Mexican American Generation Research Articles

Abstract 798: Increasing breast cancer incidence across generation status in Mexican American women: The Multiethnic Cohort

Abstract Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Latino women in the US. Compared to foreign-born Latino women, US-born Latino women have a higher incidence of BC. While prior studies have suggested this difference in incidence may be explained by risk factors such as unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, reproductive history, and neighborhood socioeconomic status, it is unclear how the risk of BC has changed over generations among Latinos women. In this study, we investigated the association between generational status and BC incidence among Mexican American women within the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC). Methods: The study population included 15,303 self-reported Mexican Americans from the MEC. Generational status was categorized as: 1st generation (Mexico-born, n = 6,347), 2nd generation (US-born with one or two parents born in Mexico, n = 6,390), or 3rd generation (US-born with both parents born in the US, n = 2,566). Multivariable Cox models were used to calculate the hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of BC incidence by generational status. All models were adjusted for relevant risk factors including age, physical activity, smoking, alcohol intake, education, body mass index, diet, family history of BC, menopausal status, age at menarche, parity, mammography history, hormone use, neighborhood socioeconomic status, and Hispanic ethnic enclave. Results: During an average 21.5-year follow-up, 815 incident BC cases were identified. The age-adjusted incidence rate (per 100,000) of BC increased by generation (1st: 191.9; 2nd: 265.3; 3rd: 284.0). Third (70.4%) and 2nd (66.5%) generations had a larger proportion of localized disease at diagnosis compared to 1st generation women (59.7%). Compared to 1st generation Mexican Americans, 2nd (HR = 1.24; 95% CI: 1.03-1.49) and 3rd generation (HR = 1.28; 95% CI: 1.02-1.60) had elevated risks of BC (p-trend: 0.02) The positive association with generational status remained significant when restricting to women who reported mammogram use (HR 2nd vs. 1st = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.04-1.55; HR 3rd vs. 1st = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.06-1.70) (p-trend: 0.01). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that generational status among Mexican American women is associated with risk of BC, after adjusting for sociodemographic, lifestyle, neighborhood, and reproductive risk factors. Further studies are warranted to discover the potential factors that contribute to this increased risk and elucidate the underlying etiology. Citation Format: Xinman Zhang, Iona Cheng, Adelynn Paik, Brian Huang, Veronica Wendy Setiawan. Increasing breast cancer incidence across generation status in Mexican American women: The Multiethnic Cohort [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 798.

Experience of Sexual Violence Among Women of Mexican Heritage Raised in the United States

Sexual violence against women is a significant public health crisis that is understudied among Mexican American communities. Yet, there has been little attention directed to sociocultural factors that shape conceptualizations of and responses to sexual violence among Mexican American women. Guided by an integrative contextual framework, this qualitative study aimed to expand knowledge of how second generation Mexican American women conceptualize, experience, and respond to sexual violence. Semistructured interviews focused on conceptualizations of sexual violence, socialization concerning gender, sex, and sexual violence, experiences, and impact of sexual violence, coping, and help-seeking were conducted with 16 women between 20 and 38 years of age ( M = 27.13). The interview data, analyzed using qualitative conventional content analysis, revealed four broad domains: (a) implicit and explicit messages about sexuality and sexual violence, (b) psychological consequences of sexual violence, (c) barriers to disclosing violence and seeking help, and (d) sources of resilience and healing. Findings indicated that conceptualizations of sexual violence and coping were influenced by complex interactions among several sociocultural contexts, including families, religious and ethnic communities, and the mainstream U.S. context.

Review: Reading, Writing, and Revolution: Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas, by Philis M. Barragán Goetz

