Five Generations of a Mexican American Family in Los Angeles: The Fuentes StoryRowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007 M04 9 - 198 pages Despite their citizenship and English monolingualism, Mexican Americans have long been known to remain largely working class, which, academically, has meant that they tend to be mostly high school graduates, with low rates of college attendance and completion. Attempting to understand this phenomenon, Five Generations of a Mexican American Family in Los Angeles chronicles the home, work and school lives of the author's multigenerational family throughout the twentieth century. Using oral histories of 33 members across five generations, the Fuentes story illuminates the interaction between race, ethnicity and class at home, in the labor market and in schools, which circumscribe the opportunity and resources (or lack thereof) for academic success. Generally, findings show that these factors work together to reproduce the family's social standing over generations. Equally important, the analysis reveals how the persistence and strength of the Fuentes' heritage cultural values (buena educaci-n and familism) have insulated them from the continued threat of racial discrimination and economic hardship in American life. The Fuentes story provides the reader with a keen view of the process by which Fuentes' moved from immigrants to ethnic Americans, and shows how they have gracefully survived the harsh and unpredictable nature of being of a racial minority and the working class. |
From inside the book
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Page 4
... Fuentes family . We had been away for seven years , and my siblings and I ... second story apartment in a lower working - class neighborhood flooded with ... Fuentes member , my first affiliation and loyalty was to family . In Texas , the ...
... Fuentes family . We had been away for seven years , and my siblings and I ... second story apartment in a lower working - class neighborhood flooded with ... Fuentes member , my first affiliation and loyalty was to family . In Texas , the ...
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The Fuentes Story Christina Chavez. " boat " people who received low interest home and small business loans and the well - established minority groups who had little to show for their families ' toil over generations ... Second , school had ...
The Fuentes Story Christina Chavez. " boat " people who received low interest home and small business loans and the well - established minority groups who had little to show for their families ' toil over generations ... Second , school had ...
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... second moral of the Fuentes's story emerges when we listen to the Fuentes family account , imagining ourselves in their place instead of how they should be in white , middle - class Americans ' . Particularly , one learns that the Fuentes ...
... second moral of the Fuentes's story emerges when we listen to the Fuentes family account , imagining ourselves in their place instead of how they should be in white , middle - class Americans ' . Particularly , one learns that the Fuentes ...
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The Fuentes Story Christina Chavez. 1 The Fuentes Family An Overview across Generations ontrary to the images of Latinos as newly arrived immigrants , the Contr Fuentes family has had a long presence in California , in Los Angeles in ...
The Fuentes Story Christina Chavez. 1 The Fuentes Family An Overview across Generations ontrary to the images of Latinos as newly arrived immigrants , the Contr Fuentes family has had a long presence in California , in Los Angeles in ...
Page 17
The Fuentes Story Christina Chavez. both were from the same town in Mexico and shared a sense of the past and the familiar . Feeling like she wanted to escape her father's crowded household , Manuela , at ... second The Fuentes Family 17.
The Fuentes Story Christina Chavez. both were from the same town in Mexico and shared a sense of the past and the familiar . Feeling like she wanted to escape her father's crowded household , Manuela , at ... second The Fuentes Family 17.
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Common terms and phrases
African Americans Anglo attended barrio brother buena educación Carlos Fuentes Chávez Chicano English Chicano movement chil child children's schooling claimed cohort counselor Cristian daughter despite Dora eleventh grade Elisa encouraged English Erica ethnic experienced family's father fifth-generation Florencia fourth-generation members Francis Fuentes children Fuentes family Fuentes home Fuentes members Fuentes parents Fuentes's Gerald grade graduate groups high school Hispanic homework Isabel Ivan junior high Katarina kids labor market language Latino families Latino students Laura learned literacy lives Los Angeles County Lydia Mario and Manuela married Mexican American families Mexican and Mexican Mexican immigrant middle-class mother Natalie Noemi older third-generation parental involvement participants percent race racial recalled responsibility role Samuel San Fernando Valley school experience second-generation Fuentes second-generation members siblings Simon sister social Spanish Spanish language story success teachers third-generation members Timothy tion tracks Valley wanted workers working-class younger Yvette