Professional Documents
Culture Documents
5-24-2018
Joceline Lopez-Oxte
Los Angeles Leadership Academy HS, jlopez101467@laleadership.org
Lopez-Oxte 1
Abstract
In the form of an autoethnography, the author examines the epiphany of a latino students home
environment that contributes to a constant struggle in receiving a higher education. The author
informs and explains three different factors such as parent participation, low income, and a home
environment that add up and contribute onto why latino students home environment affect them
in receiving a higher education.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank my mom and dad for helping me in the work by leaving my alone and being able
to work on the paper in peace, I would also like to thank my sister for helping me edit the
multiple drafts I gave her. Thank you Mr. Robinett, Sidney, Ilene, Nicole, Ricardo, and to others
that also helped to correct my drafts to prepare for my final edit.
Lopez-Oxte 2
Joceline Lopez-Oxte
Los Angeles Leadership Academy HS, Los Angeles, California, USA
The Incident
The Thanksgiving dinner aroma filled the kitchen, my family and I were all sitting
around the dinner table eating the meal that my mother prepared for us. My parents were arguing
again, everything was the same, the only thing different was that we were actually eating dinner
together as a family. The argument this time and for the past two months were whether my sister
was going to college near or away from home. They didn't know the process of applying for
college or what the cost was going to be. My sister was trying to find every scholarship she could
and seek anyone who can help her when applying to colleges, but it was hard when neither my
London, at least I can visit London in the future,” my sister said to me while we ate our dinner. It
was true that our parents did not want any of us to go out of state for many reasons. One reason
is because out-of-state schools are substantially more expensive and my parents don’t make
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Not essentially knowing what to expect for college, my parents wanted us to be as close
to home as possible. Though there are parent school meeting where they can get more
information about college, both my mom and dad cannot go due to getting out late at work.
“There was a meeting last week for parents where they went over the school year for seniors and
deadlines for college applications,” I heard my sister say to me from my right, “Did you stay?” I
asked. “Obviously, but my mom and dad won’t understand the importance of everything that I
will have to do.” she said. It was absolutely true that my parents would not get the important
facts and dates about her senior year since they couldn’t attend the meetings, insinuating that
they will not get the full understanding of how important certain deadlines are. I was simply glad
that they allowed my sister and I to go to certain field trips during the weekend to scout colleges
when other parents didn’t let their kids go. At least we were able to receive more information and
“Melissa dropped out, so did Oscar,” she said, “they got jobs at the mall, one in Target
and the other at Subway.” Melissa and Oscar were my sister’s friends/acquaintances and were
both seniors who were supposed to graduate that year. After she said that, all I can think about
was getting a job to help my parents pay rent or at least the electricity bill, but I told myself that
While my sister and I talked my parents continued to argue with one another. I don't
bother getting in between them like I used to, my siblings and I just let them argue while we ate.
Their bickering was giving me a headache and all I wanted to do was lay down and continue to
sleep. I remember clearing thinking that night of all the challenges my parents and my sister will
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have to face trying to further her education, after thinking that I thought “this will be happening
to me real soon.” Then and there I realized the multiple factors of a Latino student’s home
Analysis
Introduction
Many view and understand Latin ethnicity based on stereotypes one had heard or seen in
books, movies, and the media. As stated in the dictionary, stereotype is a widely held but fixed
and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. Stereotypically, Latino
students are associated with being part of “the hood”, which is another name for a bad
neighborhood. They are also associated with drugs and other negative stereotypes that others
affiliate them with. Due to the stereotypical thoughts and “facts” associated to latino ethnicity,
Mark Hugo Lopez research and states that “more than three-quarters (77%) of Latinos ages 16 to
25 say their parents think going to college is the most important thing to do after high school.
Just 11% say their parents think getting a full-time job after high school is the most important
thing to do” (Lopez, 2009).Latino parents do not want to live up to the stereotypes that their
children and themselves are associated with which is why education is one of the most important
choices in a Latin family, it is a way to get obtain a better education to receive a well paid and
stable job as well as being a way to break through the stereotypical barriel they are faced with.
