Section One Learning Outcomes

 After reading and considering this Unit, students will:

• Learn basic facts about Mexican and Mexican-American cultures, primarily those living in and with cultural and social ties to Minnesota
• Understand identity and distinguish between personal, social, and cultural identities, respectively
• Identify some of the barriers that lead to identity disconfirmation: stereotypes, implicit and explicit bias, prejudice, and discrimination
• Practice paraphrasing and perception checks

Introduction:

When seeking to understand the “culture(s) in your backyard” in Minnesota, with Mexican culture, one should not overgeneralize as to who is “American” and be quick to label or stereotype who is undocumented. This section will consider Maro’s story to understand the importance of constructed and complex personal, social, and cultural identities. We will turn towards how, during the communication process, stereotypes, implicit and explicit bias, and prejudice derail opportunities to create genuine, compassionate intercultural communication. Indeed, stereotypes, biases, and prejudice prevent the development of communication competencies that help overcome the notion of treating those of an unknown and foreign culture as an “Other“–an object of suspicion and fear. Communication strategies that build intercultural communication competency are found in the Cultural Atlas on Mexican communication styles and some “do’s and don’ts” of Mexican culture. We will highlight Minnesota historical stories, timelines, and special topics as other units. This unit pulls together a wide variety of materials you have already learned with the goal of sharing how the theories related to Intercultural Communication can be applied to learn about a particular culture or co-culture.

Additionally, in this Chapter, we will also share stories of past students including Marco and Fredy. Fredy’s interview was conducted with RCTC’s Dental Hygiene instructor Katie Ristau and Spanish Instructor, Lillyam Arroyave  (Lillyam.Arroyave@rctc.edu). We have combined Fredy’s interview with materials previously published on intercultural communication and Medical Care.

If you want to share a story or offer feedback, please let us know: lori.halverson-wenter@rctc.edu or mhalversonwente@gmail.com.

Meet Our First Peer Student Speaker: Marco

Personal, Social, and Cultural Identities

*Attribution: materials in this subsection are built upon Grothe’s (2021) OER book.

The phrase “who am I, who are you, and what are we doing here together,” mentioned at this book’s beginning and subsequently, is a means of approaching, examining, and thinking through the communication process. It is a way to view the complexity of the communication process, the formation of identity within and through that process, and the hope for competent and compassionate intercultural communication.

Perhaps the fundamental function of identity is to give meaning through self-definition. Remember, identity is complex, fluid, abstract, dynamic, and socially constructed. Thus, identity is not a static, singular entity. Instead, identity is dynamic and contextual, formed through interaction or intersection with others (from a different culture, society, or group) and through the individual’s intrapersonal processing of interpersonal, group, and institutional communication and messaging. Focus is placed on three aspects of identity and their interplay that work to shape our self-concept: personal, social, and cultural.

In this vein, Grothe posits:

Ask yourself the question “Who am I?” Recall from our earlier discussion of self-concept that we develop a sense of who we are based on what is reflected back on us from other people. Our parents, friends, teachers, and the media help shape our identities. While this happens from birth, most people in Western societies reach a stage in adolescence where maturing cognitive abilities and increased social awareness lead them to begin to reflect on who they are. This begins a lifelong process of thinking about who we are now, who we were before, and who we will become (Tatum, B. D., 2000).

…Any of these identity types can be ascribed or avowed. Ascribed identities are personal, social, or cultural identities that are placed on us by others, while avowed identities are those that we claim for ourselves (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). Sometimes people ascribe an identity to someone else based on stereotypes (Grothe, 2021).

To better understand these concepts, it helps to use an extended example to show the distinctions. Marco shared many details about his lived experiences in the video above and demonstrated the materials from the OER text Grothe (2021) authored.

Personal Identities

Grothe (2021) reminds us that, “We must avoid the temptation to think of our identities as constant. Instead, our identities are formed through processes that started before we were born and will continue after we are gone; therefore our identities aren’t something we achieve or complete. Two related but distinct components of our identities are our personal and social identities (Spreckels, J. & Kotthoff, H., 2009). Personal identities include the components of self that are primarily intrapersonal and connected to our life experiences” (Grothe, 2021).

Marco’s love for travel, music, family, and finding great local restaurants becomes apparent. He has shared a passion for helping others and his mother’s cooking in conversations. He also implies his self-concept when he states, “I want to be a person who my parents could have turned to when they first arrived.” These passions for life have driven and shaped Marco’s identities: Mexican living in the United States, traveler, soccer enthusiast, lover of food, mama’s boy (he agrees), and helper. In the video, he often refers to himself as “undocumented.” This status, too, becomes a personal identity.  As a reminder, though, Marco may have many likes that are not necessarily unique or related to his DACA status or Mexican citizenship. He enjoys reading, singing, and dancing. As one can see, though, the experiences he had in the United States compared to his experiences in Mexico offered him different choices to build a set of experiences where he could discover his: “I like ___ and I do not like ____.”

Marco shares how he thought he would return to Mexico anytime and clarifies that he did not desire to engage in school activities. His avowed personal identity became: “non-participant” and “non-academic.” He shares how a persistent and compassionate high school teacher did not give up on him.  One of Marco’s teachers told him that “you are a good student, and you will be staying here for your education.” His teacher’s comment is an example of a positive ascribed personal identity. Marco shares how his teacher’s remark changed his life and educational path. This example illustrates the essential nature communication–even if brief–plays in building one’s personal identity. Sadly, not all students receive this intervening message.

Sample Reflection Activity

1. List 5 messages you remember hearing in school about who you were. These could be  These messages could be from peers, older/younger students, teachers, staff, etc.
2. How did these messages impact your educational trajectory?
3. Describe one avowed personal identity you hold/did hold as a student.
4. Describe one ascribed personal identity you hold/did hold as a student.

Social Identities

Our social identities are the components of the self, created from involvement in social groups to which we are interpersonally committed. For example, we may derive aspects of our social identity from our family or a community of fans for a sports team. Social identities differ from personal identities because they are externally organized through membership. Our membership may be voluntary (Maro is a member and leader in the group UNICOS MN) or involuntary (family), explicit (Marco pays a fee to continue to be a DACA member), or implicit (we purchase and listen to our favorite music genre). There are numerous options for personal and social identities. While our personal identity choices express who we are, our social identities align with particular groups.  Samavor (2017) reminds us, “as situations vary, you usually choose to emphasize one or more of your identities” (p. 247).  In ninth grade, Marco shares that he did not try. Consider Marco’s detailed description of this time in his life:

I grew up very insecure about whether I was going back to Mexico or not. And I decided not to try hard in school I decided, ‘what’s the point, if I’m going to be brought to Mexico with my parents because this was always on the table. There was always the knowledge of,’We are here to work, build our house…so we can go back and you will start school there. And you will make your life over there.’ So at that point I struggled a lot and I have to be very thankful to an advisor at Mayo High School, his name was Mr. Mulugeta Haileab. He passed away recently. He may he maybe doesn’t know the effects that he had on me. But it was like life-changing way because I I it was ninth grade and I knew that I was gonna go back to Mexico. I was just in my head. There’s no way that I’m going to stay back and I’m not sure if he just knew or what it was. But he said Just keep trying. He’s like You’re going back. It’s like trust me, you’re not going back….You know, I’m still here. I finished high school.

