease only to find it active and well, but in another form. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

In this paper, I analyze the biases in academe concerning what is and is not "legitimate" and "rigorous" scholarship. I look at how these biases interact with decision-making power in such a way as to place relative newcomers to the scholarly scene and their research into a traditionally ascriptive secondary role. I analyze the social status of one of these newcomer groups to academe: the so-called "minority" scholar. More specifically, I look at the case of the Chicano/Latino scholar. I argue that the racial/ethnic factor seems to interact with another pervasive source of division among scholars. This is the tension in academe between "doing research" for research's sake and the more applied aspect of academics. This brings into play larger questions about political commitment, partisanship, and advocacy, as well as the tensions between objectivity and the presumed attendant "social detachment" and subjectivity and the equally presumed lack of this social distance. These interrelated issues are areas which not only merit study, but which have been grossly neglected; a fact not all that unrelated to the racism, biases, and distribution of power in academic decision-making in general, nor to the differential social ascriptions in academe based on these. Race and ethnicity operate as the basis for social placement in equal employment opportunity generally (Braddock and McPartland, 1986; Burstein, 1985; Alvarez et al., 1979), as well as in academe specifically, and as the criteria for placement in the lower segments or strata across and within academic departments (Rochín and de la Torre, 1986; Wingfield, 1982; Piliawsky, 1982; Myers, 1977; Rafky, 1972). Thus, racism often seems to raise the possibility of racial/ethnic minorities becoming suspect as scholars. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez’s paper, “An Anthropological Perspective: Borders, Transnationalism, Locality and Identity,” presented some of the recent contributions that Chicanos have made to anthropology and the social sciences in general. A decade earlier, Renato Rosaldo (1985) did the same in an extensive review of the literature that examined the research directions and writings of Chicano anthropologists. Their quest to be heard and considered as major contributors, as Rosaldo (1985) documented, was long and difficult. Mainstream anthropology, mainly involved with developing and strengthening theories on culture and human behavior, was slow to recognize the research of Chicanos. Their concern was introducing and advancing theories and methodologies useful to the study of applied issues confronting many Latino communities across the country, such as health care, poverty, ethnic strife and racism, and work and exploitation. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Sketchy historical records show the existence of a handful of Latino artists in the United States at the turn of the century. During the 1920's, 30's, and 40's, times of national prosperity and growth as well as economic depression, Latino artists increased across the country, including Michigan and the Midwest in general. Limited records show artists of Latino or Latin American origins producing visual expressions diverse in style and theme, representing folk art to mainstream influences. These artists reflected and portrayed their immediate environment as well as the broader American society. Their openness to multiple influences has continued to allow Latinos to respond to trends in American art in a unique way, further enriching the concept of artistic and cultural diversity in Latino art. In the modern period, some Latino artists participated in the federal mural painting projects in the United States. These public art projects were directly influenced by the Mexican mural movement of the 1920's and 30's, both ideologically and aesthetically. In Michigan, despite general interest in Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry fresco cycle (1932-1933) at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Latino art generally speaking, featured less social commentary and more individual expression that encompassed a panorama of styles and aesthetics. Many Latino artists did not refer to elements of their own culture in their work, but instead leaned toward mainstream art in search of personal meaning. Among mainstream artists working in Michigan, Cuban-born Carlos Lopez (1908 - 1953) was one of the most recognized modern painters in the United States. During his lifetime, he received many prestigious awards and commissions. An academically trained landscape and portrait painter, Lopez serves as a vital historical link connecting American modern art in Michigan with a new Latino history of the state. As one of only several Michigan artists, Latino or otherwise, who received federal mural commissions, Lopez also made important contributions to the development of American mural art through his historical murals in Michigan and Illinois. The work of Lopez offers insight into the cultural history of the Latino presence in Michigan, as well as giving us a unique view of popular culture in the United States. For 20 years Lopez played an influential role in the artistic life of Ann Arbor and Detroit as a hardworking art teacher, productive artist, and dedicated American, but today he still remains for the general public a shadowy figure in Michigan history. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

The comparability of risk factors, clinical outcomes, and services were examined with regard to Hispanic and non-Hispanic White youths participating in a managed system of care for youths experiencing emotional and/or behavioral disturbances for at least six months. Intra-and inter-group differences were documented in the context of two distinct outcome groups: (1) Improvers - whose behavioral indices were rated within the clinical range at intake and then improved (to below the clinical range) after six months in the system of care; and (2) Deprovers - whose behavioral indices were rated below clinical range at intake and then deteriorated (to within clinical range) after six months in the system of care. The services delivered to the youths in these outcome groups by ethnicity are presented. The impact that various types of services may have had on the youths' internalizing and/or externalizing problems is discussed. Differences between the services received by the ethnic groups may provide evidence about what works in a system of care and how to serve these youths in a more culturally competent manner. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Critical race theorists have sought to provide counter accounts of social reality. In particular, they have sought to create new, oppositionist accounts of race. In this regard, critical race theory has evolved into several projects. One project has sought to uncover how law is a constitutive element of race itself. Put another way, this project has sought to identify how law constructed race. Another important project has focused on the way “Whiteness” functions as a social organizing principle. Thus, critical theorists have begun to examine how the privilege of being White works in our society. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

A brief sojourn in the development of anthropology conducted by Chicano/a anthropologists in the United States suggests that the currents in transnational and postmodern analysis presently in vogue in anthropology were anticipated by equivalent theoretical and methodological positions held by many of us who had been involved in Chicano Studies. As well, new institutional forms have been inaugurated in anthropology as a direct and indirect result of the experience of participating in and managing Chicano Studies programs and centers. Many of us simultaneously participated in Chicano Studies departments and engaged in graduate programs in anthropology in the late 60's and early 70's. For many of us in California, including Roberto Alvarez, Jose Cuellar, Diego Vigil, Steve Arvizu, Paul Espinosa, Margarita Melville, and myself, our experience teaching the incipient courses in Chicano Studies led us to cross into then non-Chicano territory in place and theory. Cuellar and Vigil worked as ethnographers in Guatemala; Alvarez traced the emergence of Mexicans from lower California to Lemon Grove, Calif.; Arvizu and others were among the first to offer a serious theoretical critique of anthropology in Decolonizing Anthropology (1978), simultaneous to Melville's well recalled patterns of domination in Guatemala. All impacted our rendition of a different kind of anthropology and Chicano Studies. I initially began my work in urban Mexico seeking answers to questions initiated by Chicano Studies. In fact, what is particular to all of this cohort of incipient anthropologists is their experience and engagement in multinational ethnography, processes and analysis, and a "critical cultural" stance from which to engage theory and substantive data and ethnography. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

It has become apparent to many scholars of Chicana/o History that the explosive growth and diversification in research and interpretation now requires the community to pause and evaluate where the field has been, and where it might go in the future.1 Thus, the conference "Towards a New Chicana/o History," held at Michigan State University, April 22-23, 1996, was organized at a timely juncture, and at a particularly exciting moment in terms of observing Chicana/o History. As a relatively new field - established less than two generations ago - Chicana/o History constitutes a living laboratory dedicated to the formation of a new academic discipline, born out of a social and political movement with which it remains closely intertwined. For historians who are interested in the writing of history and the forces which affect it - that which we call historiography - the evolution of Chicana/o History offers the opportunity to observe in the making a process of intellectualization that historiographers traditionally have had to extract from documents after the fact, after the writers of a particular history are dead." View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

