|
Educating Latinos: An NPR Special Report
The Assimilation Experience
 Listen to Part 5 of the series, reported by NPR's Claudio Sanchez.
The Tejeda-Von Medvey family of Chicago Photo: Claudio Sanchez, NPR News
|
Teen DJ Froilan Gil Photo: Claudio Sanchez, NPR News
|
Recreation of Virgin Mary's appearance to Juan Diego, from Our Lady of Guadaloupe Parade in Los Angeles, Dec. 12. Claudio Sanchez, NPR News
|
Boyle Heights street vendor. Claudio Sanchez, NPR News
|
Our Lady of Guadaloupe Parade participant. Claudio Sanchez, NPR News
|
"I think what you have here is a despair among the young that's pretty deep and dark and pervasive."
Father Greg Boyle, Dolores Mission, Los Angeles.
|
Father Boyle of the Dolores Mission in Los Angeles. Photo: Claudio Sanchez, NPR News
|
Dec. 23, 2002 -- Hispanics compose the largest minority group in American schools, and those numbers are growing quickly. In Part 5 of NPR's Educating Latinos series, Claudio Sanchez examines an issue that comes up over and over again in discussions about Hispanic children in this country: assimilation. Latino teens -- whether they're the first, second or even third generation of their families to live in the United States, often feel torn between the values and traditions of their parents and America's youth culture. In reporting for this series, NPR's Claudio Sanchez spoke with some Latino families around the country about these conflicting pressures, and the role education and cultural heritage plays in their hopes for the future.
In Highland Park, a wealthy suburb north of Chicago, Polish immigrant Stanley Von Medvey and his wife Rocio Tejeda -- an immigrant from Mexico -- have made a home for themselves and their three teen-age daughters from previous marriages. While the family's economic situation is not typical of the majority of immigrants to the United States, the tension between the immigrant parents and their acculturating children is typical.
The immigrant couple feels strong ties to their countries of origin. "No one is going to take away from me the fact that I'm Polish ... that I'm proud of it," says Stanley Von Medvey. Rocio Tejeda's affection for her Mexican birthplace and home are equally strong, but tinged with resentment about the ways that Mexicans are stereotyped in America. "Here people perceive Mexicans as dishwashers, uneducated people. It's part of the reality, but you cannot generalize and judge a whole country." The two hope to transmit the feeling for their home countries to their children. Tejeda says, "I grew up with so much love from my parents. It's what attached me to my country, my music and that's what I want my kids to see, that that's my culture. Then they'll feel proud and rich in their heart and soul."
The parents' strong cultural values extend to the tight control they exert over their daughters' everyday lives. "We literally control who is on the phone," says Von Medvey. Daughter Sahaira, 17, calls her parents "over-protective." However, she is ambivalent about that control and admits that her parents' conservative cultural values are the reason she is well prepared for college and for life.
In poor and working class immigrant families, children may harbor ambitions very different from those of their parents. Froilan Gil, a 15-year-old in Mundelein, Ill. is the hottest DJ in his town. His father is a landscaper who cannot understand the time and money his son puts into his music.
Froilan Gil's future will be one he makes on his own. He and teen-agers like him -- not entirely Latino or American -- are growing up estranged from their parents. Neighborhood institutions such as schools and churches are struggling to keep Latino families together and to keep their children in school. At the Dolores Mission in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, the Catholic Church is trying to influence the struggle between the families and gangs. In this neighborhood, despair and alienation have replaced ambition and attachment to family and culture.
"I think what you have here is a despair among the young that's pretty deep and dark and pervasive," says Father Greg Boyle of the mission. He continues, "What you have here, and I don't think the country has come to terms with it, is a permanent underclass." The neighborhood is full of immigrant families who have fled the poverty of their homeland, and are trapped in backbreaking work that doesn't cover the rent or food bill.
However, many Latinos in some of the smaller communities throughout the country are living different lives than their urban counterparts. The Montes family moved to Gainesville, Ga., from Mexico. Their son is a punter on the high school football team and is doing well in school. Jorge Montes says of his son, "He's doing great. He's a good athlete, a good boy, a hardworking man."
Jorge Montes says his wife and family love this country because "If you're good people, everybody is going to treat you good." He believes in Gainesville he has found a place where he and his wife can raise their children to love their culture and be good Americans.
In Depth
 Browse for other NPR stories about Hispanics in the United States.
Browse for other NPR stories about bilingual education in the United States.
Resources for Part 5 and the entire series.
Learn about all the stories in this series.
|
