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New research is discovering gender dynamics among Latino families that are both
similar to and different from those found in other groups. Similarities stem from so-
cial changes that are reshaping all families, whereas differences emerge from the varied
locations of Latino families and the women and men in them. Like other branches of
scholarship on Latino families, most studies have been conducted with Mexican-origin
populations. The past two decades of research have shown that family life among all
Latino groups is deeply gendered. Yet no simple generalizations sum up the essence of
power relations.
Research has examined two interrelated areas: (1) family decision making and
(2) the allocation of household labor. Since the first wave of  revisionist works (Zavella,
1987) conducted in the 1970s and 1980s (Baca Zinn, 1980; Ybarra, 1982), researchers
have found variation in these activities, ranging from patriarchal role-segregated patterns
to egalitarian patterns, with many combinations in between. Studies have suggested that
Latinas employment patterns, like those of women around the world, provide them
with resources and autonomy that alter the balance of family power (Baca Zinn, 1980;
Coltrane & Valdez, 1993; Pesquera, 1993; Repack, 1997; Williams, 1990; Ybarra, 1982;
Zavella, 1987). But, as we discussed earlier, employment opportunities vary widely, and
the variation produces multiple work and family patterns for Latinas. Furthermore,
women s employment, by itself, does not eradicate male dominance. This is one of the
main lessons of Zavella s (1987) study of Chicana cannery workers in California s Santa
Clara Valley. Women s cannery work was circumscribed by inequalities of class, race, and
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Chapter 11 " Dimensions of Diversity 459
gender. As seasonal, part-time workers, the women gained some leverage in the home,
thereby creating temporary shifts in their day-to-day family lives, but this leverage did
not alter the balance of family power. Fernandez-Kelly and Garcia s (1990) compara-
tive study of women s work and family patterns among Cubans and Mexican Americans
found strikingly different configurations of power. Employed women s newfound rights
are often contradictory. As Repack s study (1997) of Central American immigrants re-
vealed, numerous costs and strains accompany women s new roles in a new landscape.
Family relations often became contentious when women pressed partners to share do-
mestic responsibilities. Migration produced a situation in which women worked longer
and harder than in their countries of origin.
Other conditions associated with varying patterns in the division of domestic labor
are women s and men s occupational statuses and relative economic contributions to their
families. Studies by Pesquera (1993), Coltrane and Valdez (1993), and Coltrane (1996)
found a general  inside/outside dichotomy (wives doing most housework, husbands
doing outside work and sharing some child care), but women in middle-class jobs re-
ceived more  help from their husbands than did women with lower earnings.
 Family power research should not be limited to women s roles, but should study
the social relations between women and men. Recent works on Latino men s family lives
have made important strides in this regard (Coltrane & Valdez, 1993; Shelton & John,
1993). Still, there is little information about the range and variety of Latino men s fam-
ily experiences (Mirande, 1997) or of their interplay with larger structural conditions.
In a rare study of Mexican immigrant men, Hondagneu-Sotelo and Messner (1994)
discussed the diminution of patriarchy that comes with settling in the United States.
They showed that the key to gender equality in immigrant families is women s and men s
relative positions of power and status in the larger society. Mexican immigrant men s
status is low owing to racism, economic marginality, and possible undocumented status.
Meanwhile, as immigrant women move into wage labor, they develop autonomy and
economic skills. These conditions combine to erode patriarchal authority.
The research discussed earlier suggested some convergences between Latinos and
other groups in family power arrangements. But intertwined with the shape of domestic
power are strongly held ideals about women s and men s family roles. Ethnic gender iden-
tities, values, and beliefs contribute to gender relations and constitute an important but
little understood dimension of families. Gender may also be influenced by Latinos ex-
tended family networks. As Lamphere et al. (1993) discovered, Hispanas in Albuquerque
were living in a world made up largely of Hispana mothers, sisters, and other relatives.
Social scientists have posited a relationship between dense social networks and gender
segregation. If this relationship holds, familism could well impede egalitarian relations
in Latino families (Coltrane, 1996; Hurtado, 1995).
Compulsory heterosexuality is an important component of both gender and fam-
ily systems. By enforcing the dichotomy of opposite sexes, it is also a form of inequality
in its own right, hence an important marker of social location. A growing literature on
lesbian and gay identity among Latinas and Latinos has examined the conflicting chal-
lenges involved in negotiating a multiple minority status (Alarcon, Castillo, & Moraga,
1989; Almaguer, 1991; Anzald�a, 1987; Carrier, 1992; Moraga, 1983; Morales, 1990).
Unfortunately, family scholarship on Latinos has not pursued the implications of lesbian
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460 Part IV " Families in Society
and gay identities for understanding family diversity. In fact, there have been no stud-
ies in the social sciences in the area of sexual orientation and Latino families ( Hurtado,
1995). But although the empirical base is virtually nonexistent and making families the
unit of analysis no doubt introduces new questions (Demo & Allen, 1996), we can glean
useful insights from the discourse on sexual identity. Writing about Chicanos, Almaguer
(1991) identified the following obstacles to developing a safe space for forming a gay or
lesbian identity: racial and class subordination and a context in which ethnicity remains a
primary basis of group identity and survival.  Moreover Chicano family life [italics added]
requires allegiance to patriarchal gender relations and to a system of sexual meanings
that directly mitigate against the emergence of this alternative basis of self identity
(Almaguer, p. 88). Such repeated references to the constraints of ethnicity, gender, and
sexual orientation imposed by Chicano families (Almaguer, 1991; Moraga, 1983) raise
important questions. How do varied family contexts shape and differentiate the develop-
ment of gay identities among Latinos? How do they affect the formation of lesbian and
gay families among Latinas and Latinos? This area is wide open for research.
Children and Their Parents
Latinos have the highest concentration of children and adolescents of all major racial and
ethnic groups. Nearly 40% of Latinos are aged 20 or younger, compared to about 26% of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]