The United States is populated by people from most of the nations of the world who represent a diversity of cultures. Throughout its history, this nation has been able to accommodate these populations — some more easily than others — depending on the time and circumstances of their entry to this country. The usual history of an immigrant group (besides those who have been conquered such as the American Indian and the Spanish-speaking) has been that of settlement in urban areas and occupying the lower strata of society; having made an early resolution in favor of acculturation, they have begun the relatively slow process of vertical social mobility. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Historically, women’s immigration to the United States has been understudied by social scientists. Men’s migration dominates the migration literature, while women’s migration is relegated to a second position. Recently, this skewed pattern is changing; though still, when research focuses on women, there is a tendency of only women scholars to undertake migration and gender studies. Thus, the intent of this paper is to fill a research gap related to gender and migration. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Views expressed in the Occasional Papers Series are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Julian Samora Research Institute or Michigan State University. Abstract: This paper describes the development of a course in Chicano/Latino Psychology along with the objectives, content, and activities associated with the course. In addition, I describe my 2-year odyssey in encountering and negotiating the academic politics, resistances, and barriers that were placed before me in gaining university approval to teach this course. Based on my experiences, I will attempt to provide recommendations for overcoming the maze of academic politics for others who wish to offer similar courses, as well as future trends in designing courses in Chicano/Latino Psychology. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Creation of a university community that is (a) welcoming and culturally-inclusive (i.e., promotes cultural ambience) and (b) where members are committed to promoting cultural ambience to help Chicana/o students academically persist and succeed is essential to the task of retaining Chicana/o students. That is, the cultural beliefs and values of Chicana/o students must be reflected in their different academic and personal environments to the extent that they can succeed in their environments without needing to hide or change their cultural identities (Gloria and Robinson-Kurpius, 1996). For what reasons would institutions of higher education not want to provide culturally-relevant learning environments relevant for all students and faculty? Unfortunately, the answer to this complex question may be partly accounted for by the need of some to control economic, political, and social resources and opportunities. Because the Latino population will increase more quickly than the national growth rate over the next 20 years (Chapa and Valencia, 1993), the school-aged population of Chicana/os will also reflect these demographic changes (Nevárez-La Torre and Hidalgo, 1997). As a result, social, political, and cultural changes within academia are inevitable. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Mexican farmworkers are among the poorest, most marginalized, and exploited Latinos in America. Although they are part of a century-and-a-half old tradition of supplying essential, labor-intensive work to multi-million and billion dollar industries and corporations, they struggle and toil at the bottom of the U.S. stratification system, where they are extremely vulnerable to numerous life-compromising problems and circumstances. Severe and neglected health problems have already been documented for migrant laborers (Rust, 1990). A recent review of the literature on HIV risk and migrant laborers (Organista and Balls Organista, 1997) adds the imminence of an AIDS epidemic further complicating the lives of migrant laborers in general, and Mexican farmworkers in particular, who comprise the majority of migrant laborers in the United States. The purpose of this chapter is to provide sociodemographic and HIV risk profiles for Mexican/Chicano farmworkers, followed by a discussion of culturally competent HIV/AIDS research with this unique population, and finally, recommendations for both future research as well as culturally appropriate HIV prevention strategies. It is worth mentioning that the frequency with which Mexican migrant laborers eventually settle in the U.S. blurs the distinction between Mexican and Chicano farmworkers. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

The present conference on Chicano Psychology marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Chicano/Mestizo Psychology. I introduced the term "mestizo psychology" in my book entitled Psychology of the Americas: Mestizo Perspectives in Personality and Mental Health in 1983, but the birth of Chicano Psychology dates back to 1973, when the first conference on Chicano Psychology was held at the University of California at Riverside (Ramirez and Castaneda, 1973). I am frequently asked by my White colleagues: "Why propose a psychology specific to one group of people? After all, psychology is a science and as such should be universal and applicable to everyone." My answer is that there is a need for a Chicano/Mestizo Psychology for three reasons: (a) Mainstream psychology does not reflect the psychological reality of Latinos and other peoples of color; (b) mainstream psychology does not embody the spirit of the movement for social justice characterized by the African American, Chicano, and Native American-Indian civil rights movements; and (c) Mexican psychology and established Latin American psychology are not based on the socio-historico-political realities of Latinos in the Americas, but are mere translations of Anglo/Western European Psychology from English into Spanish This paper presents the historical origins, the tenets, and a summary of recent developments in Chicano/Mestizo psychology. It argues for the need to continue the struggle to ensure that a psychological science that is truly Mestizo and multicultural at its core continues to evolve and to survive. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

When the Mexican American family's attempt to heal a troubled member fails, either by seeking out western medicine, psychotherapy, or the saints, curanderismo may be considered as a viable alternative form of intervention. However, opportunity for efficacious care may be thwarted by a psychologist/psychiatrist trying to "sell" their system of treatment and disease classification. Some challenges with traditional psychiatry and psychology are rooted in the nosological system used for assessment, diagnosis and treatment recommendations. Although the symptom profile for a culture-bound syndrome may mimic the clinical profile of a "standard" DSM disorder, the sequale of the disorder as well as the diagnostic, assessment and treatment protocol may differ significantly. The DSM-IV has made strides in terms of mentioning some cultural syndromes, however differential diagnosis, etiological considerations, and appropriate treatment protocols continue to be a challenging theme for mental health care providers. This paper seeks to overview some of the cultural stepping stones in the current classification system. Issues of family support, curanderismo, and differential diagnoses will also be discussed. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Abuse directed at women by male partners has become recognized as a major health problem. Certain characteristics in the Latino culture have been thought to influence the occurrence of violence in the family. The prevalence of domestic violence from data collected in three sites (rural U.S., urban U.S., and Mexico) in a sample of 450 Latinas is presented. Cultural factors enabling abuse and factors discouraging abuse, as identified by focus group participants, will be shared. The association between domestic abuse, acculturation level, and self-esteem will also be described. Prevention and treatment approaches will be discussed. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This paper addresses the need for a paradigm shift in the study of violence in the lives of Chicana/os. A justice-based model of research and practice will be proposed which situates social, familial, and interpersonal violence. This model is derived from a 3-year study of Chicanos and Latinos whose life narratives contest oppression and re-tell stories of survival and hope. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

