Every Day is Magic: Ada Limón

In her 2015 collection, Bright Dead Things, a National Book Award finalist for poetry, Ada Limón writes of moving to Kentucky: “Confession: I did not want to live here.” It’s perhaps not a surprising sentiment coming from a coastally oriented person who was raised in Northern California, attended college in Seattle, and then spent over a decade in New York City.

 

But Limón and her husband, Lucas, have been in Lexington for seven years now and the effects of settling into this place are noticeable in her new book, The Carrying (Milkweed, Aug.). It’s a phenomenally lively and attentive collection replete with the trappings of living a little closer to nature. While Bright Dead Things is marked by a preponderance of light, such as images of fireflies and neon signs, The Carrying features numerous appearances by various trees, birds, and beetles. Limón also demonstrates a greater willingness to be explicit in naming colors, particularly green. “It’s crazy green, the whole book,” she says. “Lexington is the greenest place I’ve ever lived.” Similarly, where in Bright Dead Things, Limón tells a lot of stories and anecdotes, in The Carrying she is very present in her thoughts and experiences.

As it turns out, these shifts in focus have another, altogether unexpected source. While putting Bright Dead Things together, Limón was diagnosed with chronic vestibular neuronitis, which can cause bouts of vertigo. “If I’m really having vertigo, it’s pretty intense and I really have to focus,”
Read More…

Self-Knowledge and Identity in a Mexican American Counseling Course: A Qualitative Exploration

Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences – December 15, 2010

Manuel X. Zamarripa, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Ileana Lane, Austin Independent School District
Eunice Lerma, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Lyle Holin II, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

Abstract
This study explores the lived experiences of Mexican American graduate students who completed a course on Mexican American counseling and mental health. The experiences of Mexican American students taking a mental health course that focuses on their own ethnic group has not been previously discussed in the literature. Given the history of exclusion in the educational system and the increase in the U.S. Latina/o population, it is important to give voice to the experiences of these students. A phenomenological approach is utilized to reveal the essence of the students’ experiences. A total of 3 female and 3 male Mexican American graduate students participated in the study, and five themes emerged: history matters, personal connection, self-discovery, LGBT Mexican Americans, and “Wow!” The results of this study suggests that the course had academic and personal significance for these participants. Furthermore, these experiences may inform future course construction and training in the area of Latina/o mental health

Article at the Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences: article link

Survey Response Styles, Acculturation, and Culture Among a Sample of Mexican American Adults

Abstract
A number of studies have investigated use of extreme (ERS) and acquiescent (ARS) response styles across cultural groups. However, due to within-group heterogeneity, it is important to also examine use of response styles, acculturation, and endorsement of cultural variables at the individual level. This study explores relationships between acculturation, six Mexican cultural factors, ERS, and ARS among a sample of 288 Mexican American telephone survey respondents. Three aspects of acculturation were assessed: Spanish use, the importance of preserving Mexican culture, and interaction with Mexican Americans versus Anglos. These variables were hypothesized to positively associate with ERS and ARS. Participants with higher Spanish use did utilize more ERS and ARS; however, value for preserving Mexican culture and interaction with Mexican Americans were not associated with response style use. In analyses of cultural factors, endorsement of familismo and simpatía were related to more frequent ERS and ARS, machismo was associated with lower ERS among men, and la mujer was related to higher ERS among women. Caballerismo was marginally associated with utilization of ERS among men. No association was found between la mujer abnegada and ERS among women. Relationships between male gender roles and ARS were nonsignificant. Relationships between female gender roles and ARS were mixed but trended in the positive direction. Overall, these findings suggest that Mexican American respondents vary in their use of response styles by acculturation and cultural factors. This usage may be specifically influenced by participants’ valuing of and engagement with constructs directly associated with social behavior.

Mexican American General in US forces-Ricardo Sanchez

By Jorge Mariscal

In its December 2003 cover story Hispanic magazine featured an article about Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez titled “Soldier of Fortune: Far from Home, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez Leads the Effort to Stabilize Postwar Iraq.” Sanchez was the top U.S. commander in Iraq during the first year of the occupation.