Mr. Mulugeta Haileab, in Marco’s life, told him that today was important and that today he was a Mayo High School student in Rochester, MN. Mr. Haileab gave Marco explicit messages affirming Marco’s social identity as a student in the United States. These are all examples of “ascribed” social identities. Marco begins to accept the social identity, transforming it into an “avowed” social identity. When he changes his mindset and behavior, he can see changes in his grades.

As a consequence, he can reshape his personal identity. At the same time, though, he is receiving competing and conflicting ascribed social identity messages:  you are here with us as your family, we will go back to Mexico where you will start your job vs. you are a good student and I, as a teacher, will not give up on you. In contrast, some media and even some of his fellow Mayo High School classmates tell him, “you are illegal, go back to where you belong.”

Through our social identities, we make statements about who we are and who we are not.” Marco’s video examples of “social identities” include a past Mayo High School student, a Rochester resident, not American, a part of his family who only came to work here and return.  Some social identities that are “ascribed” by others and “placed upon him” could include: “illegals.” Marco mentions that becoming a DACA recipient also changed his life. Group membership is a form of social identity. Once he became a DACA recipient, his legal status was also restored, allowing him also to enhance his personal identity, “I am a DACA and became a Driver. I can fly. I can get my degree but not practice it.” Now, he can experience more of the activities other young people have experienced. HIs restored legal status allows Marco to develop new interests and hobbies and helps him expand his personal identity. At the same time, he has this competition with his social identity, “I am just dreaming.” He shares that sometimes the “dream becomes a nightmare.”

Sample Reflection Activity

List 5 social groups you belong to. Next to the social group, name an “avowed social identity” and an “ascribed social identity” aligned with that social group membership.

Sample: I am enrolled at RCTC: one avowed social identity I hold is that of a frugal college student, one ascribed identity I feel is “JUST a 2-year student.”

Cultural Identities

Another area of identity includes messages from our culture. To review, Communication in the Real World (2016) asserts:

Culture is a complicated word to define, as there are at least six common ways that culture is used in the United States. For the purposes of exploring the communicative aspects of culture, we will define culture as the ongoing negotiation of learned and patterned beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors. Unpacking the definition, we can see that culture shouldn’t be conceptualized as stable and unchanging. Culture is ‘negotiated,’ and as we will learn later in this chapter, culture is dynamic, and cultural changes can be traced and analyzed to better understand why our society is the way it is. The definition also points out that culture is learned, which accounts for the importance of socializing institutions like family, school, peers, and the media. Culture is patterned in that there are recognizable widespread similarities among people within a cultural group. There is also deviation from and resistance to those patterns by individuals and subgroups within a culture, which is why cultural patterns change over time. Last, the definition acknowledges that culture influences our beliefs about what is true and false, our attitudes including our likes and dislikes, our values regarding what is right and wrong, and our behaviors. It is from these cultural influences that our identities are formed.

Concerning cultural identities, Grothe  further explains:

Cultural identities are based on socially constructed categories that teach us a way of being and include expectations for social behavior or ways of acting (Yep, G. A., 2002). Since we are often a part of them since birth, cultural identities are the least changeable of the three. The ways of being and the social expectations for behavior within cultural identities do change over time, but what separates them from most social identities is their historical roots (Collier, M. J., 1996).  Additionally, common ways of being and acting within a cultural identity group are expressed through communication. In order to be accepted as a member of a cultural group, members must be acculturated, essentially learning and using a code that other group members will be able to recognize. We are acculturated into our various cultural identities in obvious and less obvious ways. We may literally have a parent or friend tell us what it means to be a man or a woman. We may also unconsciously consume messages from popular culture that offers representations of gender (Grothe, 2021).

Marco mentions he was not considered to be fully American by a lot of people here. But even if I would go back to my country, I wouldn’t be considered a Mexican either.” He later shares that many people fall between cultural identities as part of DACA. “The power of ascribed cultural identities includes when they are perpetuating a stereotype” (Grothe, 2021).  President Donald Trump stated, “When do we beat Mexico at the border? They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity,” Trump said as he announced his candidacy on June 16, 2015. “And now they are beating us economically. They are not our friends, believe me. But they’re killing us economically. The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems” (Reilly, 2016). Many people agree with President Trump, and we recognize you might as well. Regardless of our cultural identity, we all fall victim to ethnocentric thinking. Grothe (2021) explains,

Such attitudes are an example of ethnocentrism, placing one’s own culture and the corresponding beliefs, values, and behavior categorizations of people based on their group affiliation. We stereotype people because it streamlines the perception process. Once we’ve categorized a person as a member of a particular group, we can form a quick impression of them (Macrae, et al., 1999). When we stereotype others, we replace human complexities of personality with broad assumptions about character and worth based on social group affiliation. We stereotype people in the perception process to help us make sense out of our world, which might be efficient for communication, but frequently leads us to form flawed impressions.

[caption id="attachment_1355" align="alignright" width="300"] photo: pexel.com[/caption]

Stereotypes and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Grothe (2021) states:

When we hold a stereotype about a person, we have expectations that he or she will fulfill that stereotype. A [pb_glossary id="1671"]self-fulfilling prophecy is an expectation held by a person that alters his or her behavior in a way that tends to make it true. When we hold stereotypes about a person, we tend to treat the person according to our expectations. This treatment can influence the person to act according to our stereotypic expectations, thus confirming our stereotypic beliefs.

Self-fulfilling prophecies are ubiquitous—even teachers’ expectations about their students’ academic abilities can influence the students’ school performance (Jussim, Robustelli, & Cain, 2009).

In Marco’s story, we hear how impacting his Mayo High School advisor’s words were. Marco mentions that he doesn’t even think that Mr. Mulugeta Haileab knew the impact of his words. While Marco shares a positive effect, research by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) found that disadvantaged students whose teachers expected them to perform well had higher grades than disadvantaged students whose teachers expected them to do poorly.

Confirmation Bias

Finally, we’ll consider the power of confirmation bias. Fyock & Stangor(1994) shared that:

Stereotypes are maintained because information that confirms our stereotypes is better remembered than information that disconfirms them. In this process, known as confirmation bias, we seek out, conciously or unconciously, information that supports our stereotypes and ignores information that is inconsistent with our stereotypes (Grothe, 2021).

