Persons Of Mexican Descent Research Articles

Cancer Incidence in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) - The Onco-SOL Ancillary Study.

Few studies have examined how cancer incidence varies by country of origin among United States Hispanic/Latino adults. Herein, we describe the incidence rates of cancer overall and for screen-detectable, tobacco-related, and obesity-related cancers among 16,415 participants in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL), an ongoing population-based cohort study of Hispanic/Latino adults from diverse backgrounds. Cohort participant records were linked to the state cancer registries in New York, Florida, California, and Illinois to ascertain cancer incidence from baseline (2008-2011) through 2021. We estimated weighted age-adjusted incidence rates (IRs), and age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs). Over a mean follow-up of 10.7 (SD=2.0) years, 715 incident invasive cancers were diagnosed including 118 female breast, 102 prostate, and 79 bronchus and lung cancers. The IR of all cancers combined was 26.2 [95% confidence interval (CI)=22.6-30.2] per 10,000 (10K) person-years (py). The IRs were lowest among persons of Mexican descent [IR=19.0 (95%CI=15.0-24.1) per 10K-py] and highest for those of Puerto Rican [IR=36.6 (95%CI=28.4-47.0) per 10K-py] descent. Compared to those of Mexican descent, those of Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican descent had higher hazards of cancer incidence; the incidence of obesity-related (HR=2.37; 95%CI=1.43-3.95) and tobacco-related (HR=3.00; 95%CI=1.58-5.71) cancers were also the highest among Puerto Ricans. Cancer incidence rates varied by Hispanic/Latino heritage and were masked when Hispanics/Latinos were aggregated into a single group. Understanding disparities in cancer risk by Hispanic/Latino heritage may help tailor cancer prevention and control strategies.

Living in a Promiseland?: Mexican Immigration and American Obligations

Controversies over Mexican immigrants and undocumented aliens in Arizona and elsewhere show the need for fresh approaches to immigration. The “principle of constituted identities” holds that the more a government has coercively constituted the identities of non-citizens in ways that have made having certain relationships to it fundamental to their capacities to lead free and meaningful lives, the greater the obligations that government has to facilitate those relationships–all else being equal. The U.S. has coercively constituted the identities of many persons of Mexican descent, inside and outside its boundaries, in ways that have fostered aspirations for dual economic, cultural, and political “citizenships.” It has also shaped the identities, values, and interests of many whites in immigrant-receiving states in ways that make Mexican immigrants seem threatening, even as it has made those states pay most of the costs of absorbing immigrants. In consequence, the U.S. should adopt policies that give priority to Mexicans in immigration and that facilitate dual citizenships, while providing more aid to immigrant-receiving states.

Preferences for facial profiles between Mexican Americans and Caucasians.

The objective of this study was to determine differences between Mexican American and Caucasian judges in the acceptability of lip protrusion in computer animations of two male and two female persons of Mexican descent. Thirty Caucasians and 30 Mexican Americans of varying age, sex, education, and level of acculturation responded to facial profile computer animations that moved lips from an extreme protrusive to an extreme retrusive position. Judges were asked to complete two tasks: (1) to press the mouse button when the image was perceived to be most pleasing (MP) and (2) to determine the boundaries of a zone of acceptability (ZA) of lip protrusion by pressing the mouse button when the moving image became acceptable and releasing it when the image of the protrusion became unacceptable. In general, Mexican Americans preferred upper or lower lip positions to be less protrusive than did Caucasians. Larger mean ZAs for both upper and lower lip positions with male computer animation images and lower lip position for female computer animation images were found among Caucasians when compared with low-acculturated Mexican Americans. A significant mean difference in midpoint of acceptability (MA) for lip position between Caucasians and low-acculturated Mexican Americans was observed for both upper and lower lip position with female computer animation images.