Rick Sanchez, as he was known growing up, spent his childhood two miles from the Mexican border in Rio Grande City in Starr County, Texas. Today, Starr County remains the poorest county in the United States. The son of a single-parent family, his uneducated mother once made him spend the day picking cotton as she had done so that he would learn the value of hard work.

In 1973, he defied the odds and graduated from Texas A&I University with a double major in history and mathematics, entered the Army, and quickly rose through the ranks. He also holds a master’s degree in operations research and systems analysis engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School.

According to 2002 Department of Defense statistics, only 4.1% of all active duty officers in the U.S. armed forces are of “Hispanic descent” (compared to 8.5% for African Americans). As the highest-ranking Latino in the U.S. Army and only the ninth Latino general in the history of the Army, Sanchez believes he is a role model for young Latinos. He told Hispanic magazine: “Whether you like it or not, once you are honored with these kind of responsibilities, and more importantly blessed by all those great people over the years who allowed you to succeed, it’s inevitable that you will be looked at as a role model.”

It is true that role models are often drawn from those few who seem to defy expectations. But the recent history of Ricardo Sanchez exposes a more pressing area of concern for Latino families – the ways in which military culture contradicts the basic values of decency and service to others that are taught in the majority of Latino working-class homes and communities.

Sanchez’s assertions in the Hispanic interview deserve our scrutiny. He said: “When I became a soldier the ethics and the value system of the military profession fit almost perfectly with my own heritage. It made it very easy for me to adapt to the military value system.” In light of recent revelations about Sanchez’s role in the abuse of prisoners carried out by U.S. personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison, one can only wonder what Sanchez understands to be the “ethics and the value system of the military profession” and the values of his “heritage.”

Official documents obtained by the Washington Post in June revealed that Sanchez had a direct connection to the inhumane interrogation methods employed against Iraqi prisoners. Although in October of 2003 he slightly reduced the number of extreme practices, he authorized the continued application of methods such as the use of sentry dogs to incite fear, solitary confinement for more than 30 days, and the manipulation of a prisoner’s diet. Sanchez did not eliminate these methods until media revelations broke concerning the torture scandal.

As the investigation of the Abu Ghraib scandal proceeded, it was learned that the International Committee for the Red Cross had filed numerous complaints about the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prison facilities in Iraq. Although those reports were handed over to U.S. authorities, Sanchez told the Senate Armed Services Committee he had never seen them and that he was unaware of the abuses.

But one military officer cited in the Washington Post article claimed that Sanchez was actually present at the prison and on several occasions witnessed the abuse as it was taking place. According to one report, the uncropped version of a widely circulated photo of a U.S. guard holding a dog on a crouching and naked Iraqi prisoner reveals Lt. General Sanchez off to the right observing the scene.

The Pentagon continues to deny these allegations and, as one might expect, Sanchez’s family has rushed to his defense. On the local NBC affiliate in South Texas, his sister Diane Sanchez stated: “I know my brother and I know what he is made of and he’s a man of very high morals and standards.”

Despite his sister’s protestations, young Latinos and Latinas hungry for role models need to ask about the extent to which Sanchez was willing to abandon his “very high morals and standards” in the service of raw imperial power. To what extent did the process of assimilation and “Hispanic success” transform a poor Mexican American boy into an overseer of the Bush/Rumsfeld torture regime? If the great labor organizer Cesar Chavez taught us that the greatest contribution we can make is to serve the poor and the oppressed, must we not view Lt. General Sanchez’s actions as a gross corruption of “Latino values”?

When the Pentagon announced Lt. General Sanchez’s departure from Iraq in May, it was widely assumed that he would be promoted to a four star general and given the top post in the U.S. Southern Command in charge of Latin America. But it was not long before NBC news reported that although Sanchez might still be nominated for a fourth star the prisoner abuse scandal could “complicate that process.” In an interview with the BBC, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of U.S. military police units in Iraqi prisons, suggested that Sanchez was fully aware of the abuses.

This Hispanic Horatio Alger, who believes his cultural values coincide with those of the military, may continue to serve as a role model for some young people. But like Colin Powell before him, he now must be viewed as an anti-model whose purported ethics and values were overwhelmed too easily by the military’s fundamental culture of violence and racism, a culture laid bare especially in times of war. Latinos and Latinas must reject the example of Lt. General Sanchez in order to illuminate the place where ethnic pride gives way to a commitment to universal social justice.

