F for Family, Football (soccer) and Faith. to most this is the holy trinity for the Latino culture.

Is there something more to say about it? Maybe not..., at the least you want to provoke some discussion and to erode some accepted beliefs. 

Family.

What to think about the Hispanic households? Where the percentage of heads of family being a single women is growing exponentially (around 20%) to reach the level of the African Americans.
Football (soccer).

How many more commercials about beer, cars and electronics can you make using football (soccer) as an excuse?
Faith.

In most cases another way to talk about fatalism. Dios proveera (It's In God's hands). But still is hard to believe in this “fatalism” as the predominant “mindset” in the Latino people when you were able to grab the bull by the horns and move to a whole new country and advance in this new culture.

Maybe these three themes are too much for just one letter. So, let’s concentrate in FAMILY.

Tell me about yours, give us your ideas and experiences at the personal and professional level. Let’s understand better what it means something that everybody takes for granted but plays such a big role in the way to live the Latino values, to define the Latino style of life in USA and that drives so many consumption preferences.

POST IT AND SHARE IT

It is interesting to balance the Hispanic views of family with my American side.  My Hispanic side loves spontaneous and planned get-togethers.  The American is much less  interested and it can be like pulling teeth to bring them together.  On the Hispanic side, no topic is off limits.  On the American, quiet is better than touching a sensitive subject.  Both are loving yet in distinct ways.  Hispanic is active and "in your business" while American respectfully asks what they can do, and then waits for your bidding.

 Familia es sin duda una de las palabras con mayor significado para el colectivo Hispano ( En el mundo entero). Aunque esterotipica el verdadero poder de esta palabra radica en su extension para todos aquellos que somos emigrantes. La palabra se extiende ya que que de pronto te encuentras con una "Familia" que es la que dejas atras en tu pais de origen. Y una nueva familia que es la que formas en el pais de destino atraces de los amigos con los que convives a diario. Uno acaba con una familia con la que comparte el pasado y con otra que es con la que comparte el presente y conjuntamente contruye el futuro en ese nuevo pais.

BPP

Everything I know about families I learned from watching syndicated reruns of The Brady Bunch:

I assume this family model is pretty much exactly the same all over the world???

Yea, I thought so.

-johnny

Having lived in Mexico most of my life, the daughter of a sweet southern US gal and a rather Mexican “macho” Dad, this is my take on family:

The Mexican family works as a unit. You have the inner core (immediate fam. Mom, Dad and brothers and sisters) and then you have the extended family which includes but is not limited to grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends “compadres and/or comadres” , and any other person that might be at the right place at the right time. All these people help shape the family as a whole because of their differences in age, gender, training, education, work experience, friendships’, etc.  and in a nutshell they give the family group their strength and cohesiveness, while creating a sense of solidarity among all.

As I see more and more single Moms out there I think this extended family works both as an advantage in networking and as a support for “Mom”.  The family group works as an enabler so that women have the possibility to be a single Mom, leave children with someone, earn money for the family (even if it includes supporting several extended family members).  Grandparents, aunts, older cousins, neighbors, etc… take care of the children, and/or food, cleaning and/or social education, psychological support of all including Mom, and friendship among others

There is also the other side of the coin, as much as the education in Mexico seems to center on the family, there are certain issues that prevent it from being as perfect and supportive for everyone involved, especially because there are lots of socioeconomic issues involved. Yet I have seen it work many, many times when families ensure that the correct values are taught and understood from the beginning (proper work ethics, honesty, respect,  sense of achievement, etc.).

This is one of the greatest inheritances I got from my Mexican side and truly miss it here in the USA. As for my American side, the dynamic is completely different. We are independent of each other, we do love each other but the relationship is cooler, we don’t seem to need each other for support.  We don’t feel comfortable asking for help, each one of us is capable of taking care of any of our immediate members.   We don’t cry together, we don’t dream together, we don’t share our joys and our fears like I do with my Mexican family. With my USA family the last functions seem to be reserved for friends only, it is almost like here in the USA friendship has become the new family. Is it a function of education, or the fact that so many Americans live in different places and so the term family has to be replaced by friends because they are closer? Is it just because my sister and I are bicultural, hence different? Or is it just the function that in the end defines the word family? I am thinking the latter is the one!