It is very important to insert Chicana and Chicano Studies scholarship into global examinations of history and current events. While there are occasional discussions of the topic, our understanding of Chicanas/Chicanos in global perspectives tends to be quite limited. Most of our literature is still dominated by local or Southwestern regional perspectives. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This paper describes results from interviews with Mexican American children in grades 2-12 and interviews with their parents about their developmental model (ethnic perspective-talking ability). It focuses on children's responses to questions about ethnic pride (why someone would not like being Mexican American) and internalized racism (why they like being Mexican American). The research suggested four developmental levels in their responses to these questions (physical, literal, social, and group perspectives). These interview responses will be compared to similar interviews conducted with African American children, children from two different racial groups in Guatemala, and international children born in Latin America and living in the U.S. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Although there is a clear understanding that migration is stressful, the mental health consequences of internal migration within the boundaries of the United States and, specifically, labor related migration has very limitedly been studied. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Literature suggests that clinical depression is a major public health problem. Latinos are significantly at high risk for depression and in need of culturally-responsive mental health services. Conventional self-report depression assessment methods display limited predictive power. Fortunately, computer-assisted assessment methods offer alternatives to overcome the psychometric and cultural limitations of self-report measures. Most importantly, computerized speech recognition promises to enhance the early and accurate detection of depressed mood and symptoms. The author developed, tested, and evaluated several bilingual computerized speech recognition (voice-interactive) depression screening programs that verbally interviewed English and Spanish speakers using the Center for Epidemiological Studies - Depression scale (CES-D). The bilingual computer programs were evaluated for psychometric properties and the relationship of depression levels to demographics, acculturation, and speech behavior. The studies provided evidence that the bilingual voice-interactive speech recognition applications were generally feasible to administer, reliable, valid, and equivalent (means and variabilities) to standard interview (face-to-face and paper-and-pencil) methods. The English and Spanish-speaking samples positively rated the automated interviews. The findings suggested that the applications were culturally and linguistically viable tools for screening depression. The potential of the analysis of speech behavior and voice characteristics for accurately detecting depression among Chicanos/Latinos is discussed. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This presentation will describe the content of interviews conducted with Chicano children, adolescents, and their families who reside in an urban community and attend local schools. The goal of these interviews was to have the community identify aspirations it had for the children, barriers which may impede progress toward these goals, and resources both available and needed which would serve to enhance community life. The importance of the family, relationships, issues of personal safety, and the school as a central component of the community were among the topics discussed in the interviews. Areas of consensus and divergence among the various participants will be highlighted and the implications for prevention planning will be discussed. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This paper seeks to provide an overview of and background to the integration questions arising from the immigrant influx of the 1990's. It is based on interviews conducted over the summer of 1997, and newspaper reports, books, and documents pertaining to the poultry-processing industry and immigration to the U.S. respectively. The focus of the research has been upon Georgetown and environs in Delaware to provide insights into broader changes affecting the Delmarva peninsula. The paper is comprised of five segments: first, an overview of the poultry-processing industry in the region and its growing use of immigrant workers; second, a discussion of the dynamics of the immigrant influx of the 1990's; third, a sketch of the immigrant population and its impact on the Georgetown; fourth, implications of this case study for federal immigration policy; and fifth, discussion of state and local immigrant integration measures. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

A few years ago, feeling pressured by the veritable boom in immigration research that had taken place in the last 20 years, I felt the need to order such a vast territory conceptually. To do so, I came up with the analogy of a map - a conceptual map to guide us through the issues and approaches that pertain to this topic (Pedraza-Bailey, 1990). The map I drew then had its East-West and North-South coordinates, as well as its main highways, blue highways, and unpaved roads. I still think that map provided a nice guide to those looking for their way in the vast territory that immigration studies encompass. Thus, I thought that to assess the significant contributions of Latino Studies to immigration research in the social sciences, I would begin to use this same image of the map, bringing in selected works of research on Latino studies to illustrate my conceptual map. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

As a composer, I have often found myself struggling with musical ideas, or compositional problems, for a long time and to find the elusive solution listening to a "non-classical" composition. The opposite struck me as I was listening to a couple of Eddie Palmieri's compositions, like Adoración (composed in 1973), and I wondered why the avant garde musical movement in Puerto Rico, during the late 60's and 70's, never acknowledged this fine piece of Salsa and Latin Jazz, or incorporated its innovations. During the time I started researching turn-of-the-century Puerto Rican music social history, these situations emerged in my inquiry as questions. Why, if musical practices coexist in the same social context, do innovations in particular genres seem not to affect one another? In the case of Puerto Rico in particular, and the Caribbean in general, I learned that different genres and musical traditions were performed by the same nucleus of musicians (including composers), though, popular and classical compositions seemed impermeable to each other.2 The impermeability of these two genres is expressed in the convention of regarding both as being "together" or equal as cultural activities and in their social functionality, but thinking that for some intrinsic value they are meant to be segregated, or not scrambled. That impermeability is what I would like to explore in this paper. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

The development of Latino studies over the past 25 years has focused on the examination, analysis, and expansion of the knowledge base of Latino origin persons and communities in the U.S.. Within the academy, questions of legitimacy as a focus of scholarly inquiry were confronted by Latino Studies scholars. While, the development of Latino Studies has established its tradition to include systematic analysis of the Latino experiences with a dimension of the application of the knowledge for social change and empowerment of the Latino community. This paper portrays the development of Latino Studies, particularly in the realm of politics, power, and policy. In this discussion, three themes will be developed: a) nature and development of Latino Studies over the past 25 years; b) development and impact of Latino scholars on the Political Science profession; and c) the impact of Latino Studies scholarship on the discipline of Political Science. This paper was prepared for the Julian Samora Research Institute's conference on Transforming the Social Sciences through Latino Studies held at Michigan State University, April, 1997. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

