The Paramountcy of Family in Hispanic Culture
This documentary is "riveting," as kent similarly describes in his comment of 12-Oct, because it is a series of very real and very human stories. What should makes it instructive, as well as emotionally compelling, for at least non-Hispanic Americans, is the demonstration of the totally dominating role of the family in Hispanic life and its unspoken comparison with an alternative American model. That model -- an at least partial breaking away from the family to create one's own identity --is a frequently necessary route for achievement and fulfillment in U.S. society.
The economic privation of Cuba today compounds and exagerates the dominance of family in Hispanic culture, as personal definition has few outlets outside of the family, or is subsumed and engulfed by it. As related through their individual stories, the "success" of the eight refugees/immigrants became proportional to their ability to form, reform or keep ties to their old families when they came to the United States.
Who was successful and why? I became most interested in two of the immigrants, who I think emblemize two typical Hispanic experiences. First, the car mechanic. This immigrant formed a nuclear family with his friend Bob; gained a circle of "cowboy" friends (mostly "Americanos") and successfully negotiated the transition from socialist economy to capitalistic economy. He appears to be the most fully integrated of the people followed because he has grafted his family needs onto the American model and developed alternate routes of satisfaction outside of the family (contemplation of nature, fulfillment in work and reaching out to American culture). I was secondly interested in the man whose total focus was on reuniting with his daughter (note, not with his wife/mother of his daughter). This drive led him to steady work (economic integration) and a stable household in the Miami area. Note that he himself did not have to integrate fully into American society, as Miami is primarily Hispanic. His integration is only partial, and in terms of his own limited goal of reunification with daughter. He can continue to speak primarly Spanish and continue to live a Cuban life, though with much more material comfort. His daughter, we suspect, will expand her borders and integrate because of her English proficiency, her early and constant exposure to American culture, and the relative material comfort and doting support from her parents. She will probably retain very strong ties to her family, as this appears to be the strongest value instilled in her by both her parents and her culture.
In both of these immigrant stories, and as with the others, family ties determined relative success and happiness.
I offer these observations because they also reflect my own very close, personal relations with, observations of and interest in Hispanic immigrants from the Caribbean, Central and South American over the past seven years.