If we believe that individuals of Mexican descent living in the U.S. are “illegal,” and when we see someone on the news being deported due to being undocumented, then we tend to remember it. Still, when we see a person from the same cultural identity who graduates top of her class or somehow models mainstream social standards, we tend to forget it.

When we confirm our biases, we tend to perceive the world in ways that make it fit our existing beliefs, rather than changing our beliefs to fit the reality around us. Because they are so highly cognitively accessible, and because they seem so “right,” our stereotypes easily influence our judgments of and responses to those we have categorized (Grothe, 2021).

Sample Reflection Activity

Consider Maro’s situation:

Maro shares he was born in 1994, and his parents migrated for the first time in 1999 when he was four years old. After two years, his brothers were in Mexico, so they returned to be with them. They spent three years in Mexico; they decided to come back to the United States.

In the first experience, they came to the U.S. undocumented. They crossed the border using the legal protocol with a visa on the second journey.

They knew they couldn’t go back and did become undocumented when they knowingly overstayed their travel visa.

Maro shares his fear and trauma from the first time he came, how they got separated. He talks about how he felt “just like other kids.” Then he learned, “I am not American.” He shared that he thought, If I went back to my own country, I would not be seen as an authentic Mexican.

Many messages went through his head: I am not a high driver; I am undocumented; I am not a gang-banger but might be perceived as such due to where we live.

The message, “you are going back to Mexico,” stayed with Marco. He began to “not try” in school. He began to fail. In 9th grade, his actions matched his personal expectations. His Mayo High School Advisor made a difference when Marco was in ninth grade.

Explain how Marco’s story is related to the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Cultural Symbols

Meet  your second Peer Speaker, Anahy

Anahy took Lori on a tour of her favorite place in St. Paul. Listen to her impromptu speech (a sample for a Public Speaking assignment to introduce the class to a new site).

Minnesotanos: Latino Journeys in Minnesota

The following information is shared through a creative commons share-alike license –  © Minnesota Historical Society

Since the early 1900s, Latinos have been a productive and essential part of Minnesota. Most of the earliest Minnesotanos were migrant farm workers from Mexico or Texas and faced obstacles to first-class citizenship that are still being addressed. They overcame the instability associated with migratory work by establishing stable communities in the cities and towns of Minnesota. Latinos faced, and still face, discrimination—both racial and the kinds common to all immigrants and migrants.

To overcome these obstacles, Latinos built institutions—from churches to unions to arts collectives to service organizations like CLUES and the LEDC—designed to create spaces for survival and organizing for first-class citizenship. The spread and success of these institutions have allowed for consequential organizing by Latinos for a visible and powerful place in Minnesota.

Who are Latino and Latina Minnesotans? They are people with roots in Latin America—from many nations and with different experiences—who came to form an identity shaped by migrations, immigration, and struggles for first-class citizenship. Latino is a contested term and is best understood as an ongoing negotiation among the different groups that claim it.

Since about one-third of the United States was once part of Mexico, many Latinos can trace their U.S. citizenship back to 1848, some ten years before Minnesota became a state. With the exception of Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens by birth, there is considerable diversity of citizenship within all the other national groups that make up the category.

In 2013, about 60 percent of Latinos in Minnesota were born in the United States. Indeed, many Latino families have within them people with different immigration status. Differences in religion, language, gender, sexuality, race, and class make Minnesota’s Latinos a rich and complex community. By far the largest and most established group of Latino Minnesotans is of Mexican heritage (70 percent). The next largest groups are from Puerto Rico (about 4.3 percent), Ecuador and El Salvador (2.9 percent each), and Guatemala (2.7 percent).

Key Points and Chronology from The MN Historical Society

  © Minnesota Historical Society Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

Mexican and Mexican-heritage workers began working in Minnesota in the early years of the twentieth century, primarily as migrant farm laborers. In the 1920s, permanent Latino urban settlements emerged in the Twin Cities, with the West Side of St. Paul serving as the main settlement. Members of the Mexican community, sometimes with allies, established institutions whose spaces helped them survive and carve out a space in Minnesota.

While the following country description and communication descriptions with Do’s and Don’ts are written about Mexican culture, not Mexican-American culture, we are sharing this information from Cultural Atlas to give students a more in-depth overview. According to the Cultural Atlas (and shared with written permission):

“Mexico is a North American country bordering the United States, Guatemala and Belize. It is extremely geographically diverse, with deserts, high mountain plateaus and tropical coastlines. More than half of the Mexican population lives in the central regions of the country, whilst the arid north and tropical south are more sparsely populated. The dominant culture of Mexico reflects a blend of indigenous and Spanish customs; however, traditions vary greatly across the country. Many of the things often thought of as distinctively ‘Mexican’ have a local or regional origin. For example, tequila, mariachi music, embroidered sombrero and costume of the charro (gentleman rancher) originated in the west of Mexico. Each region/state generally has a unique cultural identity and accompanying cuisine, folk songs and craftsmanship that residents are very proud of. Cultural customs may also vary on a more local level, between communities, towns and cities within states” (Cultural Atlas, 2021).

Mexican Cultural Communication Descriptions

Attribution:  The primary author of this profile was Nina Evason (2018) the materials are shared on the Cultural Atlas.

Verbal Communication

• Indirect Communication: Mexicans are generally indirect communicators. They rarely give direct refusals or deliver delicate information in a blunt way. This is considered impolite. Instead, they tend to take a long-winded, roundabout approach to convey their messages sensitively and tactfully to avoid conflict or confrontation.This involves using gentler, more diplomatic expressions to provide a negative answer in a more sensitive way. For example, they may say they will “see what I can do” instead of giving a straight “no.”
• Refusals: Mexicans can be quite hesitant to give direct refusals. This can mean that they agree to do something they do not want to (or cannot do) in order to avoid sounding rude. If you ask a question that requires a direct ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, your Mexican counterpart may take some time talking inconclusively before reaching their answer. This is intended to soften the words. Furthermore, if you receive a final answer that is unsettled (e.g. “maybe”, “let’s wait and see” or “let me think about that”), it is a generally a good indicator that they mean “no.”
• Language Style: When speaking in Spanish, Mexicans use a lot of diminutives to convey their meaning in a softer or more affectionate way. This is usually done by adding ‘ito‘ or ‘ita‘ to the end of a word. For example, they may refer to their “abuelo” (grandfather) as “abuelito” (meaning ‘grand pappy’), or they may say that a man is “thin on top” (calvito) instead of “bald” (calvo).
• Slang: It is common to hear Mexicans say ‘Güey‘ at the end of a sentence when talking to friends or those of the same status. This is a casual phrase that is the close equivalent of ‘dude’ in English. For example, one might say “Si güey” meaning “Yeah dude”.
• Formality: There are different forms of expression in Spanish that communicate varying levels of courtesy and formality. The polite form of speech is to address people in the formal form of ‘you’ (known as ‘usted‘). This should be used when addressing anyone of a higher status out of respect. The informal ‘you’ (known as ‘tú‘) is generally used between people who know each other very well and among the youth.
• Inverted Question Marks: In the Spanish language, questions are written with an inverted (or upside-down) question mark at the beginning of the sentence. For example: ¿Cuántos años tienes? (How old are you?).
• Groups: In casual social situations, Mexicans may talk over one another and allow their laughter to grow very loud. In these settings, it is generally acceptable to interrupt to be heard and join in with similar enthusiasm.

