Aspiring Middle-Class Mexican American Parents in the Rural South: Negotiating Multilingualism, Hard Work, and Soccer

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: Identity, Front and Centered (Table 22)

Abstract

How do former migrant farmworkers in the rural South negotiate the intersections and contradictions between traditional Mexican parenting and their aspirations for their children to join the local, overwhelmingly White, middle class? This qualitative study examines data from 30 participants in semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Pride and motivation from their experiences of childhood labor allow them to lay claim to Protestant work ethic rhetoric and also prompt them to consider token field labor experiences for their children as lessons in hard work. Their children’s involvement in soccer affirms their Mexicanidad while simultaneously affording social relationships with middle-class Whites. However, such social circles and the local schools generally reject displays of diversity, regrettably undermining Spanish in the next generation.

Authors

• Alma Stevenson, Georgia Southern University

• Scott A. Beck, Georgia Southern University