Whatever his future assignments may be, Rick Sanchez will go down in history as the Mexican American general who approved the use of attack dogs against naked Iraqi prisoners. In the future perceptive students will point out that dogs were one of the most effective weapons used by the Spanish invaders and colonizers of Mexico to incite terror in the indigenous population. They will note the disturbing irony of Lt. General Sanchez, the “Hispanic of the Year” with Mexican roots, turning loose the dogs of war against another colonized people.

Jorge Mariscal is Director of the Chicano/a~Latino/a Arts and Humanities Program at the University of California, San Diego.  He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1968 and served in Viet Nam the following year.  His new book is Brown-eyed Children of the Sun:  Lessons from the Chicano Movement, 1965-75.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/98/98_mariscal_general.html

Mexican American Bar Association

Here’s a link to the website for the Mexican American Bar Association, one of the most prominent and largest Latino bar associations in the nation. They are a volunteer entity whose success rests on the commitment of members and supporters. Members include; attorneys, judges, elected officials, law school students and business people of many ethnic backgrounds.

www.mabaattorneys.com

Women in the Mexican-American community: Religion, culture, and reproductive attitudes and experiences

Hortensia Amaro

Abstract

The goals of this study were (a) to provide descriptive information on the reproductive attitudes and behavior of Mexican-American women and (b) to investigate the relationship of socioeconomic status, acculturation, and religiosity with these attitudes and experiences. Data were obtained in personal interviews with 137 Mexican-American women visiting a community health center. Women were asked questions about religion, motherhood and pregnancy, sexuality, and unwanted pregnancy and abortion. The results indicate a great heterogeneity, even among relatively low-income and unacculturated Mexican-American women, in attitudes and experiences. Socioeconomic status, degree of religiosity, and degree of acculturation were associated with women’s reproductive attitudes. Overall, the results contradict common stereotypes that present Mexican-American women as dominated by Catholic doctrine, passive in fertility decisions, and desirous of large familiesstract

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1520-6629%28198801%2916:1%3C6::AID-JCOP2290160104%3E3.0.CO;2-1/abstract

“>“>Science

Reaching underserved populations and cultural competence in diabetes education Sharon A. Brown, Alexandra A. Garcia and Maria Winchell

Abstract
Diabetes self-management education has gained in importance over the past decade as research has documented the benefits of such interventions in improving glucose control and reducing diabetes-related complications. Although minority populations bear a disproportionate burden of diabetes, past strategies have not addressed cultural characteristics of groups typically underrepresented in diabetes research. Recent research literature on the development of culturally competent diabetes self-management is summarized and an example of a culturally competent intervention designed for Spanishspeaking Mexican Americans is presented. Recent research is laying the foundation for future intervention development to meet the cultural needs of racial/ethnic groups.

Health

Drug Usage and Health Characteristics in Non-Institutionalized Mexican-American Elderly

Abstract:
This paper reports the results of in-depth interviews with thirty-two elderly Mexican-Americans (average age, sixty-nine) with respect to: 1) their total drug usage including prescription, over-the-counter, and social; 2) attitudes towards physicians and medicines; 3) physical health; and 4) the quality of life. The results show that minimal potential hazardous drug interactions were in evidence and, in general, their attitudes towards physicians and the prevalence of chronic illnesses reported were comparable to national Health Interview Surveys and an earlier pilot investigation of elderly Anglo-Americans. In addition, Mexican-Americans show a disinclination to utilize over-the-counter drugs to alleviate minor ailments. Key differences are identified and explained as a result of social class or ethnic variations. The paper concludes that policy makers and professionals involved in health care delivery systems for the aging should become aware of the special needs of different ethnic and socio-economic groups.

