[pfcwlkxav]

I thought I would start this thread for my fellow Hispanics/Latinos (although non Latinos are more then welcome to offer their two cents) regarding issues that plague the Hispanic community in the USA. Issues can include, but aren't limited to, education, economic stability, gang affiliation, "cultural wars" between Hispanics and non Hispanics, immigration, stereotypes and representation in mainstream media. Ill start off.

Education


Now Im pretty sure you have all seen the statistics on how much the Latino community is growing, as of right now 1 out of every 4 kids in America is Latino (the younger you go the greater our numbers increase). This means that America's future will depend greatly on how much my fellow Latinos and I step up to the plate with regards to education. Right now, according to current polls the majority of us see higher education as incredibly important (87%) yet only 13% (although that number may have increased) of us have college degrees. Something needs to be done about that.

Now lets look at Hispanic High School graduation rates, which thankfully are on the rise. According to the most recent data (the class of 2009) 63% of all Hispanic students earned a High School diploma which is up 5.5% from the previous year. Yet we still lag behind our White counterparts (79%) and Asian counterparts (81%). Seeing as how a high school diploma is necessary to enter into higher education this is an area that we must improve in. Any ideas on why our rates lag behind the other two groups and what can be done about it?

http://www.usnews.com/education/blog...no-achievement
http://www.usatoday.com/news/educati...-college_N.htm

Teen Pregnancy


The good news is that Teen pregnancy is at a 40 year historic low within the United States, yes even among Latinos the teen pregnancy rate has shrunk. The bad news is that disparities among different ethnicities and and races exists. Latina pregnancy rates are 2-3 times higher then their White counterparts, meaning a Latina is more likely to become a teen mom than her white counterpart.

While bringing a new life into this world is a miracle and beautiful thing in life I just feel that isn't something a teenage girl needs to do, especially when, Ill just assume, she nor her boyfriend are financially stable. That can create alot of problems and I believe this is an issue within our community.

http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2.../08/index.html

Feel free to discuss and please keep the replies intelligent. There's no need for jokes (unless its in good taste or actually adds something to the discussion) nor is there a need for one liner replies that add nothing to the discussion.

[Roorseprate]

Good OP. Let me ask you a few questions to provide some introspection. I think you have described your own family background in the past. If I remember correctly, you described your parents as "former cholos" who had become successful and moved the family into a safe middle class suburb. I think you seem like a pretty well balanced young guy. It seems like they did a good job raising you.

So how would compare the success they have had, to those who haven't been so successful? What have they done, that others haven't? How do you compel more people to do that, what opportunities, incentives, disincentives can be applied?

[nermise]

Good OP. Let me ask you a few questions to provide some introspection. I think you have described your own family background in the past. If I remember correctly, you described your parents as "former cholos" who had become successful and moved the family into a safe middle class suburb. I think you seem like a pretty well balanced young guy. It seems like they did a good job raising you.

So how would compare the success they have had, to those who haven't been so successful? What have they done, that others haven't? How do you compel more people to do that, what opportunities, incentives, disincentives can be applied?

Those are good questions and thanks for asking! Yes that is true and I have never been shy about sharing my family's story. Yes both my parents were former cholos living in a really bad part of LA. Both had dropped out of school and were essentially headed down the wrong path. Then my mother got pregnant with me and everything changed for them. They knew they did not want that kind of life for me nor did they want to start a family in that area. Suddenly everything revolved around me and my future. Sounds kind of cliche but its true.

My father saved up money and even had his older brother and sister pitch in some money to help them leave that part of LA. They eventually ended up in a better neighborhood renting a house while my mom went back and got her GED (after I was born of course). To make a long story short both my parents worked at different times (day and night shifts) and our extended family (my uncles, aunts, grandma...etc) were more then willing to help out when they could. All this lead to the middle class suburb we now reside in.

If you ask me I think alot of this depends on family support and the urge to make your life better (or your childs life better). Of course this urge just might not be present in some people or they might not have the family support needed to better themselves. Thats just my view of course.

[Angelinaaiiiiiiiii]

Excellent response. Thanks. Basically your folks recognized that they needed to change their lifestyle and provide a better life for you, and they had the work ethic and extended family support to make it happen.

The questions then are for those who don't have their value systems, work ethic, or extended family support, how do you avoid or break a cycle of unplanned pregnancy, single parenthood, lack of education, etc. How do you motivate people to do "the right thing" if they weren't raised to do it, and if they have neither support nor pressure from their extended family to do it.

I don't know what the answer is. I do know that the traditional welfare state appears to perpetuate the cycle of failure rather than correcting it.

Obviously I'm not a Latino and my parents weren't cholos, but they were only 18 when I was born. They married but separated and divorced when I was young. I lived with both at different times, and as they matured, they were able to provide me with more stability in my life. Also, my grandmothers both helped provide housing, food, clothing, and various other types of support.

Nonetheless by my teens I was involved with some shady individuals, some of whom have been to prison as adults. I wasn't focused on school. My parents basically lost control of me. When I was 18, I finished high school and determined to remove myself from that environment. I moved 2000 miles away and enrolled in college, again facilitated by support from my family.

I think this is a key interventional action that isn't always available to people who may be subject to negative factors in their environment. The ability to remove yourself from the environment. Some people accomplish this by joining the military. Of course if you have bad habits, trouble and bad people will surround you, wherever you go. However, if you are ready to make a change, it can help to put yourself in a new environment.

I don't know how you build a system that motivates people to do this when they need to. For me it was natural, as I had bounced between households and hometowns repeatedly. What about someone who's own family is the negative influence, but the only influence they know? They cling to it like a security blanket.

