Narratives of Assimilation, Divergence, and Hybridity

Abstract

Our study explored cultural understandings surrounding the reproductive decisions of US-born, college-educated Mexican American women through a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews. In considering the results, this article advances debates on Latina women’s reproductive choices beyond the theoretical paradigms of “assimilation” and “divergence” prevalent in the academic literature. Analysis of emergent themes in the interviews identified cultural tension between a desire for family formation and expansion, motivated by a deep-seated attachment to family, and the socioeconomic constraints imposed by professional careers. We suggest that family size choices among educated Mexican American women result from the dynamic interaction between the history and cultural traditions of Mexican Americans, on the one hand, and the pressures of socioeconomic and cultural assimilation, on the other. We conclude that the cultural understandings surrounding the fertility choices of college-educated Mexican American women reflect the hybridity and difference found within their liminal space of American culture—not simply Mexican, not simply middle-class American, and certainly not simply “divergent” or “assimilationist.”