Hispanics In California Research Articles

Western Lives: A Biographical History of the American West

The history of the American West is full of intriguing life stories, and the fifteen essays in this collection weave a selection of those lives together to focus on the main currents in the region's history. The first five essays cover the period from contact to the mid-nineteenth century and feature Indian leaders and Spanish colonisers, characters from the Mexican period, explorers, mountain men, and missionaries. Familiar names in this portion are Juan Bautista de Anza, Stephen F. Austin, Dona Tules, Lewis and Clark, Jedediah Smith, and Narcissa Whitman. The second group of essays reflects on Mormons, miners, California Hispanics, American Indians, ranchers, farmers, and the Wild West of Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley. The essays on the twentieth-century West examine the careers of James J. Hill, John Muir, Jeannette Rankin, Aimee Semple McPherson, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Walt Disney, Cesar Chavez, Barbara Jordan, Microsoft's Paul Allen, and the mythical figure of Rosie the Riveter.

Developing epidemic of melanoma in the hispanic population of California

Hispanics comprise almost one-third of the population of California, are the most rapidly increasing racial/ethnic group in the state, and represent almost one-third of all Hispanics in the U.S. California has among the highest rates of melanoma in the world, yet little is known about trends in melanoma in its Hispanic population. Trends in invasive and in situ melanoma incidence data and melanoma mortality data, between 1988 and 2001, from the California Cancer Registry were analyzed. Trends in the Hispanic population were compared with those in the non-Hispanic white population. Time trends in tumors of differing thicknesses and histology were assessed. There was a statistically significant 1.8% per year increase in incidence of invasive melanomas among Hispanic males and a similar but non-statistically significant increase in invasive melanoma among Hispanic females between 1988 and 2001. Among Hispanic males and females tumors thicker than 1.5 mm at presentation increased at 11.6% per year (95% confidence interval [CI], 8.1, 15.2) and 8.9% per year (95% CI, 4.7, 13.3), respectively. Rates of invasive melanoma have increased markedly among Hispanics in California since 1988. In contrast to trends in the non-Hispanic white population, increases in melanoma in Hispanics have been confined to thicker tumors, whose prognosis is poor. We recommend that efforts be undertaken immediately to target both primary and secondary melanoma prevention messages to Hispanic communities.

Increasing hip fracture incidence in California Hispanics, 1983 to 2000.

Hip fracture incidence in non-Hispanic whites (NHW) has decreased nationwide for the past 20 years. Little is known regarding hip fracture incidence among Hispanics, the largest, fastest growing minority in the United States. To assess the change in standardized hip fracture incidence from 1983 through 2000 in California Hispanics relative to other racial groups. Hospitalizations for individuals older than 55 years with hip fracture requiring repair in acute care hospitals. Annual population estimates based on US Census Bureau estimates. Incidence standardized to national gender-age strata. Change in annual incidence calculated by weighted linear regression with robust variance estimates. 372,078 hip fractures were identified. Age-adjusted annual incidence of hip fractures declined by 0.74% per year among women (655 to 568 per 100,000), but was unchanged among men (247 to 238 per 100,000). Among NHW women, the standardized annual incidence fell by 0.6% (4.0 fractures per 100,000) per year. Annual incidence among Hispanic women increased 4.9% (11.1 fractures per 100,000) per year. Annual incidence among Hispanic men increased by 4.2% (4.5 fractures per 100,000) per year and among NHW men by 0.5% (1.2 fractures per 100,000) per year. No significant change occurred among black or Asian women or men. Among California women, hip fracture incidence has doubled among Hispanics since 1983, while remaining unchanged or declining in other groups. Greater attention should be given to identification of individuals at risk for hip fracture and initiation of preventive measures in Hispanic populations.

Editor's Note

This issue of the journal takes a comparative look at the intersection of schooling, language, identity, and public policy as they impact ethnic minority population groups both domestically and internationally. In the first article Amara Holstein examines the social and political fallout of the recent anti-bilingual education initiative in California. Claimed by many as being anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic, Holstein contends that this initiative falls within a broad, historical lexicon of nativist sentiment and backlash intended to disempower Hispanics and other linguistic minorities in the United States. Her analysis also focuses on the personal voices of California Hispanics and their ambivalency towards this particular initiative.

Cigarette Smoking Behavior and Beliefs of Hispanics in California

We examined the association between ethnicity and cigarette smoking beliefs and behavior in a 1990 random-digit dialing telephone survey of 3,164 Hispanic and 17,975 non-Hispanic white adults in California. Ethnic self-identification and native language were associated with the prevalence of current smoking in women but not in men. However, both male and female Hispanics smoked fewer cigarettes per day than their non-Hispanic counterparts. Hispanics who reported smoking in the past 12 months were more likely than non-Hispanics to have reached the action stage of cessation and to report an attempt to quit smoking. Spanish-speaking Hispanics were most likely to believe in the harmful effects of smoking, but also most likely to believe that smoking was not addictive, that they were not addicted to cigarettes, and that smoking is something everyone should try once. Cessation and prevention programs that target Hispanic populations must be especially sensitive to values and gender-specific acculturation processes that create a discrepancy between the desire to adopt the lifestyles of the dominant society and the recognition of the concomitant health-related risks.