The history of Asian American feature films in the United States is generally considered to begin in 1982 with Wayne Wang's Chan is Missing, in the same way that the history of American Latino film is usually dated from Luis Valdez's 1981 Zoot Suit.1 Since that time a number of dedicated directors and screenwriters have added features to the list, some via Hollywood and others through an independent route. Still, it remains difficult for filmmakers in either group to find funding for their feature projects. On the academic side, there has been a parallel growth in literature analyzing these films. However, thus far most analysts confine themselves to looking at one or more films within each ethnic grouping, rather than comparing works across ethnic lines. This article is intended as a preliminary exploration in that direction.2 Given that these two ethnic groups have significant commonalities as well as important divergences, we should expect such analysis to turn up both similarities and differences in the two film traditions. Both groups, for example, occupy the status of linguistic minorities in the United States. At the same time, their histories and the manner in which they became incorporated into this country vary considerably. While generalizations are always risky, I would like to suggest that minority filmmakers have historically been engaged in six broad tasks as cultural workers: 1. Moving ethnic minorities to center stage. While there is no shortage of minority representation in mainstream American films, there is no question that non-whites are generally marginalized in such films. The role of protagonist is largely reserved for "White," or European-American actors. Minority characters tend to occupy positions as sidekicks, allies, local color, villains, victims, and "others" in general. Minority filmmakers have therefore made the effort to center their stories around members of their own ethnic group. This is as true of Latino and Asian-American filmmakers as of their African-American and Native-American counterparts. 2. Countering stereotypes. One of the central complaints made about mainstream American films is the persistent stereotyping of non-Whites. Minority filmmakers have employed an array of strategies for countering this historical pattern. One technique employed by such filmmakers as Robert Townsend, Hollywood Shuffle3 and "Cheech" Marin, Born in East L.A.4 is to spoof these stereotypes through parody and exaggeration. More commonly, minority filmmakers combat stereotypes by revealing the diversity that exists within their particular communities. By showing a range of characters along dimensions of class, generation, sexual orientation, and specific cultural practices, these filmmakers seek to negate the notion that "they're all alike." 3. Critiquing racism and ethnocentrism. Many ­ though by no means all ­ features by minority filmmakers explicitly point out and critique racist and ethnocentric practices in society at large on both individual and institutional levels. From Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit, to Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, to Peter Wang's and Shirley Sun's A Great Wall, these filmmakers are concerned with demonstrating the continuing effects of both historical and contemporary discrimination on ethnic minority communities. 4. Reclaiming and reinterpreting history. While the television series Roots is perhaps the best known example of this, minority filmmakers from all ethnic groups are aware that the histories of their peoples have been forgotten, neglected, or distorted in American schools and in the media. Many minority features are therefore concerned with rediscovering or reinterpreting these histories from the perspectives of their respective communities. 5. Exploring non-mainstream cultures. Sometimes minority filmmakers are concerned with exploring a particular ethnic culture not specifically for the purpose of countering stereotypes, but rather to elucidate the richness of that tradition, and lend clarity to the sorts of issues that people in these communities deal with on a day to day basis. One gets a sense of this endeavor by examining such films as Valdez's La Bamba, Wayne Wang's Dim Sum, and Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It. 6. Contending with issues of assimilation. One of the thorniest sets of issues facing Latino and Asian-American cultural workers is that having to do with assimilation, acculturation, cultural retention, and cultural self determination. Some filmmakers choose to champion a position explicitly encouraging cultural resistance, while others opt for a more ambiguous position. Often a filmmaker will present numerous characters from different generations in order to illustrate the types of intra-family and intra-community tensions engendered by the process of assimilation. This topic is explored in greater depth below, in connection with the analysis of specific films. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Willie Colón is a famous, world renowned Puerto Rican salsa singer from New York City who has maintained a never-compromising, radical, oppositional voice for 30 years. In Por Eso Canto (That's Why I Sing), a 1993 recording, Willie Colón provides his most powerful and explicit explanation of how he has come to accept his political responsibilities as a singer. In general, Por Eso Canto can be seen as Willie Colón's critique of those who do not or cannot recognize the transformative, emancipatory possibilities of their work and of their cultural practices. Since the late 1960's, Willie Colón has been an ardent critic of musicians who define and perform Salsa music as just another form of individual or social entertainment, rather than as a political, or cultural project. When you listen to his music and when you read his interviews in magazines and newspapers, you are most likely to find Willie Colón exposing the hypocrisy embedded in music, which detaches music from the most important political issues and conditions facing Puerto Ricans and other Latina/o people in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

In the course of this presentation I will talk about my family's work in the area of Chicano Studies, notably that of my brother, Richard, and my sister, Angie. In no way should any of this be taken as any kind of an exemplar - that is not what this is about. It is, however, about us ( Latinos) studying ourselves as academics and what Angie, has called "the need for Chicano scholars to engage in oppositional ethnography." View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

For more than a decade, communities in California have become increasingly Latino, or "mejicano." At the same time, the economic well-being of California's agricultural communities has become increasingly defined by the race and ethnicity of residents. Communities with higher concentrations of Latinos, for example, tend to have greater poverty, lower median incomes, and smaller proportions of residents with high school or college degrees. Most studies have focused on immigration from Mexico and other parts of Latin America as the cause of these conditions. However, these studies have neglected the concurrent changes that are occurring with the non-Latino White population. In this report we examine the processes affecting the rates of concentration or "Latinization" of rural communities. These processes include the changing demographics of both Latinos and non-Latino Whites, between and within communities. We also examine the extent to which Latino concentration and White exodus correlate with declining socio-economic conditions. Our analysis is based on data we collected on over 280 California communities. Our database covers the demographic and economic changes that have occurred in each community between 1980 and 1990. We also apply regression analysis to determine how changes in ethnic composition affect socio-economic conditions. In addition, we incorporate more recent information from our qualitative study of four communities in Fresno Tulare Counties. This information comes from focus groups and interviews with local leaders (public and private) in our selected communities. Limited time precluded us from surveying more places. But from Fresno County alone, we derive a "qualitative sense" of why people move and what people consider to be the changing socio-economic conditions of their respective communities. In addition, several of our interviews resulted in ideas and suggestions for the development of "Mexican Towns." Altogether, we combine information from both the quantitative "macro" perspective with the qualitative "micro" perspectives, to understand the determinants of Latino concentration, White exodus, and the notions people have about community conditions. While news reports and studies suggest that labor intensive agricultural production and Mexican immigration are the chief causes of Latino concentration and deprivation in rural California, we find, however, that changes in the non-Latino population account for more of the "Latinization" of rural communities than the settlement of Latinos who are foreign born. We also find that the settlement of Latinos depends more on the cost and availability of housing and year-round job availability than strictly seasonal agricultural employment. Our qualitative information suggests that ethnic differences (including perceptions of conflict) and community deterioration, better explain the decisions of non-Latino Whites to move from "Mexican Towns." Whites often move nearby and continue to hold jobs in "Mexican Towns." But their property taxes and former purchases also leave with them when they move from the "Mexican Towns." Our study suggests a continuing growth in the number of "Mexican Towns," with increasing concentrations of "mejicanos" or foreign born. Concomitantly, our study suggests more concentration of non-Hispanics in distinguishable White "Anglo" communities in rural California. Interestingly, to a noticeable degree, second generation "mejicanos," or "Chicanos," are also moving out of communities with high concentrations of Latinos, many to "Anglo Towns." However, Chicanos are less likely to move out of "Mexican Towns" to the same degree as non-Hispanic Whites. As a result of these different types of socio-economic conditions and personal feelings, places in rural California are becoming increasingly demarcated by the race and ethnicity of residents. Rural California is becoming a mosaic of extreme ethnic and economic patchwork. Such conditions will make it increasingly difficult for state and federal support to community and economic development. Nonetheless, we end our paper with some suggestions for developing "Mexican Towns." We hope the reader of this report will first take the time to understand the paper, before looking at the end for "solutions." View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