Cultural Atlas’ Advice for Do’s and Don’ts of  Mexican Culture

As a reminder, this information is shared in the aggregate. Mexican-Americans spread throughout the United States may identify more with their regional identity of being a New Yorker, a Midwestern, a “Tex-Mex” personal, or a Californian. “Dos and Don’ts” from those with Mexican heritage living elsewhere and within Mexico itself.

Activity Idea: ask our class guest speakers if they agree or disagree with the information below. What might they add?

Do’s

• Be respectful and courteous, especially when in the company of parents or elders.
• Try and be open to the friends and family of your Mexican counterpart. Mexicans are often very welcoming to friends of friends on the basis of small social connections. They will appreciate it if you are similarly open-hearted to their loved ones.
• Refer to Mexican migrants living in the U.S. without paperwork as “undocumented migrants”. Avoid using the term “illegal”.
• Have an understanding of Mexico’s cultural achievements and mention them when you see fit.
• Try and offer your service to help with domestic duties or basic tasks whenever possible. Even if a Mexican declines your offer, it is polite to extend the gesture.
• Be sure to thank Mexicans for their hospitality. It is the only gesture expected in return for their generosity.
• Share stories from your country, home and family life. Mexicans love tales from other parts of the world.

Don’ts

• Never criticise the Virgin of Guadalupe or say anything about her that could be perceived as a slight (see ‘Catholicism in Mexico’ under Religion).
• Do not stereotype Mexicans as ‘narcotraficantes‘ (drug traffickers) or heavy drug consumers. Only a very small percentage of the population is engaged in such activity. Furthermore, consider that the current violence of cartels is driven by the Western consumption of drugs. Meanwhile, the Mexican consumption of illicit drugs is lower than U.S. levels.¹
• Do not emphasise Mexico’s problems or seek to make people feel ashamed of them. Most Mexicans are disgusted by violence and want to redeem the reputation of Mexico in foreigners’ eyes. Furthermore, while they are very critical of their own nation’s issues, they do not need further judgement from outsiders – especially when this criticism is informed by stereotypes.
• Do not criticise another person in public, or in earshot of others. Deliver all sensitive news privately to avoid embarrassing others.
• Avoid referring to the United States as “America”. Mexico is also a North American country and some people can find it frustrating when the term is used solely to refer to those from the USA. Therefore, Mexicans may call Americans’ estadounidense’ instead of ‘americano‘ in Spanish.
• Do not imply that Mexicans are overcrowding the U.S. or flooding the U.S. border with undocumented immigration. In reality, the numbers of Mexican migration has been steadily declining.²
• Do not imply that Mexicans are lazy. The population works more hours on average than any other OECD nation.³

_____________________

^{1 U.S. Department of State, 2016}

^{2 Pew Research Centre, 2015}

^{3 OECD, 2018}

Case Study: Medical and Dental Care

Attribution for this Section: Intercultural Communication for the Community College (Second Edition) by Karen Krumrey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

 

Consider Medical & Dental Care

The following links can not “embed” into our PressBook – you will find them in D2L – please link to them and watch how Fredy explains dental care (and medical care) in his home country of Mexico. He is studying at RCTC to complete  his nursing degree. Fredy was a student in Intercultural Communication with Lori Halverson-Wente in 2021, the height of COVID. Fredy’s interview was conducted with RCTC’s Dental Hygiene instructor Katie Ristau and Spanish Instructor, Lillyam Arroyave  (Lillyam.Arroyave@rctc.edu). We have combined Fredy’s  and Lillyam’s interview with materials previously published on intercultural communication and Medical Care shared generously from Karen Krumrey as noted above.

• Direct link: https://mediaspace.minnstate.edu/media/t/1_9opx3wr8 
• Direct Link to Lillyam’s Explanation of Inequity in Medical and Dental Care in South and Central America:

“The Human Genome Project (1990-2003) identified 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA making it possible to efficiently tackle more health-related problems than ever before.  What the Human Genome Project couldn’t study though was the effect of culture on healthcare.  We have learned that effective intercultural communication can mean increased profits or opportunities in many contexts, but in the healthcare setting, effective intercultural communication can impact a patients’ physical or mental well-being (Voelker, 1995), as well as their quality of life.  This chapter is designed to introduce the complex issues that culture has on both the providers and receivers of healthcare around the world” (Krumrey, 2022).

In this week’s discussion, you’ll find an interview with Fredy and Lillyam where they discuss how Latino cultures shares, even though they are from different countries (Mexico and Colombia),  high power distance compared to the United States. Lillyam further explains that in high-power cultures, the patient is much more likely not to question authority. That means, she explains, that if the Dentist says we need to pull a tooth, the patient has historically agreed and not questioned the dentist in high-power countries. The Hofested Insights website describes Power Distance:  “This dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal – it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. Power Distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. At a score of 81, Mexico is a hierarchical society. This means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. Hierarchy in an organization is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities, centralization is popular, subordinates expect to be told what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat” (2022).

Hofsted Insights further shares how collectivist countries often find a “moral” component to decisions. To not follow an esteemed person in power, like a Dentist or Doctor, would be shunned upon. As Fredy shares, too, seeing a doctor or dentist when he was growing up was a rare occasion. “Mexico, with a score of 30 is considered a collectivistic society. This is manifest in a close long-term commitment to the member ‘group’, be that a family, extended family, or extended relationships. Loyalty in a collectivist culture is paramount, and over-rides most other societal rules and regulations. The society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group. In collectivist societies offence leads to shame and loss of face, employer/employee relationships are perceived in moral terms (like a family link), hiring and promotion decisions take account of the employee’s in-group, management is the management of groups.” (Hofsted Insights, 2022).

The chart below, courtesy of the Hofstede Insights country comparison tool (please visit), shows the distinction of the measures of Power Distance, Individualism vs. Collectivism, Masculinity vs. Feminiity, Uncertainity Avoidance levels, Long-term vs. Short term Orientation, and Indulgence levels.

The screenshot below will link you to the full data:

Patient and Diversity Issues

*the materials below were written and attributed to Karen Krumrey (2022).