Oral Traditions in Greater Mexico

Oral Traditions in Greater Mexico Marcia Farr (bio) What Américo Paredes (1993) once called Greater Mexico now exists all over the United States. That is, the Mexican diaspora (perhaps Cuauhtémoc’s true revenge) is evident from Alaska to Georgia, and everywhere in between. This presence of Mexicans is particularly notable in Chicago, the global Midwestern city, which now counts a million persons of Mexican descent in its metropolitan area (U.S. Census 2000). Mexicans, like all peoples, bring their oral traditions with them in such transnational migrations. Mexican oral traditions rely on a wide range of genres, from the more canonical corridos (narrative folk songs with poetic structuring; see Herrera-Sobek 1990, Limón 1992), proverbs (Dominguez Barajas 2002), riddles, and jokes to varying types of informal narratives. The richness of these oral traditions illustrates the creativity and high value placed on rhetorical competence (Briggs 1988) within Mexican cultures and the importance of the poetic in Mexican verbal art and life. Although demographers, sociologists, and anthropologists have studied transnational Mexican communities, little work has focused on oral traditions within these populations (Farr 1994, 1998, 2000, in press; Guerra 1998). Oral traditions, of course, can be performed in public, more formal settings, or in private, more intimate ones. The commercialization of corridos on CDs enables their almost constant public performance on Spanish language radio stations. At the other extreme are the intimate contexts of family and home, in which oral traditions live on the tongues of and in the space between persons, contexts that are often out of the range of interested researchers. My deep involvement with a social network of Mexican families, both in Chicago and in their rancho (rural hamlet) in northwest Michoacán, over the last decade and a half has given me access to such intimate contexts, and especially to all-female conversations within them. The developing awareness over recent decades of the reflexivity of ethnography allows us to recognize the effect of gender and other identities on the research process. In this respect, my gender has been significant in opening access to the rich [End Page 159] world of female talk in these families, transcending other aspects of identity in importance. I have thus been able to describe three culturally embedded ways of speaking within this group: 1 franqueza (frank, candid talk), respeto (respectful talk that inscribes traditional age and gender hierarchies), and relajo (joking talk that, like fiesta or carnival, turns the social order “upside down” and thus provides a space for social critique). Particularly during the verbal frame of echando relajo (joking around), women (and men) address the inevitable tensions of the existing social order, frequently treating gender with a humorous critique. In the storytelling that abounds during relajo, people construct their politics with poetry, utilizing parallelism, repetition, quoted dialogue, and other oral poetic devices that persuade through aesthetic pleasure. Given the large and growing number of Mexicans in the U.S., and especially of Mexican children in schools, such portraits of verbal art can persuade teachers and others of the creativity and verbal dexterity in Mexican oral traditions, aspects of communicative competence that can be constructively built on to develop verbal skills in the academic register. Marcia Farr Ohio State University Marcia Farr Marcia Farr is Professor of Education and English at Ohio State University. Her recent work includes explorations of oral language and literacy within Mexican families in Chicago and Mexico, and an edited book, Ethnolinguistic Chicago: Language and Literacy in the City’s Neighborhoods (2003). References Briggs 1988. Briggs 1988 Charles Briggs. Competence in Performance: The Creativity of Tradition in Mexicano Verbal Art. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Google Scholar Domínguez Barajas 2002. Domínguez Barajas 2002 E. Domínguez Barajas. “Reconciling Cognitive Universals and Cultural Particulars: A Mexican Social Network’s Use of Proverbs.” Unpub. diss., University of Illinois at Chicago. Google Scholar Farr 1994. Farr 1994 Marcia Farr. “Echando relajo: Verbal Art and Gender among Mexicanas in Chicago.” In Cultural Performances: Proceedings of the Third Women and Language Conference, April 8–10, 1994. Ed. by Mary Bucholtz et al. Berkeley, CA: University of California. pp. 168–86. [End Page 160] Google Scholar Farr 1998. Farr...

Natural products used for diabetes.

To review the efficacy and safety of natural products commonly used for diabetes. English and Spanish-language journals retrieved through a MEDLINE search of articles published between 1960 and December 2001 using these index terms: Opuntia, karela, gymnema, tecoma, alpha lipoic acid, thioctic acid, ginseng, panaxans, and diabetes. Natural products have long been used in traditional systems of medicine for diabetes. Products in common use include nopal (prickly pear cactus), fenu-greek, karela (bitter melon), gymnema, ginseng, tronadora, chromium, and alpha-lipoic acid. The popularity of these products varies among people of different ethnicities. Nopal is the most commonly used herbal hypoglycemic among persons of Mexican descent. Karela is more commonly used by persons from Asian countries. Some of these agents have gained universal appeal. For a select number of products, studies have revealed single or multiple mechanisms of action. For several of these, high soluble fiber content is a contributing factor. Based on the available evidence, several natural products in common use can lower blood glucose in patients with diabetes. Commonly used natural products often have a long history of traditional use, and pharmacists who have a stronger understanding of these products are better positioned to counsel patients on their appropriate use.

Annual Income and Identity Formation Among Persons of Mexican Descent

Standard econometric analysis incorporates racial classification as an exogenous binary variable. However, econometric specification of racial identity by a simple binary variable masks differences in the meaning and use of racial/ ethnic identity across social groups. Consider an analysis of earnings differences between nonHispanic whites and Hispanics. A white/brown dichotomous variable in the earnings equation is clearly inappropriate since a large fraction of Hispanics either self-identify as white (regardless of how they are seen by others) or have physical features that are indistinguishable from non-Hispanic whites (though they may self

A Mexican American Perspective: The Relationship Between Self-Esteem and Family Functioning

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-esteem and perceptions of family-of-origin among persons of Mexican descent. The results demonstrated highly significant, though relatively low, correlations between self-esteem and positive family affect, family communication, family conflict, family worries and anxieties, and family rituals. Implications of these findings for counselors are discussed.

Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Common Cold: Data from Five Populations

This paper focuses on conceptualizations of common cold among Latin Americans, as compared with middle-class Americans. Four geographically dispersed groups of Latin Americans were chosen for study: Guatemalans in Guatemala; Mexicans in Guadalajara, Mexico; persons of Mexican descent in Edinburg, Texas (on Texas-Mexican border); and Puerto Ricans in Hartford, Connecticut. In addition, a comparison group of middle-income Americans living in Tampa, Florida, was also studied to see extent to which folk concepts were seen in what is considered to be a mainstream population. The data suggest a great deal of both intra- and intercultural agreement as to causes, symptoms, and treatments of common cold. The cold seems to be viewed as very much in realm of a biomedical illness, with exception of ascribing hot/cold system of causality to common cold, among all five populations. Finally, cold is clearly differentiated from the flu, which seems to exist as an illness only among...

Group Contacts and Ethnicity in the Social Identities of Mexicanos and Chicanos

Factor analyses of social identity labels between two subgroups of the Mexican-descent population supported the prediction that the identities of English-dominant persons born in the United States (Chicanos) would be more differentiated than those of Spanish-dominant persons born in Mexico (Mexicanos). The content of their identities also differed. As predicted, because of differences in length of residence, language facility, geographic dispersal, and likelihood of working in ethnically diverse settings, Chicanos and Mexicanos had different patterns of intra-group and intergroup contacts. Chicanos had less contact with other persons of Mexican descent and more contact with members of other ethnic groups. Predicted relationships between group contacts and social identities were better supported for Chicanos than for Mexicanos. Overall, the study supports the general framework offered in which macrosocial conditions set up particular microsocial conditions (group contacts) that, in turn, influence the formation of social identities.

Chicano Urban Politics and the Politics of Reform in the Seventies

AST LOS ANGELES is an unincorporated area situated in the Los Angeles Basin. It is located approximately five miles east of the Los Angeles Civic Center. Covering 8.6 square miles, East Los Angeles had a total population of approximately 104,688 in 1970 (Barrio Planners 1973: 33). At the beginning of the 1970s, nearly 90 percent of its residents were of Mexican origin. As a result of this high concentration of persons of Mexican descent within its boundaries, East Los Angeles was the nation's largest barrio. In 1976 a new organization emerged in East Los Angeles an Alinsky-style social action group, the United Neighborhoods Organization (UNO). UNO came into existence through the initiative and sponsorship of officials of the Catholic Church an institution that prior to the seventies had eschewed the sponsorship of the development of political organization and influence among the residents of the barrios. The creation of this organization was one of a series of actions taken by the administration of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles in the face of the prospect that the Catholic Church would not enjoy legitimacy among some residents of the barrios during the seventies if the Archdiocese adhered to a posture that had been repeatedly challenged since its development. The creation of the organization has proven productive for the Archdiocese. Additionally, it has had important consequences for the residents of the barrios. At the same time, it has not had consequences desired by Chicano activists in the late sixties and vital to the transformation of the power relationship between the Archdiocese and the residents. Nevertheless, its emergence and functioning is significant.

Language Orientation and Mental Health Status among Persons of Mexican Descent

This paper demonstrates that the relationship between language orientation and mental health varies by level of socioeconomic statuis. Amuong lower status Mexican Americans, whose language orienitation ranged primarily from exclusive Spanish use to the use of both languages equally, greater use of Spanish led to worse miienital health. Amuong higher status Chicanos, whose language orientation ranged primarily from exclusive English use to the use of both languages equally, greater use of English led to worse mental health. The major implication of this study is that Chicanos who incorporate behavioral aspects of American culture to the total exclusion of Mexican culture are less healthy while those who incorporate both cultures simultaneously are psychologically healthier.

A Client Satisfaction Scale Suitable for Use with Hispanics?

Data from a large-scale survey of community health center clients were analyzed to assess how a measure of client satisfaction operates when used with different ethnic populations. The eight-item version of the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8) is a measure of general satisfaction with services which was developed to provide a brief, standard assessment procedure suitable for use in a wide variety of service settings. Based on the results of this survey, the CSQ-8 seems to operate about the same, whether administered to Anglos, blacks, persons of Mexican descent, or persons of other Hispanic origin. Whether the criterion was internal consistency reliability, central tendency, dispersion, item intercorrelation, or missing values, there were essentially no differences among the four ethnic groups, suggesting that the CSQ-8 is a measure of general satisfaction with services suitable for use with a variety of client populations, including Hispanics.