Philis M. Barragán Goetz sheds a bright light on the neglected and yet invaluable histories of escuelitas in Texas. Adding significantly to the field of Mexican American and Tejano educational history, Barragán Goetz uses Mexican and U.S. archives, Spanish and English borderlands newspapers, oral histories, escuelita curricula and mementos, and interviews to trace the complexity and nuance of almost a century (1865 through 1960s) of escuelitas in Texas. Escuelitas were both informal and formal grassroots Mexican American community schools without a “governmental or communal body overseeing their development” (p. 1). Escuelitas served the purpose of “ethnic Mexicans’ attempts to educate their children” in Spanish, centering Mexican cultural knowledge and patriotism, and negotiating an “alternative narrative” (p. 17) in the face of two nations, discrimination, obstacles, neglect, and the oversight of the U.S. public schools in Texas.Barragán Goetz argues that the escuelitas created an imaginary dual citizenship whereby ethnic Mexican children were being educated in Spanish literacy and Mexican ideals while living and navigating U.S. schooling and economic advancement. Chapter 1 historicizes the escuelitas’ contexts and increasing Anglo dominance over, and subordination of, Mexican children in Texas through her analysis of the superintendents’ reports revealing the racist attitudes toward the Mexican children and their families. Amidst lack of access and segregated schooling, Barragán Goetz highlights El Colegio Altamirano, which remained open in Hebbronville for over six decades, as an icon of escuelita history in Texas. In Chapter 2, Barragán Goetz expounds on how La Crónica—a Laredo based newspaper published by the influential Idar family—documented the paradoxes of Mexican American experiences in the United States, calling for more just and equitable treatment and advancement through education both through escuelitas and inclusion in the public schools. Chapter 3 centers the lives of four women leaders and activists—Jovita Idar, Leonor Villegas de Magnón, María Villarreal, and María Rentería—whose feminist stances sustained the escuelitas and the education of Mexican children in Laredo, despite the social patriarchy and the “dislocating phenomena” (p. 16) of the Mexican Revolution, modernization in Texas, and progressivism in the public schools. These four laudable women saw childhood education as fertile ground for their social and political ambitions and the futurity of Mexican American communities in Texas. Chapter 4 explains the role of the Mexican Consulate in supporting the escuelitas and in advocating for Mexicanization of children in the United States through diplomatic criticism of U.S. public schools. Chapter 5 highlights how the escuelita experience and curricula became important for activists of the “first” Mexican American generation, who attended escuelitas and public schools and carried on legacies of advocacy and activism that were rooted in their early schooling. María Elena Zamora O’Shea and Texas historian Jovita González are aptly spotlighted in this chapter as educators, scholars, and revolutionaries. Barragán Goetz contends that this generation was the last to attend escuelitas and that their advocacy and success, in part, culminated in the decline of the little schools.Overall, Barragán Goetz traces an important and complex trajectory of escuelita history in Reading, Writing, and Revolution, making this book an essential read for those interested in Mexican American educational history. She also appropriately argues that escuelita history is the “origin story” (p.159) of Mexican American studies. Barragán Goetz corrects a century of history in this book, in showing that Mexican and Mexican American communities have always valued education and have taken on the necessary actions in sustaining the learning experiences of children.

Evaluating the Role of Anxiety Sensitivity on Behavioral Health Outcomes among Latinx Persons.

Mexican Americans represent the largest subpopulation among Latinx persons and experience numerous health inequalities for psychological symptoms and behavioral health problems. First generation Mexican Americans are particularly vulnerable to such disparities and past work suggests that the experience of acculturative stress may play a vital role in terms of mental and physical health problems among this population. The current study sought to bridge past work on acculturative stress among first-generation Mexican Americans by exploring the role of anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of the negative consequences of internal sensations) as a potential mediational factor in terms of psychological and behavioral health problems among this group. The current study consisted of 369 first generation Mexican American persons (86.2% female, 40.1 years of age (SD = 11.1) years in the U.S. attending a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center located in an urban southwestern community. We explored whether AS served as a mediator between acculturative stress and some of the most common and disabling clinical problems among this group, including social anxiety, anxious arousal, general depression, insomnia and pain intensity and disability. Consistent with prediction, there was a statistically significant indirect effect of acculturative stress via AS across all criterion variables apart from pain intensity (depression [ab = - 0.17, SE = 0.05, 95% CI [0.08, 0.26]], insomnia [ab = 0.07, SE = 0.02, 95% CI [0.03, 0.10]], social anxiety [ab 0.05, SE = 0.02, 95% CI [0.02, 0.08]], anxious arousal [ab = 0.08, SE = 0.03, 95% CI [0.03, 0.12]], pain disability [ab = 0.05, SE = 0.02, 95% CI [0.02, 0.09]]). Comparative models were run to evaluate the specificity of hypothesized statistically significant models. For all models except anxious arousal and general depression, the alternative model was rejected, adding support to the hypothesized pathway. Overall, this work provides initial support for the role of AS in terms of the relation between acculturative stress and numerous psychological and behavioral health problems among Mexican American adults in a clinical setting.