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The US has one of the most diverse societies in the entire world.  There are residents and visitors from almost every place on the planet therefore US healthcare must be approached from a multi-cultural perspective.  Doctors face effective communication issues, trying to understand the various cultural and co-cultural issues, and the reality that accessible care might not be available to all patients.  Patients face language issues, lack of knowledge of healthcare and treatment options, and historical treatment within healthcare systems.

Language Issues

Healthcare professionals often use medical terminology or jargon.  Medical terminology is the scientific language used by doctors to describe specific medical conditions.  Examples of medical terminology could be thrombosis for a blood clot and hypertension for high blood pressure.  Jargon is often the shorthand used between people practicing the same profession and it might have no meaning outside the profession.  Examples of jargon in the healthcare world would be BP for blood pressure, NPO (nil pers os) or nothing by mouth, and c-section for birth by caesarian section.

Another issue is that healthcare providers and patients may both operate out of an ethnocentric framework without realizing it.  Cultural beliefs and the ensuing approaches to healthcare are so fundamental to a human being that they are not often overtly communicated, but rather just assumed.  For instance, people from different cultures do not always report pain in the same ways, which easily leads to miscommunication in cross-cultural encounters (Lee et al., 1992) and the assumption that some cultures do not feel pain.  In working with patients from other cultures, healthcare providers can learn as they go, but this has the potential to be dangerous when dealing with diagnosis and treatment of issues.

Today 60 million US Americans (nearly 1 in 5) speak a language other than English at home and of that 60 million, 25 million self-identify as not speaking well (CM Elearning, 2022).  Finding adequate translators and interpreters who are familiar with medical terminology is difficult.  There is plenty of evidence that gaps in translation can lead to adverse outcomes, but one thing is even more clear, patients can’t make decisions about treatment without a competent medical translator.  As more of the patient’s family and friends’ attempt to translate, there is more potential for harm than good.

And lastly, treating patients is not always a matter of communication just between doctors and patients.  Most cultures have laws regarding healthcare issues and practices.  In the United States the judicial issue of informed consent requires that all patients receive full information enabling them to freely make decision about their own health care (Gostin, 1995).  This might make sense to you, but in some family-centered cultures, this might be a problem.  In this case, families and extended families may expect to be actively involved by providing input and support on treatment decisions.

 

Historical Treatment of Cultural Groups

Widespread stereotypes and prejudice directed toward different cultural groups have fostered differential treatment for some groups—especially racial and ethnic minorities.  Some historical examples that you might be familiar with are Josef Mengele, the SS physician at Auschwitz, Germany who conducted experiments on Holocaust prisoners that included giving prisoners infections to watch the progression of the disease and spraying them with chemicals to test possible chemical warfare solutions.

 

In the 1930s and 1940s, Japan’s Imperial Army Unit 731 conducted biological warfare and medical testing on Chinese civilians.  As many as 200,000 people were impacted.  There were also the Asian “comfort women” of World War II.  The term comfort woman is a euphemism for women that were captured and forced to work in brothels.  Many experienced great cruelties without access to medical care.

 

Of course, in the United States, there was the Tuskegee Syphilis Project that lasted for 40 years (1932-1972) in which researchers conducted a study on the health effects of untreated syphilis.  African American men who enrolled in the “project” were told that they were being treated for “bad blood.”  During the same time, the US was also doing experiments with syphilis in Guatemala on prisoners and individuals with mental illness.  Based on both recent and historical atrocities, it is not surprising that some cultural groups are suspicious of healthcare.

 

Prejudicial ideologies or sets of ideas based on stereotypes, can cause significant barriers to intercultural communication, and may influence the quality of care that patients receive.  Patients may enter the healthcare system with their own prejudices based on historical events, distrust of doctors, distrust of certain treatments, and more.  Professional healthcare workers may lack an understanding of healthcare provided outside of the traditional western system and that are a part of cultural traditions other than their own.

 

Cultural Differences in Healthcare Concepts

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Health is a cultural concept. Culture frames and shapes how we perceive the world, and our experiences, hence different cultures bring different perspectives on health.  Most cultures fall somewhere within the individualism and collectivism continuum.   Verbal communication styles that directly affect health care are traits like direct/indirect communication, high/low context, and honesty versus harmony.  Nonverbal communication styles would include high and low contact.  Healthcare is also heavily impacted by the cultural view of power relationships.

 

Culture helps to define what patients and healthcare providers believe about the causes of illness, which diseases are stigmatized and why, how illness and pain are experienced and expressed, where patients seek help and ask for help, and the acceptance of a diagnosis (Mayhew, 2018).  Please remember that as significant as culture can be, within any given culture, there will be variations among individual members.

Belief Systems

The healthcare process is often represented through different worldviews that we commonly call Eastern and Western medicine.  Eastern medicine describes a disease as a signal that the body is out of balance.  Instead of viewing illness as something to cure, Eastern medicine uses natural plants to work with the natural process of the body.  Western medicine on the scientific method to understand what causes illness.  For many, human beings are just like “machines” that need fixing or tuning to “eradicate the enemy” (Todd, 1999).

In the US, and other nations that practice Western medicine, the dominant healthcare model is based on biomedical science.  According to the biomedical method, doctors look for physical signs of what is wrong.  Once the symptom is identified, things like drugs and procedures are used to get rid of the problem.  Providers who operate from a biomedical model, might communicate in ways that are efficient and logical.  This approach uses relatively little time, and providers might see many patients in a day.

 

In nations that practice Eastern medicine, the dominant healthcare model is biopsychosocial.  The biopsychosocial model acknowledges that illness is not always just a physical thing.  Disease and illness are often influenced by environment and social factors as well as emotions, stress, and lived experiences.  Patients and providers may care deeply about communication and the “bigger picture” which often means spending significant amounts of time working through the illness together.

Alternative Medicine

Healthcare provided outside the traditional Western medical system to Westerners is often referred to as “alternative medicine” whether they fall within the Eastern medical system or not.  Alternative medicine can mean returning to traditional cultural medicinal practices such as herbal remedies and sweat lodges, or it can also mean seeking out medical practices that are part of other cultural traditions rather than your own such as acupuncture and cupping.

Alternative medicine generally falls into four broad categories:

• The first is referred to as mind-body medicine which focuses on using the mind to influence the body.  These types of approaches might include patient support-group therapy, meditation, and prayer.
• The second is biologically based practices which refers to the use of products found in nature.  These types of approaches include the use of herbal therapies, dietary supplements, and other natural products.

• The third category would be manipulative and body-based practices.  This approach refers to the use of massage or chiropractic manipulation to promote health.
• And the last type is referred to as energy medicine which could include acupuncture, Reiki, and certain types of massage.

