The Changing Structure of the Detroit Mexican Family: An Index of Acculturation

T HE PEASANT FAMILY in Mexico often has been characterized as "patriarchal. " The roles of members are rather strictly defined by the pervasive folk culture. The father occupies a position in which he exercises considerable authority over his wife and children, and some of this power is extended to his grown sons who function partly to control their sisters' activities. ' The concepts of acceptable family behavior are at first retained when Mexican migrants settle in Detroit. There, however, like those of other immigrants, these concepts and the behavior correlative to them undergo transformation. It is the contention of this paper that the changes in the structure of the family, under the impact of a new social and cultural environment, constitute a highly sensitized index of the process of acculturation.2 The family is a social structure. A social structure is regarded here as a system of culturally defined status roles which form a relatively stable nexus of subordinate and superordinate selves. The significance of the social structure is the point of juncture of society and culture, and changes in the structure will index what happens in the merging of cultures. However, adjustments of social structures to changes in the total culture do not accur automatically. When there is agreement as to the definitions of status roles in a culture a social structure is stable, since duties and obligations accord with the roles which individuals must act out. New conceptions of self arise as the individual takes on new duties and obligations under the new cultural pressures. These new selves do not fit the old roles and immediately the stability of the social structure is threatened; eventually the structure changes. This is true for any structure. But since we regard the family as the one in which the self-conceptions of those who occupy roles are most intimately related to one another, we believe it will reflect most truly the changing meanings generated by the larger culture. All immigrant families obviously do not undergo simultaneous and equivalent changes. The roles portrayed, although empirically determined, will be synthesized into idealized types. Each of the several roles in the family will now be examined, at first, separately, later in combination. The role of the father and head of the family has two major aspects: food provider, and family judge and protector. The vicissitudes of employment, the seasonal character of work, and the long periods of unemployment, all have affected the status and role of the breadwinner, both in his own eyes and in those of other members of his family. Ill at ease when out of work, cognizant of violating a major obligation as head of the family, yet concerned with maintaining the respect from his wife and children which he considered his right, he might desert them to seek work and thus to re-establish his position. "Now I ask you," one breadwinner wrote his case worker, "for a chance to look for work in another place like I used to and as soon as I find one [a job] I will let you know as soon as possible. " Refused by his case worker, he deserted, returned briefly to his family, and then left permanently for Mexico, leaving his family behind. More temporary desertions often followed flare-ups engendered by the husband's lack of employment and his accompanying loss of status in the home. This is indicated by an excerpt from a public welfare case record. 'Norman D. Humphrey, "The Generic Folk Culture of Mexico," Rural Sociology, 8:364-377, December, I 943. 2Norman D. Humphrey, "On Assimilation and Accultration. " Pvsciantrv 6:-2A--A