As a formally recognized field of study and teaching, Latina/o Studies started in the late 1960's in the Chicano Southwest and in Puerto Rican New York. The origins of the various Chicano and Puerto Rican Studies programs at that time lay less in a slow evolution of scholarly interests than in the urgent demands of angry students and a few faculty who insisted that universities begin to meet the educational needs of undeserved local Latina/os. But in addition to activist concerns, intellectual issues were of critical importance to sociologists who were among the founding fathers and mothers of these programs. The study of race and ethnicity has been a major specialty within American sociology for the past century, but in the 60's few sociologists who were not directly involved with Latina/os knew or cared about them. This should not be too surprising. Almost all sociologists at that time were white, and if they thought at all about racial and ethnic cleavages in American society they thought first about African-Americans, and second about their own ancestors mostly immigrants from Europe. When I moved to California from Chicago as a new faculty member in the early 1960's, I had had absolutely no sociological exposure to Chicanos - and ethnicity was one of my primary specialties. I knew about one population of East Los Angeles - the Molokans, a minuscule Russian Protestant sect - but not about the Chicanos! The civil rights movement and racial unrest of the late 1960's - both on and off campus - gave sociologists even more cause to think about African-Americans. They were particularly concerned with what had gone wrong with sociological predictions about race. Very few paid any attention to parallel expressions of discontent in Chicano and Puerto Rican communities. Why? There were two main reasons. First, there was very little research literature on these populations, and what little existed was not widely circulated among sociologists. Looking at the bibliography we compiled for the Mexican-American Study Project in 1966, I count no more than a dozen books by and for sociologists about Mexican-Americans published by mainstream academic presses prior to 1965. What little there was on Mexican-Americans was largely focused on rural populations.1 Puerto Ricans, who began to migrate in large numbers between 1946 and 1964, attracted somewhat more sociological attention - probably because they settled in cities (like New York and Chicago) where mainstream sociology flourished. Several prominent sociologists, like C. Wright Mills and Nathan Glazer, undertook the study of these "new" migrants to their city, and they were joined by a few talented, though, less well-known researchers. However, because Latina/os were so heavily outnumbered in those cities by African-Americans and European ethnics, they tended to be overlooked, which was the second major reason for their neglect in those days. In Chicago, the Young Lords attracted nowhere nearly as much attention as the Black Panthers, for example. Thus, lack of research literature and the overshadowing by African-Americans were major reasons for sociological ignorance.2 American sociology was therefore taken by surprise at the very presence of Latina/o sociologists at the tumultuous convention of 1969, let alone at their expressions of discontent with the discipline. Since that time, Latina/o sociologists have become far more visible: the professional association actually has a section devoted solely to Latina/Latino sociology. The study of Latina/os has changed many sociological specialties. Nowhere, however, have the changes been as great as in the way in which sociologists conceptualize the Latino population itself - and especially the poorer members. Latina/os form such a large proportion of the poor that mainstream sociologists simply must pay attention to them. That is far less true for other specialties. It is a little artificial to limit this discussion to sociologists, since one of the main strengths of Latina/o studies is its indisciplinary nature. However, the remainder of this chapter will focus on how Latina/o studies has challenged sociological paradigms, both historically and more recently. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Chicano historians have crossed disciplinary, political, cultural, ideological, and psychological borders to develop a new kind of history outside the boundaries of traditional narratives in American history. Latino and Chicano sociologists, anthropologists and psychologists write and teach Chicano history. Chicano Studies is a multi-disciplinary field, and this has encouraged all of us to go beyond narrow academic specializations in our conceptualization of historical topics and approaches. If one defining characteristic of postmodernism is the tendency to transcend boundaries and categories, then Chicano history has become increasingly post modern in the nineties. In 1978, when I wrote my first book, The Los Angeles Barrio, and tried to get it published, I was told that it was a "crack" book. The publishers meant that it did not quite fit into the categories of publications established by the university press. It employed sociological methodologies to analyze historical data, but it was not clearly a sociology text. It was not Western history. It was not Mexican history. What was it? It fell between the cracks of these categories. The implication was that it would be hard to evaluate, market, and sell. In the parlance of the 1990's, it was a book that had crossed the boundaries not only between recognized subcategories of American history, but also between methodological approaches. In the last fifteen years many more works on Chicano history have fallen through the cracks and, as it were, filled up the void. As a result, where once there was no category, we have invented one: multidisciplinary Chicana/o history. In crossing boundaries we have created new borders. Since 1990, there have been a number of historical works that have blurred the older traditional, intellectual, and disciplinary boundaries. Carlos Velez-Ibanez's newest book, Border Visions: Mexican Cultures of the Southwest and the United States, is one example. Velez is an anthropologist who writes history, sociology, art criticism, biography, and economics. The book is an example of border crossing scholarship that demonstrates how, in his words, "The borders of the mind, of cultural boundaries, of marginal identities are often disassembled and reconstructed in creative epistolaries . . . " During the last thirty years Chicano historians have created a new history, one that has never been told before, one that challenges the accepted approaches and themes in American historiography. Since 1990, more than forty monographs have appeared contributing to the development of Chicana/o history (see bibliography). Surveying some of the best examples, we can discern the creative, multi-disciplinary directions that Chicana/o history has taken. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Webster's defines survival as the act of enduring adverse or unusual circumstances; especially those conditions derived from ancient custom, observance, belief, or the like. In short, survival means sustaining a person's existence in traditional settings like ours. My presentation, "organizing for survival in academe" is about ways to endure adverse circumstances facing junior professors, especially those who are pre-tenure. It is about academic survival for those of us who hope to have years and years being a professor in higher education. I realize that tenure, per se, is not our ultimate end. For most scholars, more important pursuits include learning, experimenting, sharing, teaching, publishing, developing communities and mentoring students. Moreover, I believe we all ultimately like to be known as creative scholars, i.e., persons who can teach something new to students, and can add value to science and society. Nonetheless my concern is pure and simple: i.e. assuring academic survival in an environment that is full of challenges, opportunities, and, to a degree, adversity. What if we can't find time for what we want to achieve? What if we seem to be stressed, rushed, absent minded, unproductive, and sometimes pressured by others? What if we can't get our lectures, articles, speeches and committee activities straightened out and ready for action? What if our research gets bogged down and unpublished? Would we be able to survive academe? Would we get tenure? Would we have a fulfilling life as a professor? I doubt it. And if we don't fulfill our life long ambition of becoming creative scholars, who will care and who will we blame? These are difficult questions and everyone here, I am sure, can offer advice, suggestions, and counsel on all of these questions. For my part, I can assure you that there is no comprehensive formula for academic survival, productivity, or "tenure." Academic survival differs for each and every professor in higher education. Some become tenured by highly effective teaching and good rapport in their departments. Some become tenured by playing effective political roles and building influential networks in their field. Some become tenured by the sheer volume of peer reviewed articles. All in all, I believe that most become tenured by doing a combination of the above. Although there is no precise formula for enhanced teaching, publication, and tenure, there are some basic things to be done. There are ways to get organized. There are methods and techniques for doing more. There are "how to" books and guidelines for promotion and tenure. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This paper brings attention to the increasing significance of Latinos in rural America. Its references emphasize the importance of looking beyond the stereotypical Latino as primarily foreign-born, undocumented, migrant, and seasonal farmworkers, who are packed into impoverished "colonias." While there is some validity to these characterizations, these depictions tend to overlook other dimensions of rural Latinos. In particular, some of the recent references point to rural Latinos as historic pioneers of agricultural systems, environmentalists, businessmen, service providers, owner-operators of farms, local leaders, and the fastest growing population of rural communities. Perhaps the most important features of rural Latinos are related to their growing numbers and widespread settlement throughout rural America. According to the 1990 Census of Population, the nonmetropolitan population of Latinos grew by more than a half million between 1980 and 1990, an increase of 30%, from 1.8 million to 2.3 million Latino residents (see Table 1). Although Whites in general are much more likely to live in non-metro areas than minorities, the presence of Latinos in non-metro areas is increasing. In addition, the demographic diffusion of Latinos has brought both positive and negative fame to rural Latinos. Their newness and growth has been featured in the news of many rural towns. In several reports and in the research of academics (see the reference section), there is an apparent desire and need to improve the situations of rural Latinos and communities. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Although Mexican-Americans have one of the oldest histories of the peoples of the United States, Chicano(a) history as a recognized field within United States history is new, with the first historiographic essays in Chicano history appearing in 1970. Acceptance by historians has been gradual, but as of the 1990's the field of Chicano history has been formally recognized by both the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians. Despite formal acceptance, many historians still view the field as questionable, primarily regional, and limited to the Southwest. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This is a presentation given by the author at a JSRI conference. We are undergoing a period of wrenching change. As we approach the 21st century, industry and the workplace are changing so rapidly that at times it seems we can hardly catch up. As Editor and Publisher of Hispanic Business Magazine, I have been witness to changes of immense proportion and significance to the U.S. economy. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