Journal of Drug Education
Issue:   Volume 10, Number 4 / 1980
Pages:   343 – 353
URL:   http://baywood.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=searcharticlesresults,1,1;

A. M. Vener A1, L. R. Krupka A2, J. J. Climo A1

A1 Department of Social Science, Michigan State University
A2 Department of Natural Science, Michigan State University

Physician-Assisted Suicide Attitudes of Older Mexican-American and Non-Hispanic White Adults: Does Ethnicity Make a Difference?

by David V. Espino MD, R. Lillianne Macias BA, Robert C. Wood Dr PH, Johanna Becho BA, Melissa Talamantes MS, M. Rosina Finley MD, Arthur E. Hernandez PhD, Rubén Martinez PhD

Article first published online: 1 JUN 2010

Little is known about attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide (PAS) in various ethnic groups. This study compares attitudes held by older Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites and examines subject characteristics that may influence their responses. A convenience sample of 100 older Mexican Americans and 108 non-Hispanic whites (n=208) aged 60 to 89 were recruited from four primary care community-based practice sites in San Antonio, Texas. Interview items measured attitudes toward PAS, cognitive status, functional status, and religiosity.

Older Mexican Americans (52.7%) reported stronger agreement than non-Hispanic whites (33.7%) with PAS. Male sex (odds ratio (OR)=2.62, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.09–6.35) predicted agreement with legalization in Mexican Americans, whereas lower religiosity scores (OR=0.84, 95% CI=0.75–0.94) were predictive of agreement in older non-Hispanic whites.

This study is the first to find positive attitudes among community-dwelling older Mexican Americans toward PAS that are higher than those of older non-Hispanic white adults. Sex and religious views were important determinants of positive attitudes toward PAS. Larger, more-generalizable studies should be conducted to confirm the attitudinal patterns that have been identified in this study.

© 2010, Copyright the Authors. Journal compilation © 2010, The American Geriatrics Society

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.02910.x/abstract

New Statistics on Mexican American Professionals from the 2009 Community Survey

NEW STATISTICS ON MEXICAN AMERICAN OCCUPATIONS AND GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL DEGREES

By HUMBERTO (TITO) GUTIERREZ
Edited by Carol Ponzio
Graphs by Daniel Borg

The American Community Survey for 2009 has just been released by the Census Bureau.

OCCUPATIONS:  Management, professional, and related occupations.

A comparison of the American Survey for the years 2008 and 2009 shows that Mexican Americans have gained .3% in Management, professional, and related occupations:

2008 Total population 34.9% vs. 15.5% for   Mexican

2009 Total population 35.7% vs. 15.8% for Mexican

If you look closely, the gain in the total population is .8%. This number is higher than the gain by Mexican Americans which is .3%.

Management, Professional & Related Occupations

EDUCATIONAL  ATTAINMENT

The results for Educational Attainment shows the following results:

Again I am comparing the years 2008 and 2009 from the American Community Survey.

Bachelor’s degree or higher

2008 Total population 27.7% vs. 9.0% for Mexican.

2009 Total population 27.0% vs. 9.0% for Mexican.

In this case there has been a drop of .7% in the total population with Bachelor’s degrees or higher.  The percentage of Mexican Americans with Bachelor’s degrees or better has stayed the same at 9.0%.  I will call this a small step towards improvement in our educational attainment.

Educational Attainment

A COUPLE OF SPECIFIC INDUSTRIAL AREAS

Civilian employed population 16 years and over:

2008 Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services

Total population 10.4% vs. 9.9% for Mexican.

2009 Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services

Total population 10.6% vs. 10.1% for Mexican.

These numbers show that in Science, Mexican Americans are represented in fairly even percentages in contrast to the total population.  The only explanation I can think of for this equality is that Language and Culture do not play as big a role in Science as they do in other occupations.

The percentages also show a slight gain for Mexican Americans from 9.9% to 10.1%, although not as much of a gain as the general population which went from 10.4% to 10.6%.

Professional, Scientific, and Mgmt, Admin and Waste Mgmt Services

One last industry:

Educational services, and health care and social assistance.

2008 total population 21.7% vs. 13.7% for Mexican.

2009 total population 22.7% vs. 14.5% for Mexican.

Although Mexican Americans didn’t make the same gain as the general population, the gain they made was close to the gain in the general population.

