Alonzo Vasquez

It’s 1920 and you, Alonzo Vasquez, are a Mexican immigrant to the United States. While you love your new country, it is very important to you that your family remember and honor your culture and traditions, many of which are tied to your homeland. You are increasingly worried that your children, in the process of becoming “American,” are ignoring the importance of their heritage. Why is it so important to you that your family retain some cultural connection to Mexico and your Mexican heritage? What evidence is there that your children are being wholly “Americanized?” What conflicts has this created between you and your children?

My name is Alonzo Vasquez and I immigrated to the United States from Mexico, with my family, in 1918. My wife and I raised our five children in Zamora, Mexico where we owned a small farm. However, after the revolution in Mexico in 1911, it became harder and harder to earn enough money farming to provide for our family’s most basic necessities. So as a family, we decided that I should travel to Mexico City, an urban area, where I might find a job that paid better. I was unsuccessful, but while in Mexico City, I was told that if you know how to farm you can make money in America. We sold our farm in Zamora and moved to the “land of opportunity.” I found work on a corn farm in Omaha, Nebraska. I love my new country and I never dreamed of earning as much money as I have over the last two years. Even better, yesterday, June 12, 1920, the farm owner put me in charge of operations for the entire farm.

Unfortunately, I am afraid that money and opportunity have a price. The price to live in this magnificent country is becoming clear to me. My family is not able to see the changes that are occurring within our family, but I am very concerned. Please understand that I love my family very much. My five children range in age from 16 to 24 years of age. My wife and I raised them so that they would be proud of themselves and their Mexican heritage. Our beliefs are deeply rooted in the Catholic religion. Our lifestyle was simple in Mexico and our family was more important than anything else. Our clothes and food were authentic and made us proud to me Mexicans. Most important were the roles that men and women had in Mexican society. The men provided for the family and the women raised the children and tended to the household chores. It is frightening to think that in two short years these values are unraveling before my very eyes.

I suppose that the best way to describe the phenomenon occurring within my family is that they are “Americanizing.” What I mean by that is they are forgetting what our family had and how proud we were in Mexico. First of all, my three lovely daughters want to work outside the home and go to places of entertainment. I tell them this behavior is not acceptable, but they tell me I am old fashion. I am forced to remind them that if they did these things in Mexico, our family would be shunned. They do not listen. Instead, they want to go out in public without me or one of their brothers. They also think it is acceptable to be around other men that they are not betrothed to. I know in my heart that they understand the need to keep them safe, protecting their honor and virtue from men that mean them harm. My sons have also forgotten our Mexican traditions in their quest to be American. Instead of coming home after work, they go to places and drink heavily, returning home at unreasonable hours. I remind them that if we were in Mexico that other men would not allow them to see their daughters. Then they tell me that we are not longer in Mexico but in America.

I have noticed that not just their actions have changed but the clothes they wear as well. My daughters are wearing things that are too tight and my sons look like fools wearing tighter pants than what is worn in Mexico. Also these children seem to think that is acceptable to speak English at home rather than Spanish. All of these changes in attitudes and clothing are a source of daily conflict. My wife does not help the situation by saying that she will get a job of her own to help the family. The children seem to think that it is better to be with the majority than keep the values they learned in Mexico. At this point I think that it might be necessary to send the family back to Mexico and continue to work here in the United States, where there is better pay. I think that these free spirited children need to be taught that being Mexican is part of who they are and cannot get rid of it.