CCS

La palabra Familia me recuerda a esos eternos domingos de "En Familia con Chabelo," el programa dominical con que han crecido generaciones y generaciones de niños y niñas mexicanos. Era (es) algo así como Don Francisco en versión infantil. 

tengo un tio fregon, cuya hija es fresa, y mi primo es un frijolero q se la pasa metiendo cerveza en la frizadora, su mama se las da de frufru, todo le es fuchi, cuando se encuentra con mis fieles , nada mas habla de las ideas q se fusila, fuacata, esa es mi familia,

The common family activities and family structure that I grew up with in Mexico have dramatically changed since I moved to the US. Back home, all my brothers and sisters were married to a Mexican; whenever somebody needed a babysitter they had an outstanding number of choices (family, friends, in-house help/nannies, etc), and all the family got together at my parent’s house on Sundays (no exceptions). Nowadays, I am living in the US; married to an Argentinean; have limited choices on who to go for in case I need a babysitter; and don’t have any immediate family in Dallas.

Geography has forced us to make many changes and sacrifices. Close friends have now become our immediate family in the area, and technology (Skype and long distance calling cards) has replaced our beloved Sunday family meetings. While me and my wife grew up surrounded by family, now I’m afraid my son will only see his cousins, aunts and grandparents on selected occasions. And even though there will be more cultural and structural changes in our family as time goes by, being apart is also the reason we grow stronger and more united as a family.

AMM 

Families in the Latin culture are probably the most sacred structure in the culture as everyone is raised to respect it to the fullest. Everyone from your great grandmother to your aunts, uncles, etc, we always welcome them and say good bye to them with one word "bendicion" which translated to english roughly means "bless me". Not using this word everytime you greet or dismiss a relative is considered to be rude and inappropriate because we should always ask for our loved ones to ask God to keep us blessed 24/7. Families in Latin America are very close and they come before anyone and anything as they are the primary focus of everyones life and not including them as such is also considered to be rude and disrespectful.

Having grown up in Venezuela and having all my family be from that country it is very interesting to see how the American culture is so different and in many ways very cold towards each other within a family. It is very common for me to hug and kiss my mom and dad when saying Hello or saying Goodbye and very rarely do I see a gesture of affection between families here in America which I find very strangely; if I do see any affection is an awkward hug and a far away goodbye wave.

In Latin America we are not afraid to show are affections at all which makes our culture more warm and welcoming to others that for example in the United States...I think it's very interesting

It is clear that "family" does not mean what it use to.  Clearly family has been redefined and rearranged in many ways.  Also it is no secret that for Hispanics family is very important, but often we only see the perfect family portrait.  The truth is the Hispanic family portrait is very rapidly seeing single parent-families both from divorce and unwed.  The growth of unwed Hispanic (frequently teen) mothers this year outpaced that of married.  However, many of these single moms are banning together under one roof to create a new family.  This is just one of the many examples of how family is changing, but the reality is that it is not all kum-ba-ya.

Special K

Special K  i agree. i grew up in mexico and came to the states holding on to the picture of  the perfect familia. Over the years that picture has taken on different tones and composition due to the changes in the community and the different circumstances that Hispanics face living in this country.  The picture that emerges here is different and the question in my mind is how do Hispanics balance and reconcile the definition of familia from the country of  origin, tradition, and  values, to their lives now in the US. 

SG

Johnny - for a Latina, it was not so much the Brady Bunch that I related to, but the Waltons.Now that's the first representation of the Latino family culture on TV.  I mean come on....they had 10 kids in the family, grandma and grandpa lived in the house, dad was a farmer, mom stayed home, John Boy was the first and only one one to go to college. I could totally relate. They should bring the Waltons back.  Now that's a great Latino family.

I agree that The Waltons represents a beautiful American ideal.  However, if you remember the series, it was about a large family struggling during the Great Depression and WWII.  America was completely different then.

"Hispanic women have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country—over three times that of whites and Asians, and nearly one and a half times that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Every 1,000 unmarried Hispanic women bore 92 children in 2003 (the latest year for which data exist), compared with 28 children for every 1,000 unmarried white women, 22 for every 1,000 unmarried Asian women, and 66 for every 1,000 unmarried black women. Forty-five percent of all Hispanic births occur outside of marriage, compared with 24 percent of white births and 15 percent of Asian births. Only the percentage of black out-of-wedlock births—68 percent—exceeds the Hispanic rate. But the black population is not going to triple over the next few decades"

"Overall teen childbearing in the U.S. declined for the 12th year in a row in 2003, having dropped by more than a third since 1991. Yet even here, Hispanics remain a cause for concern. The rate of childbirth for Mexican teenagers, who come from by far the largest and fastest-growing immigrant population, greatly outstrips every other group. The Mexican teen birthrate is 93 births per every 1,000 girls, compared with 27 births for every 1,000 white girls, 17 births for every 1,000 Asian girls, and 65 births for every 1,000 black girls. To put these numbers into international perspective, Japan’s teen birthrate is 3.9, Italy’s is 6.9, and France’s is 10."

From Hispanic family values? by Heather Mac Donald