Educational Services and Health Care and Social Assistance

Sources:

1. U.S. Census Selected Population Profile in the United States.
Population Group: Mexican
Data Set: 2008 American Community Survey
see data here

2. U.S. Census Selected Population Profile in the United States.
Population Group: Mexican
Data Set: 2009 American Community Survey
see data here

Letter to the editor. New York Times

To the Editor

Hispanics are traditionally ignored by most media as the largest ethnic minority

Re-In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap by Michael Luo

Nov. 30, 2009

I Goggled Hispanic joblessness and got no results to my query. This is typical of the stereotypic view of Hispanics in the United States.  The Internet media and the East Coast publishing empire are provincial in thinking that Hispanics do not exist in U.S.  The general media in the U.S. does not know that the largest ethnic minority in the U.S are Hispanics and not Blacks; which is not intended to ignore the need to point out racism for both Blacks and Hispanics.

What I can tell you is that according to the Current Population Survey of 2008 the total percentage of employed occupations in Management professional and related occupations was 8.3% for Black or African American and 7.1% for Hispanic or Latino.  From the start Hispanics are underreprested and Mexicans fare much worse.

According The U.S Department of Labor, in 2007 job losers and persons who completed temporary job were  44.1% for Black or African American and 52.1% for Hispanic or Latinos.

Humberto Gutiérrez

COMMERCIAL INTERIOR DESIGNER WINS AWARD

Commercial interior designer earns award
Honored
David Burge / El Paso Times
Posted: 08/25/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

Patty Holland-Branch, founder and CEO of Facilities Connection, stands inside her West Side office which showcases some of the office furniture and commercial design elements sold by her 22-year-old interior design company. (Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)
EL PASO — Patty Holland-Branch knows how to put together space, furniture, and color to make an office a nice place to work and also convey a company’s preferred image.

Those design skills have made Holland-Branch and her 22-year-old El Paso company, Facilities Connection, succeed in commercial interior design. But other skills have made the company click and grow.

“We always have to be re-creating ourselves. That’s how our business has survived,” said Holland-Branch, founder, owner, and CEO of the West Side company she started in 1987 in a West Side condo she shared with her children.

The company now has about 30 employees, including three other interior designers, and is headquartered at an acre site at 240 E. Sunset on the West Side.

Through the years, the company has diversified its services beyond traditional interior design. It now also sells, installs, and maintains furniture; provides move management, and offers information technology services. In the past few years, it also has shifted its customer base from mostly private companies, including the maquiladora industry, to a large focus on the military and other government agencies.

That shift, which required spending years learning the ins and outs of federal contracting, is responsible for the company’s revenues growing 411 percent from 2003 through last year, Holland-Branch said. She did not provide revenue numbers.

The success caught the attention of the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers
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of Commerce, which earlier this month named Holland-Branch, 65, a native of Chihuahua City, Mexico, as Texas Hispanic Business Woman of the Year.

Cindy Ramos-Davidson, CEO of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the local chamber nominated Holland-Branch for the award because of her company’s longevity, and growth, but also because she figured out how to “re-engineer” the company to find new opportunities with the federal government. She also is focused on knowing her clients and how best to meet their needs, Ramos-Davidson said.

“There’s a difference between those who service their customers and those who really care about their customers,” as Holland-Branch does, Ramos-Davidson said.

Holland-Branch said her husband, Dave Branch, 62, president of the company, gets credit for helping the company move into the federal contracting arena.

Dave Branch said he focuses on much of the business management side of the company while his wife focuses more on the creative, and client-services side.

Holland-Branch, who said she’s always had a creative streak, said designing some homes and a restaurant years ago convinced here that interior design was her forte. She received a degree in interior design technology from El Paso Community College, and worked for an El Paso interior design company for three years before going into business for herself in 1987.

Cindy Bilbe, president of Stewart Title, which hired Facilities Connection to design and furnish the interior of its 12,000 square-foot Downtown office and three branches, said Holland-Branch has “an extremely good eye for space planning and color selection,” and also delivers what she promises. Holland-Branch was involved in all aspects of the Stewart Title project, including talking to the Downtown office’s 20 employees to find out their space and desk needs so the interior and furniture worked for them, Bilbe said.

The design featuring Southwest colors has increased employee morale, and has received great customer reviews, Bilbe said.

Facilities Management also recently designed and furnished the interior of the new JDW Insurance offices on the seventh and eighth floors of the Chase Bank Building. That design features more muted tones to convey a more “classic” executive style, Holland-Branch said.