[RokeIdeadioke]

Thanks for the response Amerinese, it was quite insightful!! I actually agree with the conclusion you reached. When it comes to the current welfare state, it has done more harm then good. I mean why work to better yourself or your family when you can get free food and government support. This current welfare system seems to be encoraging laziness in a way among the Hispanic community in the USA (as well as other groups in the USA). Now I understand that it might be helping some families (single mothers that lack family support that need the benefits) but im willing to bet that the majority of them have the family support but they lack the motivation to better themselves. I mean after all its easier to collect welfare then seek an education, find a job and work. This I believe is another issue that plagues Hispanics in the USA and unfortunately I see no quick solution to this problem.

[glagoliska]

Teen pregnancy is the main issue that plagues our Latino community in the USA, in my opinion. A 15 year old girl who gives birth has a greater risk of not obtaining a high school diploma and this means a higher probability that she will not go to college and educate herself.

A teen mother is not mature enough to handle a child with his upbringing, thus creating the vicious cycle of uneducated teen mothers raising children badly and not implementing in them the seriousness of obtaining a high school diploma, a college degree and getting good job. Therefore, these babies become 15 year old adolescents who get pregnant as well and they, too, raise children who will go on to the exact same thing because it has been implemented in them as something acceptable in our society. I'm not saying that is the case with every teenage Latina mother but we can't deny that it is common denominator and this is just extremely sad because if we don't break the vicious cycle, it will continue to affect the Latino community in the USA and we will never come out of the shit hole that most of us live in and won't be able to integrate with mainstream American society.

---------- Post added 2012-06-18 at 00:49 ----------

I don't know how you build a system that motivates people to do this when they need to. For me it was natural, as I had bounced between households and hometowns repeatedly. What about someone who's own family is the negative influence, but the only influence they know? They cling to it like a security blanket.

Unfortunately, most Latino immigrants in the USA come from small, rural towns and many did not finish elementary school and had to work in the fields since an early age. Therefore, these people aren't educated and don't believe in the necessity of higher education. To many of these people, college is something that only "rich" people can afford or look forward to and believe that their children don't need higher education. Many believe that their male children should start working hard right out of high school in order to save money, move out of the house and start their own families. In the mean time, a girl should start looking for a good, hardworking man that will marry her and take care of so she can start having babies as soon as possible.

Why go to college and waste four years of your life when you can work really hard for 2 years and have enough for a '99 Toyota Corolla and rent a house with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom?

WHAT A SHAME!

[maliboia]

The aboration rate is lower compared to whites and blacks, that is why teen pregnancy is high in the Hispanic community. If whites wouldnt be aborting in higher rates, they wouldve surpass Hispanic teens. I think USA as a whole needs to stop this obsession on sex and porn. They need to learn about safe sex, using protection, aborting is definitely a No No in the Hispanic community, you screw up you take responsibility.

The education is low, we need to work more on that. We need to put and focus on education first rather than on stupid things like pop culture. What I notice its usually Hispanics like me who were born in Latin America and moved to the USA.at a young age that we put our education first, whereas Hispanic-americans put it last. I never understood that, im a great example of that, my chicano friends? I had to push them to get an education and continue with college, i even took them to register for classes.

[BigMovies]

Ok maybe I made this thread a little too sophisticated or people just dont have anything else to add about the topics I started off with. So I guess I'll bring up another topic: STEREOTYPES. Anyone want to talk about certain stereotypes that exist within (and even in mainstream media) the Hispanic community?

[blodwarttufla]

All I can say is that education is a requirement, not an option. Just like paying taxes and dying, you have to get an education to eat in today's world. The more that can be learned, the better. For the euro-American that does not want to learn other languages but English, you only are doing yourself an injustice, for the Hispanic who doesn't want to learn another language, the same. That's across the board, no matter what your first language may be. The more languages one can speak, the more opportunities there will be. Back the multiple language fluency with more knowledge than the next guy, the better.

[elton]

I think we as a community would be more successful if all the Hispanics decided to master English, especially the recent immigrant's (1995's and up). There are places I go too and see all the signs written in Spanish, and there is a clear language barrier when it comes to assimilating to the American culture and other American ethnicities. I know it's part of our culture and all, and I admire that but we're not going too go very far if our fellow Hispanics don't make an effort to learn English, I mean the road signs are written in English. Learning English would open them up to a whole new set of opportunities. We would be taken a lot more serious this way IMO.

[Pheddytrourry]

The aboration rate is lower compared to whites and blacks, that is why teen pregnancy is high in the Hispanic community. If whites wouldnt be aborting in higher rates, they wouldve surpass Hispanic teens. I think USA as a whole needs to stop this obsession on sex and porn. They need to learn about safe sex, using protection, aborting is definitely a No No in the Hispanic community, you screw up you take responsibility.

idk about whites having a higher teen pregnancy rate, you might want to get some statistics to back that up, i do believe them having more abortions though, the whole roman catholic thing among latinos is probably what prevents those kind of things. its kind of funny how our society is in regards to sex, we are so sex obsessed but at the same time no one wants to speak on it, i agree on you there. its kind of this weird paradox we live in haha.

[LOVEBoy]

This is more like issues with the mexican community, my husband is Cuban and a large number of cubans in America are educated, middle classes and so on.

Teen pregnancy, also very different.
Mexicans have by far the highest birth rate in America, other hispanic groups have the same birth rate as whites.

I think it's time to stop making the world hispanic/latino with the word mexican is if it was interchangeable, by saying issues with the hispanic community you're taking issues that commonly affect mexicans and you're involving a wide range of cultures, races and nationalities with at times many different realities.