Can Cultural Positives Have a Negative Side?

Previously, I’ve written about the ironclad grasp of family in Latino culture. Once again, I’m not arguing that Scandinavians and Belgians and Koreans don’t love their families. I’m just asserting that Hispanics often prioritize family to a level that majority-culture America may find extreme.

After all, the whole idea of sending grandma to the old folks’ home when she gets to be inconvenient is not a Latino tradition. Similarly, it wasn’t Hispanic politicians who hijacked the term “family values” to justify why they hated certain groups of people (although many Latinos were only too happy to adopt that definition after the fact; but that’s another post).

Hispanics reap the benefits of this family-centric approach. We are more likely to have a strong support base when things get rough. We tend to know the stories that go back generations. And our cousins are more likely to be viewed as siblings rather than as strangers.

Despite this and the many other advantages that our emphasis on family brings us, there are liabilities as well. Yes, the preoccupation with creating lots of babies is one of them, as I’ve pointed out before.

But the obsession with family can also backfire in other ways, particularly when it rubs up uncomfortably against another cultural positive: the strong Latino work ethic.

As I’ve written before, Hispanic culture is just crazy about working hard. But as I’ve also pointed out, this admirable trait is sometimes used to justify ceaseless, low-wage toil.

At times, therefore, these cultural positives – an emphasis on family and a powerful work ethic – combine to deliver a devastating one-two punch to another value that, frankly, is not held in such high esteem among Latinos: education.

Too often, the idea of going to college or striving for a better life is relegated to fantasyland among Latinos who have kids to raise right now and a double shift at the tannery in the morning. This is why so many Hispanics jump at the blue-collar gig that offers little chance of advancement or economic improvement, but pays good enough in the present.

Taking classes or passing on the extra hours at the factory may come across as selfish or juvenile. After all, family comes first, and if that means knocking yourself out on the assembly line to pay the bills today, then that’s what has to be done. Besides, it’s not as if studying in school is real work – certainly not like, say, clipping some rich person’s hedges.

Fortunately, younger Latinos are more likely than their parents to see the fallacy of this reasoning. As I’ve written before, college attendance is on the rise among Hispanics.

And today, more children in American schools are Latino than ever before. That percentage will only increase over time.

In fact, almost one-quarter of kindergartners today are Hispanic. That’s triple the percentage when I was that age. Those little ones will make up a large percentage of the college students in the next decade.

So there is clearly hope for the future.

Still, societal advancement will not come for Latinos until the family dynamic and work ethic are balanced with an appreciation for concepts such as education and long-term goals.

Until then, Hispanics will keep wondering why we never seem to get ahead, despite how hard we work and how much we really, really love our families.

Photo Credit: Norro