“You see a lot of designers where everything looks like them (their tastes). For Patty, everything looks like the customer,” Dave Branch said. “She can take the personality of a person and turn it into a work space where everything works.”

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421.

Personal file
# Name: Patty Holland-Branch
# Job: Founder, owner and CEO of Facilities Connection Inc., a 22-year-old commercial interior design company, which also sells, installs, and maintains office furniture; does move management; and provides information technology services.
# Background: Born in Chihuahua City, Mexico. Moved to El Paso at age 6 when her father, an engineer for Asarco, was transferred here.
# Family: Married 21 years to her second husband, Dave Branch, 62, Facilities Connection president. Five children and nine grandchildren.
# Education: Austin High School graduate. Associate’s degree in interior design technology from El Paso Community College.
# Quote: “I love creating things. I also like solving problems. I have a passion to work with my customers.”

Award winners
TheTexas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce gave these awards to El Paso area business people at its recent state convention:
# Texas Hispanic Business Woman of the Year: Patty Holland-Branch, CEO and founder of Facilities Connection.
# Texas Hispanic Business Man of the Year: Ray Hernando, owner of RHO Logistics.
# Texas Corporate Hispanic Business Advocate of the Year: Maria Mendez, vice chair of corporate relations, Aetna insurance.
# Large Hispanic Chamber of the Year: El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Source: El”Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
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Mexican American Professionals: Clarification

The previous two articles I wrote regarding Mexican American Professionals were based on a broad definition of professionals. I used our population with college degrees or higher as the bases for my articles. Since then I have obtained new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to broaden my definition of Mexican American Professionals to include most individual who are employed as doctors, teachers, lawyers, etc. (see the list of professions on the next page to the article)

In 2007 the total white employment for age 16 years and over was 146,047,000.

The total employed persons of Mexican ancestry was 12,908,000, or about ten percent of the white employed population. The total Non-Hispanic white population in 2007 was 199.1 million and for Mexican Americans it was 29.1 million.

If you compare the percentage of Mexican Americans vs. White Professional workers:

Mexican vs White Professional Workers by Percentage 2007

Mexican vs White Professional Workers by Percentage 2007

The chart shows what minuscule portion of employed professionals Mexican Americans occupy. Mexican Americans were only 3.63% of Professionals in 2008 as compared to the total Mexican American vs. white worker population which is about 8.84%. The Healthcare field shows only a 6.69% showing among this professional group.

The following chart is a detailed comparison of the percentage of Mexican Americans vs. White Professional workers. It is significant to note that among professionals Mexican Americans represent only 2.13% of employed professionals as compared to White workers in computer and mathematical occupations while in service occupations such as farming, fishing and forestry they weigh in at 27.3%.

Mexican vs White professional workers detailed breakdown 2007

Mexican vs White professional workers detailed breakdown 2007

The following charts show the distribution of Mexican Americans and White workers by sector.

Mexican American occupation by sector 2007

Mexican American occupation by sector 2007

White American occupation by sector 2007

White American occupation by sector 2007

These charts show the distribution of occupations and it is clear to see the disparities in management and professional occupations. 15% of Mexican Americans are involved in management and related fields where 35% of Whites are professionals. Roughly 24% of Mexican American workers are employed at service occupations whereas less than 17% of White workers are doing those jobs.

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One final note

It is interesting to note that in 2008 there are (0) averages for Mexican Americans involved in the following professions:

  • Funeral directors

  • Financial examiners

  • Mathematicians

  • Actuaries

  • Agricultural Engineers

  • Biomedical Engineers

  • Mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers

  • Nuclear engineers

  • Conservation scientists and foresters

  • Physical scientists

  • Sociologists

  • Urban and regional planners

  • Nuclear technicians

  • Directors, religious activities and education

  • Archivists, curators, and museum technicians

  • Media and communication equipment workers

  • Podiatrists

  • Audiologists

  • Health diagnosing and treating practitioners

  • Fish and game wardens

  • Ship and boat captains and operators

Conclusions and Prospects

If you examine the trend for the years from 2007 to 2008 it’s not an optimistic one. In the chart Management and professional occupations the numbers are not moving up from year to year and in some cases the number have gone down.

