Becoming Bicultural: Risk, Resilience, and Latino Youth

2. Enculturation after Immigration: How Latino Family Systems Change and How They Stay the Same during the Diffuse, Bifurcated Stage of Acculturation Contact

29 2 Enculturation after Immigration How Latino Family Systems Change and How They Stay the Same during the Diffuse, Bifurcated Stage of Acculturation Contact Mexico, lindo y querido, si muero lejos de ti, por siempre te extrañaré, para siempre. [Mexico, beautiful and beloved, if I die far away from you, know that I will always miss you. Always.] —Yariela, Mexican female adolescent, twelve years old, living in United States for one year Elena is a Mexican female adolescent, age sixteen, who has resided in the United States for three years. She provided the following explanation for her drawing, shown in figure 2.1. Here is the United States [top country], and Mexico [bottom country]. The United States . . . I represent it with many dollars, but the people are sad [see blue figure composed of squares in the United States—it is a building where sad people live]. You have everything, but you don’t have your family. That’s what the people in the middle represent, the sad people. I also tried to draw a routine [see dotted lines underneath the two people in the United States]; everything’s the same . . . the same . . . the same. Your parents go to work and come back. And you go to school and come back. And that is your day. It’s not like in Mexico where you visit with your grandparents and your other relatives. In Mexico, you don’t have money but you’re much better because you’re with your family. I know that my parents do this for our well-being, so we’re here. In Mexico, we celebrate with fireworks, lots of colors exploding [see fireworks in bottom half]. All the people in Mexico are happy because they are with their family. This [pointed to the red heart] is the district I am from. The feelings I have when I’m at the parties and festivals [in 30 Enculturation after Immigration Mexico] gives me a feeling, a feeling I can’t really explain. You see, here in the U.S., it is mostly sadness. I feel like crying instead of feeling good. That’s what I’m trying to draw. We used to always be with my family, and that’s who I miss. Most of the research on Latino immigration, acculturation, and adjustment has been conducted with adults, leaving us with scant information on adolescents and even less on family relationships (García Coll and Magnuson 2001). Little attention has been given to the so-called Generation 1.5, that is, children and adolescents who were born and socialized in a foreign country and then immigrated to the United States (Hirschman 1994; Portes and Rumbaut 2001). Arguably, these Gen 1.5 children experience the most Fig. 2.1. Elena’s cultural map Enculturation after Immigration 31 upheaval of the family system, and thus are most likely to either become bicultural or get caught between cultural systems (Hirschman 1994; García Coll and Magnuson 2001). This chapter focuses on enculturation—specifically, on understanding the dynamics of the Latino family system and the changes that parents and adolescents experience following immigration to the United States. We explore three fundamental questions: How do Latino family systems change after immigration? How do these changes affect family members’ levels of enculturation (or ethnic identity) and family relationships? What factors best explain postimmigration family system adjustment? Both positive and negative immigration experiences contribute stressors that can undermine enculturation, leading to both acculturation stress and familial stress. Depending upon the reasons for their relocation—as well as the social environment the family left and the environment they entered—immigrant families often experience significant upheaval during migration. This upheaval includes shifts in socioeconomic status, loss of social networks, new or drastically restructured family roles, and disorienting cultural changes in the new land (Hernandez and McGoldrick 1999). We present a combination of qualitative and quantitative data from a study that we conducted as part of the Latino Acculturation and Health Project; these data delineate how the challenges of immigration influence the functioning of Latino family systems and family relationships. As part of the Latino Acculturation and Health Project, more than three hundred Latino families living in either North Carolina or Arizona completed quantitative measures on a variety of psychosocial constructs. In addition, we conducted intense qualitative interviews with parents and adolescents from one hundred of those families (at least one parent and one adolescent ); each...