Contempo Magazine Blog

Perhaps no other culture has been mischaracterized as much as the so-called traditional Hispanic family. Conventional wisdom still espoused even by some unenlightened academics is the model of a dominant patriarch who unyieldingly controls his submissive wife in a tryannical manner. Machismo this theory further holds is the basic framework for male behavior. Virility, pride, stubbornness, dominance, and impetuousness combine to define this modus operandi for the theoretical Hispanic male. Often times this stereotype is further enhanced by popular media such as movies, television, and music videos. Is this true or is there more to the story?

I tend to think that a lot of this came from the fact that Anglo-American’s have historically most often encountered young Hispanic males who come to this country seeking work. The reality is that much of these characteristics really have more to do with being a young man than being of certain ethnic group. William Shakespeare, described the “Ages of Man”, when he wrote a speech for the character Jacques in his play “As You Like It”:

Jacques: All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the canon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Clearly even then, Shakespeare and society realized that men are different at different parts of their life. Shakespeare was accurately describing a male experience that is still relevant to today.

William Marsden in 1964 in his book, The Mexican-American of South Texas, noted that the family unit was the most important thing in their life and that they placed family needs over individual needs. The family was the most important foci of identification. It’s important to realize that family is a broad concept. We know from our own experience and its been well-documented that the concept of familia goes beyond just the immediate family extending to the extended family, compadres, and even the community.

I strongly disagree with patriarch model. Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley I found the opposite to be true. In 2003, Dr. Alberto Reyes from the Baptist University of San Antonio, said the following ” Even with “Machismo” (the masculine characteristic associated with dominance, strength, virility, and sex), the Hispanic is commonly known as a matriarchal society. The mother or wife appears to be submissive, but we all know who calls the shots. She influences the husband and often leads him behind the scenes. We just look like we are in charge if you know what I mean. While American Hispanics tend to adapt and acculturate to mainstream practices, they do not Americanize family patterns.”

The closeness of the extended Mexican-American Valley family means that men not only mentor their own children but interact with extended family chidren as well. In addition, it seems to me, that growing up in these extended families, young males interact more with young children getting a chance to learn parenting skills that those who grew up in single child homes with no connections to extended family never have. Witness the problems today that many young teachers have with elementary school children because they never before dealt with children before they attended college.

Males growing in the Rio Grande Valley are exposed to functional successful family units. As father’s they appreciate the importance of education not only for their sons but for their daughters more than ever before. Many families have both parents working so the traditional “provider only with no parenting” model of fatherhood is not the case.

As with any society, there are problems but I think its important to separate problems that arise from poverty or lack of education and not to mistake them for negative cultural influences.

There is a well known attorney from McAllen now retired, Robert Sanchez, whose house I used to visit as a child. Prominently displayed was a sign one saw when you entered the house that read “The Most Important Thing a Father Can Do for his Children is to Love Their Mother”. Every Friday, we find the restaurants all over McAllen to be filled with fathers and their families enjoying time together. The story of Miguel Avila from Donna we feature this month in our magazine, would not have happened if not for the positive influences of his father. The Hispanic culture of the Rio Grande Valley remains one its greatest treasures. It forms a foundation for creating good fathers for a productive and progressive society.

The number one issue facing the average person from the Rio Grande Valley is the rapid rise of the price of gasoline and it’s associated consequences. The Congress as a whole seems to be actively engaged in only taking negative steps but no positive ones towards energy development.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Adminstration the current use of gasoline in the United States is about 400 million gallons per day. If a barrel of oil was used solely to make gasoline than each barrel of oil can make about 19 gallons of gasoline. The total production of domestic oil in the United States is currently only 5 million barrels of oil per day and is dropping by 10% percent per year. There currently remains a moratorium on the building of more refineries and also on starting any drilling offshore. Proven reserves in Anwar remain untapped. The potential conversion of coal to oil has been put on hold by the Congress. No nuclear power plants have been built for decades and none are currently planned. In fact, just this week a measure to cap carbon emissions that would have only affected the United States and would not have been followed by China or India and would have resulted in raising gasoline prices another $1.50 was narrowly defeated when the Republican minority was able to convince some common sense Democrats it would only bring more crisis.

Our local and state Federal incumbents have supported common sense energy development. Congressmen Cuellar and Hinojosa has voted in the past for removing the offshore drilling moratorium. They have taken some positive steps in the past toward the responsible development of alternative energy sources and nuclear energy. Senator John Cornyn has been very supportive of aggressive domestic energy development as well.

Although Senator Barack Obama has supported the safe use of nuclear energy, he has not supported any further efforts at developing domestic oil production and seems content with a conservation policy and alternative energy policy alone. Senator John McCain has voted against drilling in Anwar and has cautioned that further domestic oil drilling will not be a long term solution. Notably, John McCain did not support the use of ethanol which has further caused a crisis by raising basic food prices while Obama was a strong supporter of ethanol. John McCain has supported nuclear power avidly.

The United States needs a short policy and a long term policy. Failure to develop all our own natural resources in oil, coal, nuclear, wind, and solar energy will only further handicap our economy. We need a clear decisive energy policy. This is an issue that cannot wait. The economy cannot grow without new energy. Conservation alone will only worsen matters. This needs to be at the forefront of the campaign. The phrase for the year should not be “It is the economy stupid” but rather “It is energy stupid”.

As we await to hear Senator Hilary Clinton concede to Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic Nomination of the 2008 Presidential Election it is appropriate to review the problems of the most undemocratic of Democratic Presidential Primaries ever held in Texas.

Instead of holding either a democratic one person-one vote format or a state caucus the Texas Democratic Party elected to do a bizarre format. While most state wide primaries across the country are based on Congressional districts, Texas Democrats preferred to use the 31 state senate seats districts as districts. The number of delegates assigned to the districts was not based upon the Census or registered voters but instead was only based on the turnout for Democratic candidates in the previous two general elections. This meant that even if there was a record turnout in districts that had poor turn-out in the previous election their vote would be not equal to areas with previously high turnouts. After voting in the Primary the voter could attend a Precinct convention starting at about 7Pm in the evening to participate in an additional allocation of delegates that was again based on the previous general election turnouts regardless of the current turnout’s numbers.

Some of these precinct meetings were not at the voting location and were not generally known to the voters. Some voters where not informed of the caucus process. Many of the caucuses were staffed by ill-trained volunteers. Outside organizations from Washington D.C. acted as “advisors” in some precincts. No deadline was given for turning in caucus records.

As a result of this bizarre process Hillary Clinton received 1,462,734 votes and Barack Obama 1,362,476 votes according to the Texas Secretary of State. On the other hand, Barack Obama received the majority of precinct delegates from the caucuses and thus the election overall. To this day many of the convention packets and votes from the caucuses have never been officially produced. When the Clinton campaign made an official request for such documentation, she was told in no uncertain terms that the Democratic party of Texas “would not set up” an unnecessary verification process.

What has happened to the Democratic party that complained so bitterly that “every vote should count” and that the “popular vote should determine the winner of the election”. The votes of South Texas sure did not count as one-person one-vote. The effect of this system was to reduce the effect of an average Valley vote to much less than one vote. Some voters in the Dallas and Houston area had their vote multiplied in value several fold. No one will ever know what the real vote was.