I have not read any studies that nail down why these numbers are not showing improvement, but there are some writers who do offer some explanations.

Mitchell A. Kaplan in an article for the Hispanic Outlook on March 3, 2009 states that Hispanics face five major social and economic barriers to educational opportunity. They are:

  1. Lack of supportive social and economic resources….

  2. The immigrant and socioeconomic status of their parents.

  3. The lack of parental knowledge of the internal workings of the American educational system.

  4. Inadequate school resources to help compensate for educational disparities.

  5. Weak relationships that Hispanics form with their teachers that tend to undermine their success.

Once again, please note that the above statements refer to Hispanic and not specifically to Mexican Americans.

It is my hope that some of these negative trends turn around.  They are a reminder that great disparities in professional employment still exist between the white community and the Mexican American community.

Sources:

1. “Labor Force Characteristics by Race and Ethnicity”, 2007. U.S Department of Labor. Report 1005.   P. 4, 9

2. Household Data: Annual Averages. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employed Hispanic or Latino workers by sex, occupation, class of worker, full-or part-time status, and detailed ethnic group.

Mexican American Professionals Finally Have An Online Home

Mexican American Pro Archives website, mexican-american-proarchive.com, is dedicated to sharing articles and pertinent information on “the silent minority.”

SAN FRANCISCO, May 3, 2009 – Lack of centralized information on “the silent minority” inspired, Humberto Gutierrez, to establish mexican-american-proarchive.com as a resource dedicated to tracking the progress of Mexican American Professionals in the U.S.

The website includes original content from Mr. Gutierrez, a Mexican American writer and educator, but also encourages readers to post information relevant to the topic. Gutierrez “hopes the site will become an archive and resource of information to facilitate the distribution of information which impacts Mexican American Professionals.”

Gutierrez stresses that there is a significant lack of serious research on the Mexican American Professional demographic. He came to this realization about fives years ago after an unsuccessful attempt to find reliable information on the topic.

Gutierrez’s quest for information prompted “The Silent Minority: Mexican American Professionals. An Odyssey in Search of Elusive data.” The article, published in Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine on July 28 2003, discusses the lack of reliable data on Mexican American Professionals.

Since publishing the article, Gutierrez has acquired updated information. Latest numbers from the Census Bureau’s 2007 American Community Survey show that Mexican American college graduates are greatly underrepresented when compared to other Hispanics.

Mexican Americans have and are still relegated to tired stereotypes of drug traffickers, lovers and service workers. The Mexican American community numbers close to 30 million, roughly 10% of our total population. The Mexican American Community is represented by a wide variety of persons including professionals. As a group, Mexican American professionals have been largely ignored by the news media. Recent numbers show that Mexican American College graduates represent only 6.2 % of their total population. This compares with 29.4% for Non-Hispanic graduates.

Mexican Americans are the lowest in educational attainment among Hispanics. Compared with other Foreign Born groups, Mexican Americans do even worse. For example, college graduates from Mexico represent 5.2% of their total population. In comparison, Indian college graduates have a 74.1% representation.

About mexican-american-proarchive.com:
Mexican American Pro Archives (https://www.mexican-american-proarchive.com) is dedicated to archiving information about Mexican American Professionals. Creator and administrator, Humberto Gutierrez, was born in Chihuahua Mexico and relocated to the United States as a teenager. Gutierrez has been an educator and writer for over 35 years. Please contact to request more information.

Contact:
Humberto Gutierrez, Administrator
Mexican American Pro Archives
Phone: 650-738-8584
betooliv@comcast.net

The Silent Minority: Mexican-American Professionals

At last, some data

Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez

Since I wrote the first article about Mexican-American Professionals, the Census Bureau has created The American Community Survey (ACS). It …”is part of the Decennial Census Program. It is a survey that is sent to a small percentage of our population on a rotating basis. This data was previously collected only in census years in conjunction with the decennial census. Since the ACS is conducted every year, rather than once every ten years, it will provide more current data…” Given this fact, statistical information about Mexican-Americans is much more current and precise.

Why should we care?

From the year 2,000 to the present, Mexicans 25 years and older had the lowest proportion of Hispanics with a bachelor’s degree or more.


Census Bureau 2000 Demographic Profile characteristics: Race, ethnic, or ancestry group.

