Becoming Bicultural: Risk, Resilience, and Latino Youth

4. Balancing between Two Worlds: The Integration Stage of Bicultural Development

100 4 Balancing between Two Worlds The Integration Stage of Bicultural Development For me, my drawing [see figure 4.1] represents how I feel sometimes. How I feel confused, and how I feel about living here. I feel confused about living here away from my family, but I try not to think too much about that. It’s as if I were raised here, you understand? I live here, but in reality, I feel confused because I like it here, but I also need and miss my other country. The longer you’re here the more confused you get, because you don’t know if it’s better to be here how we are now, or if it would be better to be over there. Sometimes it’s more confusing. You sacrifice having family close because you can’t have everything in both places [Mexico and the United States]. It’s hard. It’s very hard to be in one place but want to be in another. Difficult. Difficult. And . . . umm, very confusing, because it’s something you can’t choose. Your parents chose it. It’s difficult when you remember what you did there when you were with your family. It’s difficult when you think about being in Mexico, but you are here. It’s difficult on holidays like Christmas and the month of festivities, and New Year’s, and all that. —Juana, female adolescent Figure 4.1 shows Juana’s cultural map. The drawing illustrates her conflict and confusion about living between cultures. Her worlds are bifurcated, separate, and difficult to reconcile, representing a lower level of bicultural identity integration. Over time and with effort, this becomes easier for most bicultural adolescents as they navigate between the cultural systems with more fluidity and are able to integrate disparate cultural messages . In this chapter, we highlight the stages of bicultural identity development and discuss how different environmental systems (family, friends, peers) influence the process of becoming bicultural. Balancing between Two Worlds 101 In this chapter, we use alternation theory as a guide in exploring the cultural capital, opportunities, and challenges that immigrant families face in living between two cultures. Alternation theorists argue that there is great value in the individual’s maintaining her or his culture-of-origin while acquiring a second culture (Berry 1998; Feliciano 2001). Alternation theory is in strong contrast to the assimilation model, in which linear, onedirectional change is emphasized. Alternation theory highlights integration of divergent norms, traditions, customs, and languages rather than assimilation from one culture to another (Gonzales et al. 2004). As we discussed in chapter 1, acculturation was first defined as “phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first hand contact with subsequent changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups” (Redfield, Linton, and Herskovits 1936, 149). This original definition stressed continuous, longterm change and allowed for a bidirectional process, in which two interacting cultures could make accommodations. Contact between members of different cultural groups would precipitate cultural changes, with neither of the cultures lost or replaced by the other. Consequently, acculturation suggests cultural accommodation but does not assume assimilation. According to Berry (1998), acculturation has two criteria: whether the acculturating individual or group maintains a positive relationship with the Fig. 4.1. Juana’s cultural map 102 Balancing between Two Worlds culture-of-origin, and whether the acculturating individual or group establishes a positive relationship to the host culture. In contrast, assimilation theory posits that a positive relationship to the dominant society is established without retention of ethnic identity. However, in alternation theory, the individual establishes a moderate-to-strong positive relationship to the host culture while also maintaining a moderate-to-strong positive relationship to the culture-of-origin. Alternation theory is aligned with the original Redfield et al. (1936) definition of acculturation that allows for dynamic bidirectional adaptations to occur in either or both cultures. Assimilation theory is aligned with subsequent modifications to this definition that hypothesized that unidirectional change is imposed by the dominant onto the nondominant group. In the following sections of this chapter, we describe Latino immigrant families’ relationships to their culture-of-origin. Then, we explore their relationship to the U.S. host culture. The combination of these two cultural forces leads to a detailed discussion of biculturalism. We examine benefits and challenges inherent in developing bicultural skills, paying special attention to the...