Kristin Hamon

Birds of a Feather: Comparing the Flight Patterns of Mexican American Immigrants to Their Children

After working in a Houston high school for three years, a friend of mine wrote a story to chronicle a seemingly archetypal immigrant experience she witnessed among her Mexican American students. “Mariposa’s Flight” is a story about a young girl who is faced with the classic “immigrant” experience (Stages described in Objective 2) when she must choose to migrate away from her family and Mexican American community for a life of academia and an identity closer to that of the dominant culture. Mariposa’s dilemma resembles the second flight that many of my second-generation students are forced to pursue. This knowledge made me question whether the first or second generation faces a more perilous journey. The flight of the first generation is a migration away from one’s homeland, while the second generation moves away from one’s culture. Which flight is then more hazardous? Before this class, I assumed that each successive generation would continue to face fewer obstacles than the one before; however, our study of the minority narrative made me question this belief.  My curiosity led me to compare the separate generational narratives of Mexican immigrants in an attempt to uncover the similarities and differences between the two migrations.

One of the most notable obstacles for my first generation students is their struggle to learn a new language. This seems to be the most common and powerful way that these immigrants feel ostracized from the rest of their Americanized peers. These students can play American sports or wear American fashions, but without language, opinions are impossible and acculturation slips away. According to Golash-Boza one major type of acculturation is known as “segmented assimilation” (30). The realm of segmented assimilated breaks into three distinct paths (discussed quite often in our Immigrant Literature course): “upward mobility, downward assimilation, and selective acculturation” (Golash-Boza 30). The best example of upward mobility can be seen in the lives of my Vietnamese students who exist as involuntary members of the model minority. They are expected to be intelligent and it seems this self-fulfilling prophecy holds true. In the three years that I have taught at Cesar Chavez High School (89% Hispanic), only Asian valedictorians have given the commencement addresses. Many of these students seem to have an easier time in their academic pursuits due to the high level of parental support. In some ways, these Vietnamese students could also be classified as choosing “selective acculturation.” The parents seem to encourage assimilating to the positive aspects of American life while rejecting the anti-intellectualism that has invaded many American homes. Many of the Hispanic families, however, seem to reject both upward assimilation and selective acculturation in order to create a distinct community more similar to that of the minority culture.

Downward assimilation occurs when a family or culture rejects assimilating to the dominant culture. Objective 3 describes the minority narrative as one that will “assert difference by choosing separatism, tradition, male privilege, separate language, and other behaviors that resist assimilation and advancement.” In this way, the Mexican American family narrative can be seen to fit that of the minority culture. Unfortunately, the parents who decide to live in a distinct cultural community may not realize that their choice will force their children to relive the immigrant experience of their parents. By choosing a narrative similar to the minority community and deciding to distance themselves from the dominant culture, these adolescents are forced to choose whether or not they would like to remain in the safe haven of their family’s culture.

Elo Lopez*, a junior at Chavez High School, explained the frustrating rift that exists between many Mexican American children and their parents. He stated, “The relationship with my parents is pretty strained, but this is pretty typical. Lots of Mexican parents freak out when their kids come home speaking more English than Spanish, wanting to date other races, and worst of all, wanting to leave for college” (Interview with Elo Lopez). He also clarified that American trends are often tolerated, but choosing to leave would be like “betraying your family.” I asked him if he could compare leaving his family to his parents leaving their home country for America. He explained that although it was physically hard to travel to a new country, learn a language, and find economic stability, most of his family traveled into the East End of Houston, where a distinct community was waiting to welcome them. Elo explained that he thought “moving to Friendswood” or going to a school that is not 89% Hispanic would be a more “emotional” flight because of the feelings of betrayal voiced by his parents.

James P. Allen describes what Elo seems to be experiencing. He alleges that “having grown up in United States culture and society, the children of immigrants compare their status and prospects for economic advancement to those of other Americans, not to their parents’ lives in the old country” (16-17). This dissimilar view of success seems to be the determining factor in the split between the narrative of the first and second generation. I have listened to many students explain that their parents seem to be “OK” with their current economic status, and, as a result, the children are deemed unthankful for not feeling the same satisfaction. Allen claims that even though the views of success may differ, creating ethnic ties between generations could assist in creating a narrative of individuality for the second generation while simultaneously bringing them closer to their family culture (19). Allen purports that “children of immigrants seem to do best when their education builds upon whatever bases are represented by the parents’ cultures” (19). This concept of segmented acculturation is described by Golash-Boza as “most beneficial for children of immigrants” because it “allows them to hold on to the positive traits of their ethnic communities without risking downward assimilation into the underclass” (30).

It seems as though the first and second generations of Mexican immigrants are experiencing a collective narrative equivalent to the stereotypical immigrant pattern, but they do not realize it. Although a journey from one’s homeland is difficult, so is journeying away from one’s family and culture. Unfortunately, most parents do not seem to be able to understand the frightening aspects of this “second flight.” Nash Candelaria typifies the standard reaction to “white behavior” found in the children of immigrants. When finding out Tito has shirked his duty and dodged the draft, his father exclaims, “I should have never have let him go to college” where he can get “such crazy radical ideas” from “those rich college boys” (223). Tito’s father did not realize that adopting Americanized beliefs was a method of survival for his son, just as Senor Martinez’s struggle to learn English and gain citizenship was essential to his continued existence.

I originally thought that the migration of my second generation students was much more frightening than that of their parents. After my research, however, I realized that the narrative of the parents and children are analogous. The only misunderstanding concerning assimilation that seems to exist between Mexican immigrants and their children is the lack of awareness that both generations are sharing a collective narrative. Both generational journeys force each respective group to forsake something they hold dear and select a pattern of assimilation that will create the brightest and most secure future. Perhaps if this shared narrative is discussed and exposed, then parents could adopt a new method of segmented acculturation. Instead of resisting all aspects of the dominant culture, these first generation Mexican immigrant parents could choose to elect specific and beneficial elements of the dominant culture in order to eliminate a forced flight of migration for their children.

Works Cited

*Student names have been changed for protection of privacy

Allen, James P. "How Successful Are Recent Immigrants to the United States and Their Children?" APCG Yearbook 68.1 (2006): 9-32. Project Muse. U of Houston, Clear Lake Lib., Houston, TX. 3 July 2008.

Candelaria, Nash. “El Patron.” from Imagining America: Stories from the Promised Land. Persea Books: New York. 221-228.

Golash-Boza, Tanya. "Dropping the Hyphen? Becoming Latino(a)-American through Racialized Assimilation." Social Forces 85.1 (2006): 27-55. Project Muse. U of Houston, Clear Lake Lib., Houston, TX. 2 July 2008.

Lopez, Elo. Personal Interview. 5 July 2008.

White, Craig. “Graduate Immigrant Literature Syllabus.” Summer 2008