BESTNET was established in the early 1980's, as an effort to link universities on both sides of the U.S.- Mexico border through microwave, satellite and cable television technologies. In the late 1980's BESTNET focused primarily on the development of asynchronous computer mediated learning and teaching in an internationally networked virtual environment. For the past six years (1990's) BESTNET has strengthened its binational ties and continued its "high tech" focus through the development of active or vibrant model technology which is assisting in the creation of an on-line binational university setting that is "borderless" (albeit, seamless to the user). Today, this type of design and linkage for curriculum, learning, teaching, research and performing collaborative scholarly work is called a "global virtual university". The design center for BESTNET is the vibrant global model based on METIS software. While the binational (U.S.-Mexico) design of BESTNET continues to flourish, new technologies are being continually assimilated into this highly adaptive project. Specifically, as we are able to combine the interests of a multitude of globally located campuses. We are also working towards a virtual project for higher education. Our operating, developmental premise has always been to redefine faculty, staff and student roles towards this purpose. BESTNET was created with the assistance of the founder of ARPANET a direct precursor to the Internet (even before the Internet was popularized) as a scholar's collaborative network, with the explicit charge of exploring alternative approaches to the structures, substance, and processes which have traditionally defined the scholarly work of institutions of higher education. We have continually demonstrated courage in tackling difficult, but essential, issues of "technological renewal." We are committed to developing educational programs which are especially responsive to both regional and global needs, student-centered, interdisciplinary in scope, and technologically innovative in nature. The tremendous success of the BESTNET paradigm is that we are not only "renewing," we are also "brandnewing" an ambitious global and virtual educational model that will yield improved educational outcomes (in both low- and high-tech) settings, within the financial resources of most academic institutions. We have especially developed positive outcomes in Africa, Latin America, the United States and Europe. Because we barter and share collectively our on line resources, we avoid the exchange of funds, academic credits and the multitude of bureaucracies that are associated with traditional institutional exchanges. In short, we create a virtual learning environment for the "world" evolving student to experience like never before. While other projects are undergoing transformation from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, BESTNET is successfully aligning to the global needs of the Cyber-Age, by design. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

A version of this paper was completed for partial credit for the Masters of Science in Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University. Portions of this paper were presented at the 1995 Annual Meetings of the National Council on Family Relations, and the National Association for Chicano Studies (NACS) Conference. Partial support for this work was provided by a special NICHD grant to Drs. Harriette P. McAdoo and Francisco A Villarruel. Additional support for this work was provided by grants to the second author from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the Julian Samora Research Institute. The principal narrator in this account is Ruben, a doctoral candidate in Family and Child Ecology. Dr. Francisco Villarruel served as faculty advisor for this paper. Special acknowledgement goes out to the following individuals and organizations: Proteus Agency of Iowa, Antonio Garza, research assistant, Paula McMurray-Schurtz, Ph.D., Iowa StateUniversity, Department of Human Development & Family Studies, and Michael Bell, Ph.D., Iowa State University, Department of Sociology View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

The "Changing Face" title of this paper is meant to suggest that the demographics of rural America are changing rapidly, as Mexican, Central American, and Asian immigrants take jobs in agriculture and related industries. The paper is based on a conference held in Ames, Iowa, July 11-13, 1996, by the same title. Co-sponsors included the Julian Samora Research Institute, the Giannini Foundation of the University of California, and the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development. As part of a planned series of workshops meant to explore immigration patterns, the attractions for immigrants, and the impacts of immigrants in rural America, the report contains insights on the following: an overview of immigration patterns and the current status of immigration integration policy; an examination of the economics of the major industries that attract immigrants to the area; a series of industry/community studies that explore patterns of immigration and integration, and reactions to immigrants; a field trip to help participants to understand the industries, the immigrants, and the communities involved; and a discussion with federal and state officials of current policy responses, and what changes are being considered. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

During its youth in the late 1960's and early 1970's, Chicana/o historical scholarship emphasized its distinctive history and geography. It paid cursory homage to our indigenous roots among the Aztecs in Central Mexico, but initiated serious investigation in early 19th Century Texas, New Mexico, and California, prior to the mass migration of English-speaking people from the United States. (Acuña, 1972; Meier and Rivera, 1972; Vigil, 1980) The choice had important political and interpretive implications. Acknowledging ancient roots and a geography comprising former Mexican territory permitted Chicana/o scholars to challenge U.S. historians who portrayed the flow of history from east to west, and portrayed Mexicans, if they portrayed them at all, as the last of the immigrants. It emphasized incorporation as a result of military conquest, in contrast with Europeans, who were voluntary immigrants. Legal and political mechanisms imposed on Mexicans without consent deprived them of a land base and resulted in widespread downward mobility, while the dominant political culture continued to restrict Mexicans who entered the U.S. in the 20th Century. The focus on conquest and the Southwest also drew attention to the creation and proximity of the United States-Mexican border, which further distinguished Mexicans from individuals of European, African, and Asian backgrounds. The political border was considered influential in the formation and maintenance of a distinct Chicana/o identity and history. In effect, the distinct chronology and geography provided unity to a group of scholars with often divergent perspectives. Key features of this interpretation of Chicana/o history did not apply to Mexicans in the Midwest, whose continuous presence dates only from the turn of the twentieth century. The early Midwesterners were overwhelmingly immigrants who lived and worked among their European predecessors and more recently-arrived African Americans. With roots mostly in the interior of Mexico, they did not share a collective memory of United States conquest or the concomitant loss of ancestral lands. Finally, the United States-Mexican border had little immediate meaning, located more than one thousand miles away from most Mexicans in the Midwest. I was born in Detroit, and the borderlands I knew best during my youth straddled the United States and Canada. The political border dividing the two nations was marked by the Detroit River, easily crossed by tunnel or bridge to reach Windsor, Ontario, located immediately to the south. Neglect in general and theoretical literature on Chicana/o history has prompted Midwestern Mexicans to complain that Chicana/o Studies displays a similar lack of consideration that Anglo-dominated academia showed toward Chicanas/os in the Southwest a generation ago. The exclusion is replicated even in recent overviews and bibliographies, where reference to extant Midwestern literature is sparse and often lacking entirely (Gutiérrez, 1993; Ríos-Bustamante, 1993; González and Fernández, 1993; I. Garcia, 1996; Griswold, 1997). In this essay I examine interpretive historical frameworks adopted by 20th Century scholars on Midwestern Mexicans, including the literature of the Chicana/o generation. While placing the authors in their contemporary contexts, I simultaneously discuss how a world-systems perspective, which is not new in Chicana/o historical scholarship, permits opportunities to address important theoretical issues in the field. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Chicano historians have begun to re-focus their attention on the histories and experiences of Chicano and Chicana workers, who comprise two-thirds of the twenty-five million Latinos in the United States and one of America's largest and fastest growing racial minority groups. Once peripheral to the dominant concerns of American historians, the study of Chicana/o workers is emerging together with the study of America's other racial minority laboring classes as a new and vibrant area of research. The reconstruction of the everyday lives of these wage workers, their world views, values and habits provides a critical assessment of the rich diversity of their experiences. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