Study of Focus
Low income is not having or earning enough money, parent involvement is the
participation a parent has towards their child whether its school or life wise, higher education is
wanting or trying to achieve a education above high school, home environment indicates a
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person’s stay-at-home life that contributes to their living surroundings and these entire keywords
are many of the important factors that execute the struggle a latino student faces in trying to go
beyond high school. Written in a research paper report named “Latinos and Education:
Explaining the Attainment Gap”, Mark Lopez informs that there are more than 56 million people
in the United States that are of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity in California, 38.9% of the
Hispanic or Latino ethnicity (Lopez, 2009). There are multiple factors that prevent Latino
student from receiving the full educational experience. From examining Latino students’
financial struggles, parental involvement, and graduation rates, it is clear that Latino students’
Financial Struggle
Many Latino students who struggle academically come from low-income families. As
stated in Patricia Gandara and Frances Contreras book The Latino Education Crisis: The
population in the United States an although almost all young children of immigrants(90
percent) are citizens themselves, more than one-quarter have parents who are not
documented, and 56 percent live in families designated “low-income” (because they earn
less than double the federal poverty level). In short, young children of immigrants have
native-born parents.
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With many Latino students coming from low-income families paying for college is a struggle,
especially when the most popular jobs undocumented parents can have are working in the
garment, factory, warehouse industry with other low paying jobs that can barely pay the essential
bills. It also does not help that many jobs don’t pay minimum wage, the minimum wage being
$12 an hour. According to Marta Tienda and Faith Mitchell in their book Hispanics and the
Future of America “After high school, the cost of higher education and immigrant parents'
unfamiliarity with the complex policies and practices of the U.S. education system foment low
rates of Hispanic college attendance, particularly at four-year institutions.” Many parents not
having enough money and not understanding the U.S education system cannot send their kids to
Parental involvement
Most parents of Latino students are not as involved in traditional school activities.
Writing in the journal “Barriers to School Success for Latino Students”, Marrero states that
Latino parents consider engagement in the education of their children as participating in home
based activities outside of the school that assist students, and not necessarily on the traditional
model of engagement such as fundraising, school activities, and PTA membership. Latino
parents work many different hours and days to provide for their family, many do not have the
time required to attend the required meeting for additional academic information. Family
participation is one of the many main factors that help a child succeed in school, without their
support children would not feel the need to finish or continue their education. In the journal
“Parenting Influences on Latino Children’s Social Competence in the First Grade: Parental
Depression and Parent Involvement at Home and School” the authors state that “Educational
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involvement of parents is particularly beneficial for low-income Latino children because parents
often lack high-quality resources to help children succeed in school” (Valdez, Shewakramani,
Goldberg, & Padilla, 2013). Parents are the majority reason why students want to continue their
education.
Graduation rates
One stereotypical characteristic that people have on Latino student is their inability to
graduate high school. There is a logical explanation why the “national high school dropout rates
have indicated that Latinos have a 300% higher chance of dropping out than their Caucasian
counterparts at 4%”(Marrero, 2016). The reason being that many Latino students have had to
postpone educational aspirations in order to financially support their family members. It is not
forced when a student decides to work, “in a Pew Hispanic Center study, nearly 74% of
respondents explained that their studies were hindered by a need to work in order to provide
economic support for their families” (Lopez, 2009). Many latino students dropout of high and
not complete into college due to the language barrier that hold them back. As done in a research
in 2014, “ Mothers were asked to indicate their language of preference for the study activities:
the majority of mothers (99% of MA and 86% of DA) chose to be interviewed in Spanish”
Opinion
It is clear that Latino students’ home environment affects their secondary education. Not only are
they a step back in having knowledge of college awareness beforehand. They are also limited
when it comes to the cost of a university as well as the students not having the traditional support
of parents when it comes to their involvement in their children’s school. Language is another
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factor that sets students back, some are not as fluent in english their peers and their parents have
Conclusion
Due to not being as privileged as their counter caucasian part, “Latino families value
education and work in diverse forms to contribute to their children’s success. Often, this is
overlooked by school personnel because this involvement does not fall within traditional
their children’s success, they will try to be a part of their education and support them as best as
they can. Although their involvement is not viewed in the traditional sense where they are
involved in PTA meetings and other activities, it is one of the only way that can be involved in
their own way. These are some of the most well known and majority of the factors that
Reference
Calzada, E. J., Huang, K., Linares-Torres, H., Singh, S. D., & Brotman, L. (2014). “Maternal
Gandara, P. C., & Contreras, F. (2009). The latino education crisis: The consequences of failed
Lopez, M. H. (2009). “Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap”. Pew Hispanic
Marrero, F. A., (2016). “Barriers to School Success for Latino Students”. Journal of Education
http://assets.pewresewp-contentarch.org//uploads/sites/7/reports/115.pdf.
Mitchell, F., & Tienda, M. (2006). Hispanics and the Future of America. Washington, DC:
Valdez, C. R., Shewakramani, V., Goldberg, S., & Padilla, B. (2013). “Parenting Influences on
Latino Children’s Social Competence in the First Grade: Parental Depression and Parent
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3654068/.