Reading, Writing, and Revolution: Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas by Philis M. Barragán Goetz

Reviewed by: Reading, Writing, and Revolution: Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas by Philis M. Barragán Goetz Rosina Lozano Reading, Writing, and Revolution: Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas. By Philis M. Barragán Goetz. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2020. xii + 236 pp. Cloth $45. Philis M. Barragán Goetz has provided a significant intervention in the robust and well-respected field of Mexican American educational history in Texas, which has been led by scholars like Carlos Kevin Blanton and Guadalupe San Miguel Jr., by examining the heretofore obscured history of escuelitas. Escuelitas were locally run, grassroots schools that took many different forms. They could be created for children who had inadequate or nonexistent public schools on ranches or in small towns, or Spanish-speaking families could [End Page 321] choose them as an alternative to segregated public schools. They offered a way to receive instruction that centered them. Barragán Goetz provides a clear trajectory for different political and pedagogical approaches used by teachers and community members across a century of escuelita history by examining instructional approaches and the arguments made by their advocates. In so doing, she reveals the political importance of children in the community and asserts that escuelitas offer a window into "ethnic Mexican cultural negotiation" and cannot be explained merely through "a cultural resistance paradigm" (3). Escuelita supporters sought the support and built the schools with the help of feminists, the Mexican consul, and civil rights leaders. Instruction in local schools varied widely and had different purposes, though all supported the agency of Spanish-speaking children. Early schools emphasized and embraced Mexican citizenship. Some also highlighted the important place of Texas Mexicans in the history of Texas. Barragán-Goetz traces changes in approach across five chronological chapters, from 1865 through the 1960s, using Spanishand English-language newspapers, Mexican and Texas archives, ancestry records, and early scholar records. She also includes student recollections of escuelitas, along with their treasured mementos that convey the lifelong respect students had for their teachers. The escuelitas offered some of the first instruction in Mexican American history through counter-narrative lessons. By analyzing the childhoods, identity formations, and educational developments of important civil rights leaders, Barragán Goetz explains the deep impact that the revolutionary and reactionary teachers of escuelitas had on civil rights organizing. For example, Hector P. García did not advocate for continuing escuelitas in their traditional form, though he used the community school format to create preschools that instructed children in English. Progressive teachers like Jovita González and María Elena Zamora O'Shea gathered sources that explained Texas Mexican history, building on early escuelita curriculum approaches. After reading this book, it is impossible to deny the key role that escuelitas played in launching multiple generations of Mexican American activists of various political persuasions. The echoes of escuelitas are visible in the Chicano era. Barragán Goetz makes important critiques of Marío García's long-standing "Mexican American Generation," a designation meant to encompass the first group of civil rights activists who considered themselves more American than Mexican. She argues for including women in the discussion, along with the home and school environments, where social constructions are formed and reformed. She also describes the Mexican American civil rights movement as intergenerational. [End Page 322] While Barragán Goetz's expansions on the term are heavily supported with evidence throughout her book, it seems the critique destabilized the efficacy of using the term altogether. A new term would have broadened views of this period and better suited the reality her evidence uncovered. It is not clear if the evidence would have suggested such a discussion, but an interrogation of how the racialization of Mexican children worked over time in Texas in light of the escuelitas would help explain the strategy of middle-class civil rights activists who placed language over race. Are there ways to connect Texas to the experience of students elsewhere and of different races? There are wonderful discussions of Mexican schools, but I was left wondering about other parts of the United States. A great aspect of the book...

Literature as History: Autobiography, Testimonio, and the Novel in the Chicano and Latino Experience by Mario T. García