Assessing client satisfaction among hispanics

Data from two studies using community health center clients are analyzed to assess how a measure of client satisfaction operates when used with different ethnic populations. The eightitem version of the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8) is a measure of general satisfaction with services that was developed to provide a brief, standard assessment procedure suitable for use in a wide variety of service settings. Based on the results of this survey, the CSQ-8 seems to operate about the same, whether administered to Anglos, blacks, persons of Mexican descent, or persons of other Hispanic origin, or whether in English or Spanish. There were essentially no differences among the various ethnic groups across statistical criteria of internal consistency reliability, central tendency, dispersion, item intercorrelation, or missing values. These results suggest that the CSQ-8 is a measure of general satisfaction with services suitable for use with a variety of client populations, including Hispanics.

Stereotypes of Mexican Descent Persons

Three generations of Mexican American adolescents and Anglo Americans rated persons of Mexican descent living in the United States in terms of both positive and negative stereotypes. In general, Anglo American subjects held significantly less favorable stereotypes of Mexican descent persons than any of the three Mexican American groups. However, a significant linear trend for both positive and negative group stereotypes indicated that with each successive generation (first through third), the stereotypes of Mexican Americans approached the less favorable image held by Anglo Americans. Results are discussed in terms of a two-dimensional model that includes the dual effects of Anglo American prejudice and the degree to which Mexican Americans retain an identification with their traditional culture.

Social work with Third-World people

Armando Morales, DSW, is Professor, Chief Clinical Social Worker, and Di rector, Spanish Speaking Psychosocial Clinic, Neuropsychiatrie Institute, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles. The most recent issue of the Encythese subgroups share a common clopedia of Social Work lists the follanguage—Spanish. However, they are lowing groups under the term not homogeneous and they have dif minorities: American Indians, Asian ferent needs. Asian Americans consist Americans, Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto of the following subgroups: Chinese, Ricans, and ethnics.1 The term Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans, Sa white is frequently used to moans, Guamanians, and Indo refer to the descendants of eastern and Chinese. In addition to language dif southern European immigrants such as ferences, each of these subgroups has a Jewish, Greek, Hungarian, Lithuanian, distinct culture. The American Indian Italian, Irish, and Scandinavian and Alaska Native population is most Americans who came to the United diverse, consisting of 481 identified tri States between 1880 and 1920. They bal groups. Half of all Indians belong to number approximately fifty million nine tribes; the largest tribal group is persons and are sometimes called the Navajo, with a population of middle Americans.2 They generally 140,000. do not share the same socioeconomic Street has maintained that the in characteristics often found in creasing racial, ethnic, and political minority groups. For example, consciousness of these groups binds ethnics have been successfully accultuthem together under the term Third rated into American life, they earn World and enhances their apprecia more money than Anglo-American tion of themselves and their relation Protestants, and their educational moship with each other.6 This emerging bility is greater than that of consciousness has led Third-World Americans.3 groups to coin such catchwords as Because ethnics are less likely brown than minorities to be welfare reyellow and red all cipients and, therefore, social work of which reflect their ideologies, pro clients, this article focuses on the regrams, and strategies to achieve power, maining minority groups—Blacks, HisTheir ideologies and strategies, how panics, Asian Americans, and Ameriever, differ from and threaten those of can Indians, who are frequently rewhite society. ferred to as Third-World people.4 Prager has described an ideology of In 1975, the Third-World populawhiteness that enables whites to pro tion of the United States consisted tect privilege.7 He has found sev of 24,000,000 Blacks, approximately eral components that constitute the 11,200,000 Hispanics, 2,000,000 Asian ideology, one of which is the re Americans, and 1,000,000 American jection of ethnic or racial conscious Indians.5 These groups constitute 17 ness expressed through such terms as percent of the total U.S. population. Third World, Chicano, and Na The internal segmentation of these tive American. Such ethnic con groups reflects their diversity. For sciousness is viewed as a challenge to example, the black population comwhat whites perceive as an ideal nonra prises at least three subgroups: those cial, integrated society. Within this who are born in the United States, ideological context, separatism, lan those who are born in and emigrate guage differences, and cultural en from the West Indies, and those who hancement are thought to be improper are born in and emigrate from Africa, responses for building a society for all. The Hispanic population consists of Thus, the ideology of whiteness 6,690,000 persons of Mexican descent, provides a framework for evading and 1,600,000 Puerto Ricans, 743,000 Cudenying Third-World realities. Ac bans, 671,000 Central Americans, and cording to Street, this ideology partly 1,428,000 persons termed by the census reflects the social science theories on as other Spanish. All these Hispanic race relations, which affect the plan subgroups include persons who are ning and implementation of human ser born in or immigrate to the United vice programs. Often, these theories States. With the exception of the constitute barriers to the delivery of Brazilians who speak Portuguese, services to Third-World people.8