The Latino And Latino Community

Although the subject of education, study behavior, has been viewed as a personal matter, we believe race and gender played a role in it. We interviewed a Senior Latino student named Irving Alvisurez. Alvisurez is a first generation college student that came from Los Angeles, California. When he first came to UCSB, he lived in FT and there was only four Hispanics on his whole floor, this gave him more opportunity to expose to foreign cultures and experiencing culture shock. He first majored in computer science and later changed to Chicano studies. As a first generation Latino, he felt more pressure from family rather than social pressures. His statement was supported by the arguments within his family based on his change of majors multiple times,

The exponential growth of the Latina/o population is symptomatic of an unquestionable shift in the demographic landscape, and is also reflected in the demographic make-up of higher education. As of 2012, Latina/os constitute the largest ethnic/racial minority group in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). Furthermore, Latina/o undergraduate students constitute the largest minority group on college campuses, at 19% of total students enrolled (Pew Research Center, 2014). Research also indicates that Latina/o students experience continued racial discrimination on college campuses (Chavez & French, 2007; Yosso, Smith, Ceja, & Solórzano, 2009; Cokley, Hall-Clark, & Hicks, 2011; Zeiders, Doane, & Roosa, 2012).

This year the Chicano Student Program at the University of California Riverside celebrated its 45th year of being established. Since 1972, this program has expanded and grown into a well known resource center for first generation hispanic/latino students. This program would not exist without the effort and support from students and faculty members on campus who wanted to initiate a program where Hispanic students feel safe and have all the resources they need to succeed. At the time, the rate of first generation students being emitted to UCR was increasing and these students needed an environment to embrace, learn, advocate, and be involved with their culture and community. The Chicano Student Program offered these students a platform where

I have chosen to write the following paper about the incident rates of cancer and the Hispanic/Latino populations in the United States. Cancer is the number two leading cause of death in the United States among all populations. In the Hispanic/Latino, cancer is the number one leading cause of death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (hereby referred to as the CDC), “about 1 in 3 Hispanic men and 1 in 3 Hispanic women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime”1. The incidence of cancer among the Hispanic/Latino population is for all “new cases: About 58,400 new cancer cases in Hispanic men and 67,500 cases in Hispanic women are expected to be diagnosed in 2015”1 compared to the rest of the U.S. population. There

Growing up in a Hispanic household has shaped and built my values in life. At Appleton North High School, I am one out of the few Hispanic students. Knowing that my parents have migrated to America to give me a better future has motivated me to make it happen. Although, as a Mexican-American, I have felt out of place as a minority. However, with time I learned to accept my cultural differences. In fact, to this day, I thank my widowed father for the sacrifices and greater opportunities he has given me. My goal is to keep representing the few Hispanic students in college by working hard to achieve my career goals; not all Hispanics are fortunate enough to attend college. I also work to inspire young Hispanics to find their potential and follow

Underrepresented Minorities is a big topic that I felt covering in this class was necessary, especially on the leadership viewpoint. Being part of the Latino community, we have struggles of being misrepresented, especially lately in the social media concerning Donald Trump. His comments hit home with many of us and drew many Latinos to attention that we are underrepresented as a community within the minority category.

The Latino community is ironic at Viana’s college because it was unforgiving if you do not make your Latindad known. For example Viana stated, “Knowing how hard it could sometimes be to accept the group and have the group accept you in return” (Garrod, 2012, p. 113). Rather than being a group to bond with each other and embrace their ethnicity, the group gossips or rejects members. This fact about the group was surprising to me. I am in a club known as National students speech hearing language association (NSSHLA), where everyone in the group is close with each other. Each member tries the help each other especially when we all take the same course, we help each other with homework. I visualized that all groups/clubs members for any organization

Although a lot of has been done to incorporate Hispanics/Latinos/Chicanos into the American society, health care, education, and economic status, there is still a lot to be desired.