Reviewed by: Literature as History: Autobiography, Testimonio, and the Novel in the Chicano and Latino Experience by Mario T. García Teresa Palomo Acosta Literature as History: Autobiography, Testimonio, and the Novel in the Chicano and Latino Experience. By Mario T. García. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2016. Pp. 208. Notes, index.) In this book, historian Mario T. García analyzes a selection of autobiography, testimonio, and fiction by Chicanos and Latinos as evidence that writers outside the domain of recognized history contribute extensively to their community’s multi-faceted narrative. Among the Chicano accounts he covers are Memories of a Hyphenated Man by Ramón Ruiz; Mary Helen Ponce’s Hoyt Street: An Autobiography; and Richard Rodriguez’s Hunger of Memory. Central American writers García discusses are Yamileth López, co-author with Dianne Walta Hart of Undocumented in L.A.: An Immigrant’s Story and Evelyn Cortez-Davis. Author of December Sky: Beyond My Undocumented Life. These authors are united across familiar themes: land loss to Anglo encroachment in the American Southwest, immigration, feminism, racism, and economic inequality. García avows that each author writes with “historical agency” (13) in addressing their journeys to self-awareness in white America. For instance, after a successful teaching career at Smith College, Ramón Ruiz returned to his native Southwest to train the Chicano generation of historians. [End Page 119] Richard Rodriguez dealt with the “triple consciousness” of “Americanization, ethnicity, and sexuality” (68) that many in his community rejected. The accounts of Nicaraguan Yamileth López and Salvadoran Evelyn Cortez-Davis speak to the fortitude of Latinas. García writes that it is often female immigrants who decide whether or not their family settles into a new life on U.S. soil. Gender discrimination has not discouraged these women from working in an economy that, while exploitative of their labor, also allows the opportunity to free themselves from male domination. García uses the writings of López and Cortez-Davis to represent women who defy stereotypes of Latinas as meek. López’s feminist consciousness arose during her participation in the Nicaraguan struggle against the dictator Anastasio Somoza and guided her life in the United States. Cortez-Davis, supported by the tenacity of her mother Rosario, also established a life on U.S. soil on her personal terms. García suggests that generational differences in bilingualism, transculturation, and political activism permeate these works, which span from the Mexican American generation of political agents to Chicano Movement activists. His approach is also an incisive exploration of the multiple tracks the authors have taken in writing about themselves and their community. For example, García points out that California novelist Alejandro Morales and El Paso-reared journalist Ruben Salazar depicted the Chicano journey from distinct perspectives. In The Brick People, Morales has Octavio Revueltas, a major character, ultimately pursue the American Dream in an individualistic manner, negating the idea that his people’s vitality requires collective action. Journalist Ruben Salazar was known for his astute reporting on politics, the border, and East Los Angeles. A tear gas projectile thrown by a deputy sheriff killed Salazar as he sat in the Silver Dollar Café in Los Angeles after covering the August 29, 1970, Chicano March against the Vietnam War. This tragedy instantly made the reporter a Chicano Movement “martyr” (128). The book is filled with these and many other examples of how Chicano and Latino writers evoke a people’s history. It deserves a broad readership. Teresa Palomo Acosta Austin, Texas Copyright © 2017 The Texas State Historical Association

Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays

Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays

Lifetime history of traumatic events in a young adult Mexican American sample: Relation to substance dependence, affective disorder, acculturation stress, and PTSD

Mexican Americans comprise one of the most rapidly growing populations in the United States, and within this population, trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are associated with physical and mental health problems. Therefore, efforts to delineate factors that may uniquely contribute to increased likelihood of trauma, PTSD, and substance use disorders over the lifetime in Mexican Americans are important to address health disparities and to develop treatment and prevention programs. Six hundred fourteen young adults (age 18–30 yrs) of Mexican American heritage, largely second generation, were recruited from the community and assessed with the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism and an acculturation stress scale. More males (51.2%) reported experiencing traumas than females (41.1%), however, a larger proportion of females received a PTSD diagnosis (15%) than males (8%). Alcohol dependence and affective disorders, but not anxiety disorders, antisocial disorders, nicotine, marijuana, or stimulant dependence, were significantly comorbid with PTSD. Endorsing higher levels of acculturation stress was also significantly associated with both trauma exposure and a diagnosis of PTSD. Logistic regression revealed that female gender, having an affective disorder, alcohol dependence, higher levels of acculturation stress, and lower levels of education were all predictors of PTSD status. Additionally, alcohol dependence generally occurred after the PTSD diagnosis in early adulthood in this high-risk population. These studies suggest that treatment and prevention efforts should particularly focus on young adult second generation Mexican American women with higher levels of acculturation stress, who may be at higher risk for PTSD, affective disorder, and alcohol dependence following trauma exposure.