Percent of Population with a Bachelors Degree or Higher by Hispanic Origin: 2002

Then and now: Have Mexican- American Professionals grown in numbers since 2004?

The answer is yes, but not by much.

  • In 1985 the educational attainment of Mexican-Americans 25 years or older was 5.5%
  • In 1989 it was 6.1%
  • In 2,000 it was 7%
  • In 2002 it was 7.6%
  • During the years 2005 to 2007 it was 6.0%
  • In 2007 it was 6.2%

You may ask; why did the numbers drop from 2002 to 2005?

The reason is that these are percentages of the total Mexican- American population which in:

  • 2002 numbered 25.1 million
  • 2005 numbered 28.1 million
  • 2007 numbered 29.1 million

Between 2002 and 2005 there was an increase of 3 million Mexican-Americans, therefore the growth among Mexican-American college graduates had to increase by that proportional amount and obviously, it did not.

How do percentages of Mexican- American college graduate students compare with non-Hispanic groups? The chart below shows how the two groups compared in 2002.


Census Bureau 2005-2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates.

Source: Current Populatino Survey, March 2002, PGP-5

Other years we can compare the contrast between Mexican-American and Non-Hispanic groups that have attained a B.A. or more are:

In 1989 21.1 % of the non-Hispanic group had earned a B.A. or more, compared to 6.1 for Mexican-Americans.

  • In 2,000 24.4% for non- Hispanics and 7% for Mexican-Americans.
  • In 2,002 29% for non-Hispanics and 7.6% for Mexican Americans.

From 2005 to 2007 it was 27% for non-Hispanics and 6% for Mexican-Americans. The percentage of Non-Hispanic white is 29.4 compared with 11.1 for Hispanics and 7.6 for Mexicans.

Foreign born Mexican-American fared even worse. In 2007 Educational Attainment by Mexicans at the B.A. degree or more was only 5.2%.


Census Bureau, Foreign Born Population in the United States: 2003.

Educational Attainment by Nativity, Showing Countries of Birth of the Foreign-Born Population with 1 Million or More: 2007
Educational Attainment by Nativity, Showing Countries of Birth of the Foreign-Born Population with 1 Million or More: 2007

Educational Attainment by Nativity 2007 pt2

What are some reasons for the great discrepancy between Mexican-American and Mexican academic achievement and Non-Hispanic populations?

One possible explanation is that Mexican-Americans are mostly employed in service, precision, production, craft and transportation jobs. This means that both Mexican groups have limited economic resources to fund their college careers. To this point, the Hispanic-Serving Institution Program found in areas which service Hispanics, funds Hispanics who want to attend college. There is a statistical chart entitled “Location of Hispanic-Serving Institutions of Higher Education in the United States by State and Percentage of Latino Undergraduates Enrolled 2003 to 2004”. This data can be found at the National Center for Education Statistics IPEDS Survey 2003 to2004.

One last comment.

It is interesting to note that the level of students in Higher Education (Instruccion Superior) in Mexico for 25 to 30 year olds is 16% of the total Mexican population.


Los Jóvenes en México, Instituto de Estadística Geográfica e Informática. PDF file, starts on P174.

nivel_de_instruccion_pt1
nivel_de_instruccion_pt2

In summary:

We have made some progress filling in the gap between Mexican-American professionals (6.1% in 1989) to (6.2% in 2007) and Non-Hispanics which in 2007 number 27%. At this pace it would take Mexican-American 27 years to catch up with the Non-Hispanic population.

Sources:

These PDF files are the complete documents, parts of which were used to write the above article.

Getting to Know You Better


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Getting to Know You Better is an article written by a father, among the millions, whose children grew up with their mother. It is about his relationship with his grown daughter.
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Poem

“…And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while…”

T.S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Mexican American Proarchive Annual Report for 2022

The American Community Survey is an annual survey administered by the federal government to help local officials and community leaders and businesses understand the changes that take place in their communities. It includes percentages of our population’s graduate school attainment and the employment of Mexican Americans in various occupations.  These important factors influence the allocation of federal resources. Mexican American Proarchives uses the data provided by the American Community Survey to better understand how Mexican Americans compare to the general population.

Read More…