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Summary

As "Juncture in the Road" makes clear, Chicano movement debates that arose a generation ago continue today. Engaged in a widespread and multifaceted struggle for social justice, many Chicano movement participants were inspired by the belief that cultural pride and ethnic unity were together the raw stuff of political mobilization and empowerment. In striving toward ethnic and political solidarity, however, movement participants constantly grappled with a series of difficult problems: cementing a movement marked by considerable regional and ideological differences, gaining recruits among non-movement Mexican-Americans; and recasting the ethnic minority's relationship with majority U.S. society. Inclined to dismiss the preceding generation's civil rights efforts as the "politics of accommodation," activists sought nothing less than, in the words of one key movement proclamation, "total liberation from oppression, exploitation and racism."4 Certainly members of the Chicano Moratorium Committee were eager to build a broad-based ethnic campaign not just against the war in Vietnam, but against a host of social injustices that Mexican-Americans faced on the home front. For their part, the drafters of el Plan de Santa Bárbara, the founding document of Chicano Studies, chose higher education as their arena of operation. As originally conceived, Chicano Studies was going to politicize Mexican-Americans - students and non-students alike - as well as dismantle the marginalization of the ethnic group through illuminating research. Unfortunately, the determined quest for social justice that was an integral part of the moratorium campaign and which helped inspire the formation of Chicano Studies was only partially rewarded. The decades since the Chicano movement have brought political and educational progress for some people of Mexican descent, and continual economic inequality for many more.5 Not surprisingly, within the field of Chicana/o Studies, one of the most concrete legacies of the movement, many of the same questions over which activists pondered a quarter-century ago - questions of unity, diversity, and political purpose - remain. Indeed, these questions may be more pressing than ever. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

At the Mexican border, two nations colossally unequal in wealth and military might, face off in a modern version of David and Goliath. Nowhere else in the world does the asymmetry loom greater, as the huge gap in per capita income and production between the two neighbors verifies. The border is an "open wound," writes Gloria Anzaldua, "where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds;" or, in the words of a Mexican, where persons fleeing from ubiquitous poverty, the ceaseless search for jobs, and the bane of political thuggery are drawn northward by the mirage of the First World. Distinct heritages and cultures clash at the border, one Catholic and Spanish, a society resting on Roman law, and the other, by language and values, Protestant and, despite its surging minority population, English at heart. South of the Rio Grande lies Latin America, the Ariel of Enrique Rodó, the essayist from Uruguay and, to the north, his Caliban, Anglo-America. With Canadians, Americans share one of the world's two longest international borders and with Mexico the other, but the differences between the two neighbors of European origin shrink when compared to those that separate mestizo Mexico from Rodo's colossus. For nearly two centuries the overwhelming presence of the United States has been a sword of Damocles for Mexico; little of importance occurs north of the border that does not intrude upon the life of Mexicans. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

"Towards a New Chicana/o History," the title of this conference, excellently summarizes the theoretical tensions and philosophical divides that have developed in the field of Chicano history over the last 40 years. What is Chicano history? Who and what are its proper frames of reference? Forty years ago, the answers to these questions were simple and clear. Chicanos were men. As Mexican-American civil rights activism metamorphosed into the militant nationalism of the Chicano Movement, between 1955 and 1970, Chicanos were defined as immigrant working men of Mexican peasant origin. They were heroic, indefatigable men, struggling against an exploitative capitalist labor regime; never mind that more than half of all Mexican emigrants to the United States since 1945 had been women. This demographic reality rarely precipitated scholarly reflection. "Man" was the universal subject of historical inquiry, and as the persons who populated the professorate, men unhesitantly dictated what was worthy of study as Chicano. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Over the past generation, our understanding of American history has been significantly altered by contributions to the literature that have opened up entirely new areas of knowledge and have questioned many longstanding assumptions and interpretations. The influences of the so-called "new" sub-fields of United States history - social, cultural, women's, labor, urban, western history, etc. - on the study of Chicanas/os have been profound. Equally important is the way these new sub-fields have, in turn, been influenced by Mexican American history. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Since the 1970's, huge numbers of Latino and Asian immigrants have arrived in the United States for the millions of jobs that have opened up in service, retail, clerical, and light manufacturing. This contemporary wave of immigration from Asia, Mexico, and Latin America has already surpassed in total numbers the immigration from southern and eastern Europe of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. A third of the new immigrants enter the United States through California, America's new Ellis Island. As a result of this great immigration influx, the population of Los Angeles is one-third foreign born and racial minorities now make up a fourth of California's population. The increased immigration, along with high birth rates, have made racial minorities the fastest-growing segment of America's population. One in four of all Americans are members of a racial minority group; in 16 states and the District of Columbia, one in three school children is a minority, and one in five college students are racial minorities. This demographic trend will remain constant into the next century. Latinos are defined as Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and the new arrivals from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and Central and Latin America. As a total group, they are America's fastest growing minority population. Since 1980, the number of Latinos in the United States has increased by 50%. Presently, over 25 million Latinos live in the United States. Through high birth rates and immigration, Latinos are projected to surpass African Americans as America's largest racial minority population. Not only are Latinos changing America racially and ethnically, but in terms of language the United States now has the fifth largest Spanish-speaking population in the world. This fast population growth has spawned predominantly Latino cities in America. For example, Los Angeles has the second largest population of Mexicans in the world; Houston, Texas has the world's third largest Mexican population; followed by Chicago, where one-fourth of the world's Mexican population reside; and both New York City and Miami have sizable Latino populations. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This paper was presented as part of the "Towards a New Chicana/o History" Conference held by the Julian Samora Research Institute at Michigan State University. Before the 1960's little research had been done on the history of Mexicans in the United States - or on any other aspect of the Mexican experience. Few scholars had been trained; archives were scanty and those that existed had not been catalogued; no resources were available to support travel or other research costs; and faculty positions for professors interested in studying or teaching about Mexicans were rare. With the Chicano movement, however, came a commitment on the part of young Chicanos to the study of Mexican-Americans and the inclusion of them in curricula across the spectrum of higher education, including history. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

I have been asked to speak to you about my historical research on Chicanos from an anthropological perspective. My approach is different from that of the historian, as my intent in conducting historical research is to understand the evolution of culture over time. Therefore, what I plan to do is: first, to explain to you what the sub-specialization of history and anthropology is; second, to discuss the relationship between Chicano Studies and the field specialization of history and anthropology; and third, to close with two examples of my research. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This paper was a presentation that was given by the author at a conference titled "Towards a New Chicana/o History" held by JSRI on the Michigan State University campus. After watching the conference proceedings for the last two days, I wanted to share a graduate student's perspective about the state of the discipline of Chicano history. What I am offering here is a response to what I think are many of the main themes that surfaced in this week's presentations and discussions, as well as a summary of the type of work being done by my fellow students working on Master's and doctoral degrees. If our meeting aimed both to assess the current state of the field and to push us forward, we would be remiss not to acknowledge that graduate student work is important for understanding where we are, and critical for determining where we ought to go. I would like to relate, as well, some additional thoughts about the conference which have been shaped by my dissertation research on Chicanos in San José, California, and particularly on Ernesto Galarza, a vocal resident of the community who helped establish the field of Chicano Studies. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