Studies show that although the number of Latino college enrollment rates have increased significantly, persistence and graduation rates tell a different story. Latinos are graduating high school and enrolling in college at higher rates, becoming the largest minority group in our nation’s colleges and universities. Yet only 22% of young Latino adults have an associate’s degree or higher, 8.1% have a Master’s degree, and only 6.5% have completed a PhD (White House Initiative,

This statistic is important because it shows how much Chicano students have struggled in school at every grade level. Compare these numbers with the white community, “84 graduate from high school, 26 graduate with a bachelor 's degree and 10 earn a professional degree...Chicanas and Chicanos, have the lowest educational attainment of any group” there is great cause for concern (Marquez). These realities have a variety of causes as these students “usually attend racially segregated, overcrowded schools” and with “poorly maintained facilities, students are often enrolled in classes where undertrained, under credentialed faculty attempt to teach with minimal resources” many as "tracked into remedial or vocational program” (Marquez). David Scott ran data in academic performances by ethnic-studies students and states that Chicano students do better in school when having these programs available because they are a "substantial boost" for those poorest students (Scott 2012). If they don’t have these programs the result then is that “they drop out, or are pushed, out of the educational pipeline in higher numbers than any other group” (Marquez). While enrolled, “students often describe graduate school as a place where they feel invisible” as most programs “tend to be racially exclusive with predominately white students, faculty and curricula that omit Chicano histories and perspectives” (Marquez). For this reason, it is suggested by Scott for imperative

Culture is according to Zimmermann (2015), “the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts”. One culture that I am not affiliated with and did not grow up in is the Hispanic/Latino culture. Today, this culture is one of the fastest-growing cultures in the United States of America (“Understanding the Hispanic/Latino,” n.d.).

For many Latino families, their image is misunderstood. The majority of Americans analyze Latino communities focusing on the individual. Asking individual questions such as what did that person do wrong to be poor? Why is that individual immigrating into the US? The real question we should be asking is what factors made them immigrate to a different country in the first place. After all, “nobody likes to leave their home” says Juan Gonzalez from the documentary Harvest of Empire. Researching Latinos in America requires using structural/social determinants to gain an accurate representation. In Latinos in

The population increase of Hispanics has made the youth group the largest minority group in the United States (Cohn, Lopez, & Passel, 2011). The growth in U.S. born Hispanics has also increased the amount of first generation college bound going students. Unfortunately, many latina/o students come from poor communities and attend under services schools. These students are faced with the task of seeking academic outreach programs to show them the way to higher educational endeavors. The sample in the study are all college bound students based on the eligibility requirement to join the Higher Education Mentoring Program. The participant criteria is maintaining at least a 2.5 gpa, and actively striving to constantly improve performance on A-G courses. The purpose of this study was to identify the psychological, social and cultural factors that influence theses students college aspirations. This study used the Psychosociocultural (PSC) model that encourages the examination of academic self-efficacy, peers,parental, and faculty support and school environment to further understand educational perseverance. The literature on first generation students shows that those who participate in outreach programs

Zarate shows us the reality that minorities face when wanting AP courses; “It appears that schools with high minority student concentrations did not increase their AP course offerings to mirror similar-sized schools’ AP offerings” (Zarate,15). Even within these students who are under the college pathway, the limited college exam preparations, AP and honors classes that they receive are not enough to make them competitive when wanting admissions to higher education. These students who are under the college pathway are usually identified as “gifted” or talented students which is only around ten percent of the total student population. For the rest of the students who have the same ability to be taking these classes if their parents, teachers, counselors or themselves do not make an effort for the students to experience these classes they will always be behind and not be in the college pathway as the other students. “Their history, which involves educational tracking and sub-standard schools, has affected Latinos’ entry into higher education. Rather than accept the prevailing myths that Latinos and other students of color come from families that do not value higher education, this insists that we recognize how they have traditionally been tracked by ineffective schools into non-college-bound majors, which has resulted in their disproportionate attendance”

In a 2004 journal by Susan Auerbach, the concept of parental influence and support for Latina/o students is addressed. Auerbach shares that, “Research suggests the pivotal role of parents in promoting students’ college going” (Auerbach, p.127). It is no mystery that parents have great influence over their children, and when a parent is uneducated on how to best advise their child regarding higher education, they are unable to use this influence to encourage attendance. Auerbach states, “Families without a tradition of college going do not have sufficient knowledge to help their children navigate pathways to college” (Auerbach, p.140). According to the Latino Eligibility Study, the single most important barrier to college access for Latino students in California is lack of active knowledge of the steps needed to go to college (Gandara, 1998,2002). Parents of first generation students need tools that can aid in the child’s success and serve as a means of knowledge on what can be a challenging and confusing process. Another issue tied to parent involvement and understanding is that, “Poor and working class Latino families come to college preparation relatively late in students’ careers, with fewer resources and more obstacles” (Auerbach, p.136). The journal supports the idea that Latino/a parents are in need of early access to college preparation education in order to be able to challenge and support their