Social Implications of Illness

The ways that a culture perceives health is influenced by different things in a culture.  Social implications can be defined broadly such as climate and environmental factors, but there can also be more specific factors such as emotional, economic, family, and community factors that impact patients.

Diseases often carry their own emotional stigma within a culture.  HIV, cancer, alcoholism, drug addiction, and mental illness can cause both patients and family members to feel shameful and withdraw from treatment and cultural interaction.

In countries without [insurance options,] universal or nationalized healthcare systems, health costs can economically devastate families, cause family members with employer provided insurance to be underemployed to avoid losing insurance, or impact credit ratings and job opportunities.  Poor people can feel that they have no control over health problems and fatalistically make bad choices.

 

The impact of disease on the families of patients is often unrecognized and underestimated.  Family members are often care givers as well as economic providers.  Much has been studied about quality of life issues for family members and chronic illnesses cross cultural boundaries although in some families’ relationships can grow stronger as members work together.

Much has also been studied about community interaction as well.  Community interaction can range from “drifting away” to ostracism and fear of stranger’s reactions to community organization of support.

Religion and Healthcare

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When people become ill, and the treatment isn’t effective, some people are driven to seek answers to questions from sources outside of the science-based medicine process.  The role of religion and spirituality in healthcare raises several issues about ethical ways to incorporate healthcare practices into existing beliefs.  Some providers worry about religious freedom issues, while others may not be aware of the diversity of religious beliefs surrounding health care.

 

Religious beliefs can impact concerns about modesty and being treated by someone of the opposite sex.  Some patients will refuse to consume certain foods or eat at certain times or even take medications that are produced using problematic processes.  Pain medications may be welcomed or shunned because of beliefs.  Healthcare providers may also be asked to minimize actions that might disturb the sick person.  Washing, fasting, jewelry might have to be negotiated with providers.  Other points of negotiation might be blood and organ donations, transplants, withholding or providing life-sustaining therapy, and the burial of amputated limbs.  Family and faith community members might expect to keep company with a dying patient, and for some the bodies of the dead may have to be buried or cremated as soon as possible. And it cannot be stressed enough that rituals and prayers occur in a variety of different ways, but they are all viewed as a necessary part of the healthcare process.

Learn a bit more…

While religious and spiritual beliefs may vary, there are strategies for helping healthcare professionals serve religious patients.  The following is a compilation put together from lists provided by the Agency for Healthcare Research (2015), the US Health Resources & Services Administration (ret. 8/10/19), the University of Pennsylvania Medical System (2008), the University of Washington Medical Center (1997), and the Canadian Paediatric Society (2019).

• Help patients feel comfortable at the facility.
• Establish a relationship with patients by supporting or encouraging religious beliefs.
• Provide health information in ways the patient accepts.
• Maintain good communication with patients
  • What do you call your illness and what do you think caused it?
  • Is there anything I should know about your culture, beliefs, or religious practices that would help me take better care of you?
  • Do any traditional healers advise you about your health?
  • Do you have any dietary restrictions that we should consider as we develop a food plan?
  • Your condition is very serious. Some people like to know everything that is going on with their illness, whereas others may want to know what is most important but not necessarily all the details.  How much do you want to know?  Is there anyone else you would like me to talk to about your condition?
• Show patients respect by viewing religious and spiritual support as part of the healthcare plan.
• Be ready for when religious and spiritual support are not available.

 

Power and Ethics in Healthcare

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Healthcare is ripe with imbalances in power.  Providers and patients are not equal in medical knowledge, nor can patients access treatment procedures without referral from a provider.  Patients may encounter many healthcare workers within a short amount of time without knowing why or how they are related to treatment.  Questions may be seen as a challenge to authority.

In the United States, healthcare is a business.  It’s a HUGE business.  Deloitt.com (ret. 8/11/19) estimates an annual growth rate of 5.4% between 2017 and 2022.  In dollars this is 7.077 trillion in 2015 to 8.734 trillion in 2022.  The insurance industry drives MOST healthcare decisions in the US.  Costs impact how the US thinks about medical resources and their distribution.  For people who come from other healthcare systems, the private healthcare system as practiced in the United States can be confusing or downright inaccessible.

 

Ethics

The insurance industry and the fear of malpractice suits guides many decisions regarding medical ethics in the United States.  Some healthcare organizations use ethics committees staffed by healthcare professionals, religious leaders, social workers, and governmental agencies to help make decisions about medical ethics.  Such committees could debate about providing or discontinuing care for terminally ill patients and the possible funding of drug rehabilitation programs for a long-term drug addict.  If there are value-laden or value-dependent questions that go beyond what medical science can address, but there is a need for a decision to be made, the issue is most often referred to an ethics committee (Aulisio, 2016).

 

In the US, the ethics committee rose into prominence during the 1962 through 1990 time period (Aulisio, 2016).  In Eastern and Central Europe, ethics committees were the result of fundamental political and societal change during 1989-1990.  Whereas in Western Europe, ethics committees were common at the local level, but didn’t become nationalized until the early 2000s (Steinkamp et. al, 2007).

Some medical procedures are very controversial, even among members of the same culture.  In the United States, abortion, and euthanasia, or assisting terminally ill people in committing suicide, are two prime examples.  As a state, Oregon is often required to defend its ‘Death with Dignity Law’ from interest group lawsuits.

 

 

Information-Sharing, and Identity

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Knowing the appropriate way to communicate with families and patients in an intercultural context can be incredibly complex.  In some cultures, the family is involved in the healthcare and medical treatment of its members.  In other cultures, medical information is confidential and only given to the patient.  Some patients may not want their families involved in their care if they have had a miscarriage, are suffering from certain types of cancer, or are depressed.  All patients will act within a framework of cultural values.

Information Sharing

In general, healthcare providers will give information regarding patient health in four general frameworks.

• Strict Paternalism – reflects a physician’s decision to provide misinformation to the patient when he or she believes it is in the best interests of the patient.
• Benevolent Deception – occurs when the physician chooses to communicate only part of a patient’s diagnosis.
• Contractual Honesty – refers to the practice of telling the patient only what he or she wants to hear or to know.
• Unmitigated Honesty – refers to when a physician chooses to communicate the entire diagnosis to a patient. (Martin & Nakayama, 2007)

In the United States, unmitigated honesty is the only one of these options that is legal for adults. When seen as too difficult or frustrating, cultural, and legal differences between provider and patient can contribute to a patient’s inability to understand the provider’s directions. Communication problems resulting from conflicting identities and perceptions can be overcome with sensitivity and adaptation (Brown & School, 2006).

