Como un bronceador en casa de esquimales: Life of Latin American descendents in the US.

It is interesting how many United Statians call "latino culture" to cultural elements which haven't been born in Latin America at all; for instance, the over-sized pants and t-shirt, the caps leaning to the side, the distinctive cadence while walking, the so-called-music "reggaetón," etc. Even more importantly, certain long-rooted ideas --like that poverty, crime and family disintegration are intrinsically related-- are more of a United Statian phenomenon and are not widely seen south of the border... but, unfortunalely, lately this has become more of a trend in Latin America, thanks to the deportation of United Statian-raized individuals and the cultural hegemony of the States over its southern neighbors.

Anybody with a decent knowledge of the Latin American culture will agree with the fact that the above mentioned cultural manifestations are intrinsically United Statian in origin, even though they have permeated only a segment –that is the Latin American descendants—of the United Statian culture. But, more importantly, the situation of family disintegration, high rates of crime and sexual promiscuity are much more present in the Latin Americans descendants living in the States than in their cousins and relatives living in the rest of the American continent, even if you factor in poverty: most of the new immigrants were poor in their countries of origin and after arriving to the States they become very hard workers, not criminals, and remain very close to their spouses. For instance, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, the great majority of Latins in United Statian jails are US-born, not Latin American-born. Hence, the Million-dollar question is, why many of these new United Statian-born Hispanic Americans (USHAs) turn to the dark-side?? Even though I am not a sociologist, after some observation and thought, my very humble opinion is that the problem arises when the –very individualistic-- US culture clashes with the very group-oriented Latin American culture.

The book written by Hillary Clinton, It takes a Village, might be –just as organic food-- a novelty in the States, but nothing really new in Latin America. Latin American children are influenced by several entities while growing up: School (teacher are widely respected and heard by children and parents alike), Church (in many small towns the Priest is the psychologist and counselor for the whole population) and, of course, Home. Latin American children --since looking for acceptance from the group-- pay attention, respect, listen and follow the instructions and commands of the fore-mentioned institution and their representatives. Even neighbors take the responsibility of rebuking, instructing and/or teaching children if the situation presents itself. By the time these children become adults, "doing the right thing" is engraved in them, so they can be honest people even in the United Statian slums; hence, breaking the preconception of poverty equals crime.

Unfortunately, USHAs don't have the afore-mentioned network watching after them. Latin American parents who live in the States, in the majority of the cases, work 2 or more shifts and don't have time to be spent with their children. The US society has limited the amount of power that a parent and teacher can exert when rebuking a child. Even more, it is considered a "violation of the child's personal space" if his parent become too intrusive into his child's life!! What is a Parent's job anyways?! To complicate matters even more, neighbors are not supposed to rebuke --or simply watch and let parents know-- bad behavior on others children since it will be considered too invasive in this highly individualistic society. So, the unfortunate USHA who is raised in a poor neighborhood and –since not being individualistic-- is looking for acceptance from his group of friends, only has one source left to lead him in the road of discernment between right and wrong: his peers. Thanks to the modern results in non-linear analysis inspired by Lyapunov Theory, we now know that this would be a really ill-fated situation since the chances for our beloved USHA to diverge from the right trajectory leading to the dark-side would increase greatly if at least one of his peers is marginally stable. In not mathematical language: our USHA will be screwed if a small percentage of his friends are not in the right track since he will modified his own behavior in order to gain acceptance from the pack. Due to the fact that many USHAs are raised in poor neighborhoods, without adequate supporting --and protecting—networks, these new United Statians are easy pray for crooks; much like penguin chicks and orcas: some will survive, but not enough to change the stereotypes. The influence of the stereotypes is of prime importance in this highly circular problem. This is the reason why it should be stressed the importance of USHAs (and blacks) succeeding –in this case I am talking about "success" by United Statian standards. As unfortunate --and stressful-- as it might sound, it is my very humble believe that, more than a mere motivation or inclination, it is a social responsibility with the community to show what USHAs --and Latin Americans in general-- are able to achieve.

On June 21st I saw in the news a story about a group of 17 classmates, none of them older than 16, who made a pact to get pregnant…