The Fall into Eden: Landscape and Imagination in California by David Wyatt

Reviews The Fall into Eden: Landscape and Imagination in California. By David Wyatt. (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1986. 280 pages, $24.95.) David Wyatt begins with a personal anecdote which evolves into the thesis of his study. The pastoral Los Angeles home place built by his father and uncles, where the author played as a child, has since been obliterated by a freeway off-ramp: The California I grew up in was a beautiful, now vanished garden__ California has always been a place no sooner had than lost; every family has its paved garden. There is a recurring pattern in the exper­ ience of place in California that echoes our First Story, (xv) So, through the writings of eleven California authors (with much passing dis­ cussion of others), Wyatt traces the “experience of place,” the interaction of imagination and landscape—a story of Eden found and lost. The Fall into Eden is an ambitious book, intended to invite comparison with works of the Big Four listed in his prologue: Franklin Walker, Carey McWilliams, Kevin Starr, and William Everson. It is worthy of this company. Wyatt displays a wide-ranging, stimulating intellect, creates unexpected link­ ages, provokes insights. Within the framework of his larger thesis, each chapter has its own, often unexpected angle of vision. The chapter on “Norris and the Vertical” is a significant addition to the scholarship on that author. An apt comparison of Jeffers and Snyder (the “California Milton” and the “California Wordsw'orth”) illuminates both poets. Even on topics which might seem mined out—Muir’s epiphany of Mt. Ritter, the contrast of Muir and King, Chandler’s detective fiction—Wyatt has something fruitful to say. The passing discussions of figures secondary to his study yield valuable insights as well: it is gratifying, for example, to see Yvor Winters discussed in the context of California poets. Wyatt’s thesis is never mechanically applied, and the book concludes with a series of “paradoxes” which acknowledge its limits. As self-critical and aware as the author is, however, one important reservation needs to be registered. The Eden myth restricts Wyatt’s study of California culture to the JudeoChristian heritage, essentially the legacy of Puritanism—even when discussing Snyder and Jeffers, who reject that tradition. His list of core figures contains ten white men and one white woman: Dana, Leonard, Fremont, Muir, King, Austin, Norris, Steinbeck, Chandler, Jeffers, and Snyder. Wyatt’s thesis thus 234 Western American Literature obscures the cultural diversity which is the most important fact of all about California. What sensibility toward the landscape, shaped by alternative cul­ tural myths, might be found in the writings of California Hispanics and Asians, among others, we are left to wonder. CHARLES L. CROW Bowling Green State University The Oregon Trail: Yesterday and Today; A Brief History and PictorialJourney Along the Wagon Tracks of Pioneers. By William E. Hill. (Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1987. 179 pages, $9.95). William Hill presents here a profusely illustrated guide to the famous trail, designed for a novice who wants to follow' it and see where history was made. Several maps are available throughout the text. A handy fold-out map at the beginning of the book indicates the locations of key sites along the trail. Sample pages from popular contemporary emigrant guides give the reader a taste of trail life and what was required to prepare for the overland crossing. The author also includes passages from diaries kept by these Oregon Trail travelers, thus conveying to the reader the feelings of joy and hardship during the over­ land journey. Half of the book is a pictorial section featuring paintings and drawings of William Henry Jackson, Alfred J. Miller and William Henry Tappan. These illustrations of sites along the historical trail are compared to modern-day photographs of the trail taken by the author during his own explorations. Many places look the same, but other sites are on the verge of being destroyed by modern encroachments. Tourists will find use for the lists of museums and displays relating to the trail. Sites such as Scotts Bluff and Fort Laramie are preserved by the National Park Service; other sites such as Fort...

Conditions Affecting Language Learning and Maintenance Among Hispanics in the United States

What sort of research is necessary in order to understand the conditions that affect the learning and maintenance of Spanish by Hispanics in the United States? Over a period of two years (1980–1981), a number of teachers, employers, bilingual education program directors, researchers, community service workers, civil rights attorneys and State Department of Education officials in California were informally interviewed by the author about a number of language concerns. Included in these interviews was information about the continuous learning and maintenance of the Spanish language by California Hispanics. This paper reports the results of these informal interviews, a process which turned out to be much like a planning study. There was, of course, both agreement and disagreement on questions discussed, but three general areas of focus were apparent: conceptual variables (about what language learning and maintenance actually means), social variables (the family, socioeconomic status, sex, age, region, politi...