A basic weakness in Chicana/o Studies is the way it developed. Historically, most disciplines have evolved as teaching fields, with research fields formed around that teaching experience. Generally, the teacher evolved into a scholar based on a broad grasp of their knowledge in the field gained through teaching. This was not the case with Chicana/o studies, which today consists of scholars from disparate disciplines and departments. The result is that many of the new scholars have a narrow vision of the field, looking at it from the vantage point of their selective research. This situation also puts different disciplines and their methods into competition, and prevents the asking of simple questions, such as What is Chicana/o Studies? View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

In 1971 Tomás Rivera published his ground-breaking novel ... y no se lo tragó la tierra (...and the Earth Did Not Part), which immediately became a metaphor for the life of the migrant workers and, by extension, for all Chicanos. The novel is structured around a series of encounters between migrant workers and the social, economic, and natural forces with which they have to contend and which they overcome. Rivera's young hero reminisces about a lost year, and is "at a loss for words" to explain what happened during that year. This sense of being lost and speechless can be considered as the central metaphor in Rivera's novel, whose theme is the search for identity. And it can also be interpreted as reflecting the author's sense of being lost in a world without a history of the literature written by his own people. In 1976 he wrote in his essay "Chicano Literature: Fiesta of the Living": At twelve, I looked for books by my people, by my immediate people, and found very few. Very few accounts in fact existed. When I met Bartolo, our town's itinerant poet, and when on a visit to the Mexican side of the border, I also heard of him--for he would wander on both sides of the border to sell his poetry--I was engulfed with alegrÌa. It was an exaltation brought on by the sudden sensation that my own life had relationships, that my own family had relationships, that the people I lived with had connections beyond those at the conscious level. It was Bartolo's poetry...that gave me this awareness. (439-440) Are we to believe, as some do, that something like, for instance, Chicano literature, did not exist because no one had written about it? American critics and literary historians neglected Chicano literature published in Texas after 1836 and the Southwest after 1848. Before the 1950s, not a single article was dedicated to Chicano literary criticism, let alone literary history. No wonder Rivera had difficulty in finding books written by his own people. The literature was there, but it remained for the Chicano literary historians themselves to write about it. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Some mark the beginning of the Chicano resistant movement when Columbus was met by a fusillade of arrows in his first attempt to land in the Americas. Others set its beginning at the time of the defense of Tenochtitlan in 1521 (now Mexico City) -- pitting the Cuauhtemoc-led forces against the Spanish invaders. Others set it at the end of the Mexican American War in 1848, when Mexico lost half of it's territory to the United States and its Mexican residents became "strangers in their own lands." The modern Chicano political movement, most scholars agree, began during the mid 1960s -- a time coinciding with the Black power movement. "It was a time of decolonization struggles around the world and global revolution," says educator, Elizabeth Martinez, author of various books, including "500 Years of Chicano History." In the 1960s, the Chicano movement was both a civil/human rights struggle and a movement for liberation. In this realm, universities became one of the focal points of protest in the movement .Some of the principal demands were to open up of the doors of universities to people of color and the establishment of Chicano studies -- which was envisioned ­ through "El Plan de Santa Barbara" -- as a place where the intellectual work of the movement could take place, at the service of the Chicano community. Ada Sosa-Riddell, director of the Chicana/Latina Center, University of California at Davis, says that Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) and Chicano studies represent two of the long-lasting legacies of the Chicano movement. However, with the advent of the anti-affirmative action mood of the country -- we may well see the death of ethnic studies, she says. "But you can't destroy Chicano studies, she says. "You would have to burn the literature." View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

It was Thursday, as I recall, of the third week in November 1989 when Michigan State University inaugurated the Julian Samora Research Institute. David Scott, then Provost of MSU, noted that earlier that week the world witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall. This symbol of the cold war served as a cold reminder of barriers we have constructed, even within our own cities, to separate people. Just as the Berlin Wall was coming down to reunite East and West Germany, so too the creation of a new Hispanic policy research institute would represent the destruction of a barrier to knowledge and access on and for Latinos. It was appropriate that the Institute was named for Julian Samora, one of the first Chicano Ph.D.'s in the country, and a mentor to over 50 Latino and other scholars on the Latino experience in the United States. A pioneer in the study of the U.S.-Mexico border, Samora demonstrated that the Chicano experiences the nexus of U.S.-Mexico relations, and nowhere is this integration more evident than along the 2,000-mile border shared by the two countries. Described as a "scholar activist," Samora devoted a lifetime of scholarship and activism to the belief that knowledge should be transmitted not only in the classroom, but in the community, where it could make a difference in the lives of people who would not otherwise have access to the halls of academe. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This paper is based on a presentation given in conjunction with Puerto Rican Culture Week at Michigan State University on November 17, 1994. I have tried to put together a stimulating, clear (and brief, fear not) picture of our culture, our women and most of all our excellent narrative artists, many of whom, by the way, are men, although I shall mention only a few of them. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

While "the nation and its educators'" principal concern is with winning sports contests rather than with the teaching and celebration of history, Valdes provides a detailed, historical look at Latino work and settlement in Michigan. The author gives a chronological account, beginning in the early 20th century, providing information on the first through the fourth generations of Mexican migrants. This paper also includes an appendix on Cinco de Mayo and "Michicano" history. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

Dr. Montejano explores the implications of the United States' declining place in the capitalist world-system for the recently achieved political accommodation between Chicano middle class politicians and the Anglo business and political establishment in the Southwest. Will a possible future of economic stagnation bring with it a renewal of the ethnic/class conflict and repression that characterized Anglo-Mexican relations in the decades before WWII? Or will enlightened leadership from the Anglo and Mexican American communities work out mutually beneficial policies to prevent the growth of a Chicano underclass? These two scenarios are discussed by Dr. Montejano. This is a revised version of a paper presented on November 6, 1989, for the Institute's colloquia series at Michigan State University. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This paper supports the establishment of a Latino research center at Michigan State University. The authors argue that the rationale for such a center rests on the changing nature of the Midwestern economy and the challenges that it poses for the future of Latinos in this region. More specifically, the authors argue that given the relatively low educational attainment and the high drop out rates of Latinos, a future economy requiring greater skills is likely to result in serious social and economic problems for this population. Thus, a Latino center dedicated to policy-oriented research and outreach is urgently needed to develop policies and programs to help both Latino communities and individuals. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")

Summary

This paper contains presentations delivered by distinguished Latino scholars at the Institute's first planning conference held March, 1989 at Michigan State University. It also contains responses to these presentations. The purpose of the conference and this paper is to delineate a meaningful agenda for policy-oriented research among Latinos in the Midwest that seeks to understand the impact of structural changes in the economy of this population. View PDF (to download, right click on the link and select "save link as")