Abstract
Scholarship on Mexican Americans has mostly focused on those in lower-income brackets, and many scholars express fear that Mexican Americans will attain only modest gains in socioeconomic status over generations. Statistics reflecting the socioeconomic status of Mexican Americans suggest they lag behind in education, income, and wealth compared to other groups, including African Americans. Jody Agius Vallejo provides hope by demonstrating that large numbers of Mexican Americans are already in the middle class and many others are on the path to achieving this status. The fact that second- and third-generation Mexican Americans will make up a significant proportion of the working-age population in decades to come, coupled with the imminent retirement of the aging Baby Boom generation, shows that Mexican Americans are poised to fill white-collar positions as long as they can close the education gap.
Agius Vallejo fills an important gap in the race and assimilation literature by examining middle-class Mexican Americans from varying class backgrounds and generations who are at different points of the mobility journey. By interviewing 75 Mexican Americans who are members of the middle class, supplemented with an ethnography on an ethnic professional association in Santa Ana, California, the author looks at ‘1.5-generation’ (born in Mexico and migrated before the age of 12) and second-generation pioneers’ roads to entering the middle class, as well as second-generation individuals who were raised middle class, and later generations who hail from both low-income and middle-class families. Throughout the text, Agius Vallejo reveals the different mechanisms that foster upward mobility into the middle class and examines different measures of assimilation, including giving back and family obligations, how middle-class Mexican Americans racially and ethnically identify, and civic participation.
By considering a variety of generations, different social class starting points, and the different assimilation patterns experienced by whites and racial minorities in the United States, Agius Vallejo discovers that there are a variety of pathways Mexican Americans take to join the middle class. This challenges earlier theories of assimilation by providing evidence that pathways into the middle class, and the experiences of individuals once they enter it, vary between and also within ethnic groups. Although models based on linear assimilation and segmented assimilation/racialization may be sufficient to understanding some groups’ pathways to the middle class, to understand the routes of Mexican Americans, we must consider the underutilized paradigm of the minority culture of mobility.
Growing up in a low-income family can present many obstacles to upward mobility for Mexican Americans. Many are raised in neighborhoods ruled by gangs and characterized by poor school districts, concentrated disadvantage, and high proportions of ethnic and racial minorities. Pathways into the middle class are facilitated by educational tracking of gifted children and mentors who provide access to knowledge, information, connections, and resources that are otherwise available only to those who grow up in the middle class. Once they enter the middle class, those who were raised in lower-income brackets often feel responsible for taking care of their kin. They must also negotiate between their salient ethnic identities and their new socioeconomic positions, leading to the development of a minority middle-class identity. These individuals embrace their ethnic and cultural roots in addition to their middle-class status.
The legal status of migrant parents influences the life trajectory of their children, as well as facilitates the mobility process to middle class. Legal residents can obtain stable jobs, open small businesses, and purchase homes – opportunities that are generally not available to illegal migrants. Agius Vallejo finds that Mexican Americans born into the middle class often have different life experiences than their mobile counterparts. Several of the interviewees questioned why they were chosen for the study, because they identify ethnically and culturally as American, some even as white. Many of those who were raised in white middle-class communities have the luxury of choosing when to embrace their ethnic heritage, like white European Americans (e.g., Irish Americans who choose to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day). These individuals, particularly those with a white parent of European descent, might take Spanish classes in college or join a professional ethnic association to try to relate to the community in attempts to increase the consumer base for their businesses. For the most part, those who were raised as members of the middle class do not feel responsible for taking care of their families, even kin who are struggling in the lower classes. When they do offer support, it is usually social not financial, such as assisting with language barriers if their parents are immigrants.
Agius Vallejo effectively demonstrates that the pathways and experiences of middle-class Mexican Americans vary. This is institutionally supported by the US Census Bureau, which considers ‘Latino’ to be an ethnicity, as opposed to a race, opening the door for individuals to self-identify in a variety of ways. The author finds that Mexican American identities range from ‘Latino’ and ‘Chicano’ to simply ‘American’ and ‘white,’ and these identities are largely informed by the social class they were raised in.
While carving out the pathways of assimilation that Mexican Americans take, the author primarily relies on comparisons to whites, who are seen as experiencing a linear model of assimilation and upward mobility, and African Americans, who are seen as experiencing a pathway of downward or stagnated assimilation due to blocked economic progress. At times, she also draws upon comparisons to Asians, but does not draw upon specific ethnic groups. Like Latinos, Asians come from a variety of cultural and educational backgrounds when arriving in the United States, and some battle with issues of legal status. Although data are often presented as though Asian Americans are a monolithic group and a model for minority success, many face obstacles and adversity due to low education attainment and having few assets upon arrival, similar to Mexican migrants. The author also chose not to draw upon other Latino ethnicities for comparisons, leaving out those groups that have built a thriving middle class, such as Cuban Americans. Although the experiences of Cuban Americans and Asian American ethnic groups are different from Mexican Americans, future analyses could extend beyond looking at whites, blacks, and Asians as a whole, because, as the author recognizes, Mexican American ancestry is one of several Latino ethnic groups, and racial identity varies. The nearest comparison Agius Vallejo draws is to Irish and Italian immigrants who faced initial adversity and outsider status, but over time were able to assimilate because of their white skin tone. This might make sense for Mexican Americans whose race is likely viewed as white to outsiders, but this is clearly not the case for many Mexican Americans. More recent and diverse examples could improve the depth of future studies.