Identity

Both patients and providers are concerned about their cultural identities.  Communication Theory of Identity (Hecht, 2009) explains that people make assumptions about each other based on their backgrounds.  The premise behind this theory can help to explain how misunderstandings occur in the intercultural healthcare setting (School, Wilson, & Hughes, 2011).  Individuals use their identities to affiliate themselves with groups and cultures.  The extent to which people identify with specific groups and cultures varies based on the dimensions of salience and intensity (Hecht et al., 1993).

Identity salience refers to the fact that people view their cultural identity as an important part of who they are, while identity intensity refers to the level of importance that people place on their cultural identity (Brown, 2006).  When people from different cultures interact, they communicate according to the ways that people from their culture communicate, and by doing so, enact their identity with particular groups.

Hecht (1993) asserted that there are four frames that may overlap and occur in the same communicative interaction:  personal, enactment, relational, and communal.  Each identity frame has its own set of assumptions concerning how the intercultural provider-patient interaction negotiates identity (Brown, 2006).  In a 2017 study on intercultural healthcare communication through the eyes of patients in the Netherlands, Patternotte et. al, found that a doctor’s cultural background was not important if the doctor was a professional, but noted that all of the patients had already lived in the Netherlands for a significant amount of time.  Some patients did have a clear preference for a doctor of a particular gender.  Many patients felt that a competent doctor needed to be accessible, have enough time, treat them as unique people, and ask about cultural habits.  Respect for cultural identity was an integral part of communication skills in a healthcare setting.

 

Conclusion of this Case Study

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Communication is vitally important to the competent functioning of healthcare services.  Patients and providers may not be satisfied with their healthcare interactions when they do not communicate effectively with one another.  Although this chapter has just skimmed the surface of a vast and complicated topic, a knowledge of intercultural communication theories and skills can be the beginning of competence and success in the healthcare arena.

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Key Terms For the Case study

• Medical Terminology
• Eastern Medicine
• Biopsychosocial Model
• Biologically Based Practices
• Strict Paternalism
• Unmitigated Honesty
• Communication Theory of Identity
• Jargon
• Western medicine
• Alternative medicine
• Body-Based Practices
• Benevolent Perception
• Euthanasia
• Identity intensity
• Prejudicial ideology
• Biomedical Model
• Mind-body Medicine
• Energy Medicine
• Contractual Honesty
• Identity Salience

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Suggested Reflection Questions

1. Why might people in the United States seek out alternative forms of health care such as acupuncture?
2. How might intercultural communication misunderstandings arise between patients, their families, and health care professionals?  Provide an example.
3. What medical jargon have you encountered in your interactions with health care professionals?  Did it effect your communication?  If so, how?
4. What are some examples of power imbalances in the health care interaction?
5. If you were suffering from a disease, which ethical framework (strict paternalism, benevolent deception, contractual honesty, or unmitigated honesty) would you want your health care professional to use when communicating with you and your family?  Why?

Section Three- Minnesota Resources and A Final Case Study in St. Paul

A Final Case Study: Chicano Movement in Westside St. Paul

Written by: Shirley Saldivar

Biography:  Shirley Saldivar graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2016 with a degree in history. She was a History Museum Fellow at the Minnesota Historical Society in 2016.

© Minnesota Historical Society Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

First published: May 15, 2019 | Last modified: July 22, 2021

When migrant workers from Mexico began to look for homes in Minnesota in the mid-twentieth century, many joined a growing enclave in Westside St. Paul. In spite of challenges, they sought opportunities to create a strong community and build a brighter future. They saw the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s as a means to that end.

During the 1960s, as the nation was experiencing a civil rights movement for African Americans, Mexican Americans were inspired to bring change to their own communities. They created the term Chicano to show a sense of pride, express resistance, and strengthen cultural identity. It was first used in Southern California and Texas, where Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and the United Farm Workers were uniting figures. Their political and social work came to be known as the Chicano Movement, or El Movimiento.

Mexican and Mexican American migration to the Midwest dates to the 1920s and 1930s, when laborers moved to the north to work on sugar beet farms. Over time, they set down roots in Minnesota communities—particularly St. Paul’s Lower West Side (the West Side Flats), which offered jobs in meatpacking and the railroad industry. Towards the end of the 1930s, so many Mexicans tried to settle near their families that there was a housing shortage in the neighborhood.

Much of the housing on the Lower West Side was eventually considered uninhabitable due to the area’s high risk of flooding. A flood in 1952 caused 2,641 residents to evacuate, and a second flood in 1957 emphasized a need for a long-term solution. The neighborhood had already become a target for urban renewal, and the St. Paul Port Authority had announced in 1956 that the Riverview Industrial District project would demolish the community. Families were reluctant to leave their homes, stores, schools, and churches, even though they were promised jobs in Riverview. The city completed the project in 1964 at a cost of $9 million for the construction and $4 million for relocation costs, but the jobs didn’t come in the quantity promised.

As a result of losing a section of their neighborhood, Mexicans and Mexican Americans took inspiration from the Chicano cultural movement happening throughout the United States. Some groups, including the U.S. government and southwestern Chicanos, disparaged the Midwesterners. The latter called them “culturally deprived” and claimed that they “didn’t know what it meant to be Chicano.” The comments, however, did not derail Chicanos in Minnesota, and they continued to seek connections and advice.

Sister Mary Giovanni Gourhan, a Westside St. Paul native active in Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, resolved to help her community specifically through education. In 1966, she came up with the idea of the Guadalupe Area Plan, also known as GAP. GAP was designed to fill the opportunity gap between Latino people and other groups through alternative education classes. The program admitted fourteen to nineteen-year-old students on probation or parole as well as those having difficulty in school.

GAP’s general school courses integrated Mexican history, culture, and tradition, creating an immersive experience for students intended to inspire pride in their work. They also built foundational skills for students to seek employment to provide for their families. By 1967, Gourham’s dream had become a reality, and GAP was a mainstay in the community. (In 2019, GAP continues to assist at-risk students via the St. Paul school system.)

In 1967, the Brown Berets, a pro-Chicano group, formed on the East Side of Los Angeles. Their objectives were to address police harassment, improve education, and increase political representation. A chapter was created in St. Paul in 1969. St. Paul’s Brown Berets served their community by raising funds for families in need, providing legal aid, and assisting the Guadalupe Area Plan by transporting craft goods.

There was also a push for Chicano history to be taught at the university level. In 1969, the University of California Santa Barbara’s Chicano Coordinating Council on Higher Education crafted a “Plan de Santa Bárbara”—a call to action to increase Latino recruitment, admission, representation, and programming in higher education. The Latin Liberation Front (LLF), a student group at the University of Minnesota, formed in 1970. On October 26, 1971, LLF students led by Ramona Rosales took over Morrill Hall and demanded that a Chicano Studies Department be created. The College of Liberal Arts agreed, and the first Chicano studies classes were held in the fall of 1972.