Review: Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays by Anthony Quiroz

Review: Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays by Anthony Quiroz

Review: Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays by Anthony Quiroz

Review: <i>Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays</i> by Anthony Quiroz

Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays. Edited by Anthony Quiroz

Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays . Edited by Anthony Quiroz. Foreword by Arnoldo De Leon. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2015. xvii + 362 pp. Illustrations, notes, index. $34.95.) Drawing together an impressive cadre of scholars exploring the interplay between individuals’ personal biographies and the larger currents of U.S. society, the contributors to the anthology Leaders of the Mexican American Generation offer new insight into the multidimensional histories of a range of actors influential on the national stage between 1920 and 1960. Attention to notable individuals, major political currents of the time, and biographical method make the book of value to both a general audience and students of Mexican American history. Persuasively arguing for the value of rigorously researched and …

Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays ed. by Anthony Quiroz (review)

Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays ed. by Anthony Quiroz (review)

Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays ed. by Anthony Quiroz

Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays ed. by Anthony Quiroz

Leaders of the Mexican American generation: biographical essays

Leaders of the Mexican American generation: biographical essays

A Cross-National Study on Prevalence of Mental Disorders, Service Use, and Adequacy of Treatment Among Mexican and Mexican American Populations

We examined differences in the use of mental health services, conditional on the presence of psychiatric disorders, across groups of Mexico's population with different US migration exposure and in successive generations of Mexican Americans in the United States. We merged surveys conducted in Mexico (Mexican National Comorbidity Survey, 2001-2002) and the United States (Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys, 2001-2003). We compared psychiatric disorders and mental health service use, assessed in both countries with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, across migration groups. The 12-month prevalence of any disorder was more than twice as high among third- and higher generation Mexican Americans (21%) than among Mexicans with no migrant in their family (8%). Among people with a disorder, the odds of receiving any mental health service were higher in the latter group relative to the former (odds ratio = 3.35; 95% confidence interval = 1.82, 6.17) but the age- and gender-adjusted prevalence of untreated disorder was also higher. Advancing understanding of the specific enabling and dispositional factors that result in increases in mental health care may contribute to reducing service use disparities across ethnic groups in the United States.

What Does it Mean to be Prosocial? A Cross-Ethnic Study of Parental Beliefs

This study explored parental beliefs surrounding prosocial behaviours and the parenting practices that promote them. A total of 47 mothers of young adolescents participated in one of the seven focus groups, three of which were conducted in Spanish with first-generation Mexican-American immigrants, two were conducted in English among second generation (US-born) Mexican Americans, and two were conducted with European Americans. Responses were coded using elements of the grounded theory approach, and results indicate patterns of shared and unique beliefs about prosocial behaviours in ways that reflect the sociocultural context and acculturative experiences of the respondents. Findings suggest that beliefs about prosocial behaviours and parenting are culturally-structured and dynamic—changing to reflect the experiences and developmental landscape of parents and children.

‘By the time I get to Arizona’: race, language, and education in America’s racist state

This article reports on research projects conducted primarily by first and second generation Mexican American high school students who document how school relationships are shaped by Arizona’s racist political discourses. They conducted observations of their school experiences and then wrote up what they were observing in field notes. Field note data focus on how political discourse shapes school climate, especially around speaking Spanish, and the treatment of student researchers by other students and teachers. We also discuss the anti-Latino politics in Arizona that began with the passage of Proposition 203 in 2000. The focus of this political discussion is to identify education and immigration related laws passed by the Arizona legislature that target and negatively impact the Latino community. The article concludes with recommendations to improve education for Latino students who are learning the English language.

Mobile Hybridism: The Mexican American Generation and Mexican American Music in Los Angeles

Mobile Hybridism: The Mexican American Generation and Mexican American Music in Los Angeles

Communists and the Early Movement for Mexican-American Civil Rights: The Benjamin Moreno Inquiry and its Aftermath

Benjamin Moreno's short life was emblematic of the Mexican-American generation growing up in Southern California in the 1930s. The third of eleven children, he was raised in a five-room home with f...

Positive Marital Quality, Acculturative Stress, and Child Outcomes Among Mexican Americans

Previous research suggests that the quality of parents' relationships can influence their children's adjustment, but most studies have focused on the negative effects of marital conflict for children in White middle‐class families. The current study focuses on the potential benefits of positive marital quality for children in working‐class first generation Mexican American families using observational and self‐report data. This study examined the links between positive marital quality and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors 1 year later when the child was in sixth grade (N = 134 families). Positive marital quality was negatively correlated with child internalizing behaviors. Parent acculturative stress was found to mediate the relationship between positive marital quality and child internalizing behaviors in sixth grade.