Attribution:

CiteSaldivar, Shirley. “Chicano Movement in Westside St. Paul.” MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. http://www.mnopedia.org/thing/chicano-movement-westside-st-paul (accessed December 7, 2021).

© Minnesota Historical Society Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

First published: May 15, 2019 | Last modified: July 22, 2021

Resources

Minnesota Related Resources suggested by Jessica Lopez Lyman

Primary

American Crystal Sugar Company Records
Manuscript Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Corporate records of the American Crystal Sugar Company, of its direct predecessor, the American Beet Sugar Company, and of other predecessors, subsidiaries, and affiliates.
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00341.xml

Becoming Minnesotan: Stories of Recent Immigrants and Refugees. Narrators: Latino.
Originally found at: http://education.mnhs.org/immigration/narrators/Latino
Description: Oral histories of ten Latino/a Minnesotans.

Film #A-64
Laughlin, Kathleen and Donald Morstad. Minnesotanos Mexicanos. Videocassette. St. Paul: Spanish Speaking Cultural Club Inc., 1978.
Audiovisual Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: A documentary in which Minnesotans of Mexican heritage are shown in schools, at work, in religious and social environments, and in the political arena. Includes a brief history of Mexico up to the period (shortly after 1848) when Mexicans began migrating northward in their search for work. Emphasizes the importance of preserving the Mexican culture, which has existed in Minnesota almost 100 years. Also deals with contemporary issues such as bilingual education and migrant workers.

Lideres Latinos Oral History Project
Originally found at: http://collections.mnhs.org/ioh/index.php/10001458
Description : An essential oral history collection of Minnesota Latino leaders accessible as audio files or transcripts.

OH 49
Mexican-American Oral History Project, 1975–1976
Oral History Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: In 1975 the Minnesota Historical Society began a two-year Mexican-American History Project under the direction of Ramedo J. Saucedo to collect the historical resources of this ethnic group: personal papers, records of organizations, photographs, articles, and other material, including 74 oral history interviews with people living throughout the state.

Project photographs, 1950s–1984
Housing and Redevelopment Authority of the City of St. Paul
State Archives Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Particularly well represented are individual residences, downtown blocks and views, individual commercial buildings, and urban renewal projects (demolition, house moving, project sites, and a few interiors of living quarters).
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/gr00387.xml

Records of the Port Authority of the City of St. Paul, 1932–2012
State Archives Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: The collection includes project files concerning Riverview Industrial Park (1893 and 1961–1962).
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/gr01125.xml

Secondary

Vargas, Zaragosa. Proletarians of the North: A History of Mexican Industrial Workers in Detroit and the Midwest, 1917–1933. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

Vega, Sujey. Latino Heartland: Of Borders and Belonging in the Midwest. New York: New York University Press, 2015.

Amato, Joseph. To Call It Home: The New Immigrants of Southwestern Minnesota. Marshall, MN: Crossing Press, 1996.

Latino Americans. PBS Documentary Series, 2013.
http://www.pbs.org/latino-americans/en/about/

Web

Centro Campesino. http://mncentrocampesino.org/

National Archives. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/guadalupe-hidalgo

HACER: Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment Through Research. https://hacer-mn.org/

Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. http://www.olgcatholic.org

Attributions

“Exploring Specific Cultural Identities” by Tom Grothe, LibreTexts is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA .

Cultural Atlas. (n.d.). Mexican culture. Cultural Atlas. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/mexican-culture

Intercultural Communication for the Community College (Second Edition) by Karen Krumrey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Works Cited

Arauza, Yolanda Lara. “The Settlement and Assimilation of Mexicans in Moorhead, Minnesota.” Master’s thesis, North Dakota State University, 2000.

Brownstein, M. (2019, July 31). Implicit bias. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved April 26, 2022, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicit-bias/

Cultural Atlas. (n.d.). Mexican culture. Cultural Atlas. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/mexican-culture

De La O, Gilbert. Interview with the author, November 15, 2018. Burrito Mercado, St. Paul.

Exploring Specific Cultural Identities. (2020, July 21). Butte College. https://socialsci.libretexts.org/@go/page/47450

Fennelly, Katherine. Immigrant Communities in Minnesota. Originally found at: http://archive.hhh.umn.edu/people/kfennelly/pdf/immigrant_communities_in_mn.pdf

Fennelly, Katherine, and Anne Huart. The Economic Impacts of Immigrants in Minnesota.
https://www.immigrationresearch.org/report/other/economic-impact-immigrants-minnesota

Gibeau, Jane. “Not Funded; Classes Still Planned Sr. Giovanni Won’t Give Up.” Catholic Bulletin, January 7, 1966, 23.

Gonzales, Sandra M. “Aztlán in the Midwest and Other Counternarratives Revealed.” In Latinos in the Midwest edited by Rubén O. Martinez,17–31. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, 2011.

Holthaus, Gary. From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know About Agriculture. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 2009.

Lewis Dorothy. “Battling Nun: Wins Poverty Fund but Still Needs Equipment.” St. Paul Dispatch, May 13, 1966, 23-24.

Lopez, M. H., Krogstad, J. M., & Passel, J. S. (2021, September 23). Who is Hispanic? Pew Research Center. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/23/who-is-hispanic/

López-Santamería, Maya. Música de la Raza: Mexican and Chicano Music in Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1999.

Meza, Juventino. “The Latino Education Gap.” MinnPost, June 17, 2015.
http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2015/06/latino-education-gap-some-ideas-closing-it-and-thereby-improving-minnesotas

Minnesota Compass. Hispanic Population Trends.
http://www.mncompass.org/trends/insights/2014-10-02-hispanic-population-trends

McClure, Jane. “A Story of Change, Pride, Perseverance: The Mexican-Americans and Their Roots in St. Paul’s Past.” Ramsey County History 27, no. 23 (Fall 1992): 4–12.

Muñoz, Carlos. Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement. London: Verso, 2007.
Saucedo, Ramedo J., comp. Mexican Americans in Minnesota: An Introduction to Historical Sources. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1977.

Norris, Jim. North for the Harvest: Mexican Workers, Growers, and the Sugar Beet Industry. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2009.

Rodriguez, Luis J. Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L. A. New York: Touchstone, 2005.

Roethke, Leigh. Latino Minnesota. Afton, MN: Afton Historical Society Press, 2007.

Roethke, Leigh. Latino Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2009.

Rosario, Ruben. “Maria Lies Among Us.” St. Paul Pioneer Press, April 8, 2006.

Ruiz, Vicki L. From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. First published in 1998.

Torres, Eden E. Chicana Without Apology. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Valdés, Dionicio Nodín. Barrios Norteños: St. Paul and Midwestern Mexican Communities in the Twentieth Century. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000.

——— . El Norte: Agricultural Workers in the Great Lakes Region, 1917–1970. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.

——— . Mexicans in Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005.