The Ethnic Matrix: Implications for Human Service Practitioners

Most human services practitioners at one time or another must confront cultural issues which in many ways have a direct impact on their role and effectiveness as helping professionals. This article links the phenomenon of ethnic identity to problems, practices, and policies encountered in the field of human services. Although most of the theoretical concepts presented here are related to counseling psychology and education, other practitioners with culturally diverse client populations will also find the information applicable to their work. The social scientist, teacher and researcher, who is often the disseminator of theoretical and methodological paradigms, should also find these observations useful. The professor of applied and theoretical humanistic studies in many instances is the one who lays the foundation for an understanding of how sociological, cultural, and political phenomena interact with the psychological. The primary purpose of this article, therefore, is to present a psycho-social model (the ethnic matrix) for understanding ethnicity and the ethnic process in American society, and show how this model can be used by practitioners and researchers to further expand their own work

[Review of] Clara E. Rodriguez. Puerto Ricans Born in the U.S.A

It may be apocryphal by now, but it has often been said, and it is repeated again by Rodriguez in her most recent contribution to the literature that Puerto Ricans still hold the dubious distinction of being among the most researched and least understood people in the United States, if not the world. Rodriguez\u27s use of the existing voluminous literature on the Puerto Rican experience certainly reinforces this widely held belief. Puerto Ricans are the second largest Latino ethnic group in the United States, and in New York City one out of every eight people is Puerto Rican. This is a remarkable statistical finding, especially when one considers that most non-Puerto Ricans remain culturally illiterate about the history, migration, education, politics and daily life of this struggling community. So, it may well be true that while volumes of research studies sit on the shelves of our educational institutions, most Americans remain woefully ignorant about who the Puerto Ricans really are, and why so many continue to be scattered in barrios throughout the fifty states, including Hawaii

The Co-opting of Ethnic Studies in the American University: A Critical View

The birth of ethnic studies in the American university was accompanied by the politics and pedagogy of rage, pride, and mistrust for the then prevailing curricular academic structures and its tradition-bound, academically conservative gatekeepers. The campus take-overs, student demands, and confrontations were a common expression of the times, and concomitantly these were also shapers of the changing times. The presence or absence of ethnic minority faculty and students in our universities was and continues to be one of many indices by which we measure the willingness of this society to live up to its responsibility and promise to guarantee expanding educational opportunity for all. The creation of ethnic studies programs as a legitimate academic course of study in the university was one key part of that long range objective. Many universities now boast of departments and programs in Afro-American Studies, Puerto Rican Studies, Chicano Studies, Native American Studies, and other ethnic studies entities. Today\u27s student can leaf through the semester\u27s schedule of courses and choose from a wide array of ethnic studies offerings and think only of whether or not it fits into his/her program. Even traditional academic departments, formerly resolute in their refusal to include ethnic studies courses in their curriculum, now cross-list, and in many instances generate their own version of ethnic studies courses in direct competition with existing ethnic studies programs

Review Essay: Arthur M. Schlesinger\u27s Vision of America and the Multicultural Debate by Jesse M. Vazquez

In April of 1990, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., published an essay in the Wall Street Journal entitled When Ethnic Studies are Un-American. [1] The publication of that article followed, by about eight months, the release of New York State\u27s Department of Education\u27s now controversial report -- A Curriculum of Inclusion. [2] Interestingly, the publication of The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society also follows, by about seven months, the release of New York State\u27s second and most current Education Department report calling for the development of a new multicultural social studies curriculum -- One Nation, Many Peoples: A Declaration of Cultural Interdependence.[3

[Review of] Felix M. Padilla. Latino Ethnic Consciousness: The Case of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans in Chicago

Felix M. Padilla\u27s contribution to the growing body of literature on Latino/Hispanic identity in the United States represents a significant departure from the way most social scientists have approached their analysis of ethnic identity and consciousness. On his way to putting together a conceptual framework for supporting his thesis of an emerging Latino ethnic identity and consciousness, Padilla provides a substantial in-depth analysis of the Mexican American and Puerto Rican community-based organization in Chicago during the early 1970s

[Review of] F. Chris Garcia, ed. Latinos and the Political System

Latinos and the Political System, carefully compiled by F. Chris Garcia, represents a significant contribution to the field of political analysis as well as to the study of the complexities and subtleties of the politics of the Latino community in the United States. While the book\u27s focus is clearly on the emerging place of the Latino community on the American political landscape, Garcia and his collaborators amply demonstrate that as needs and wants are converted into specific policies, the implementation of these will have significant ramifications for the rest of the system as well as for Latino politics specifically. This collection is as much about American politics as it is about the politics of Latino ethnicity. It is the kind of collection that can be used to illustrate case studies in local, state-wide, regional, and national trends in the rapidly changing face of American politics. It also presents an in-depth analysis of the historical, contemporary, future directions, and political potential of the fastest growing ethnic group in the United State-doubling in the next twenty years, and tripling in the next forty

[Review of] Felicisima C. Serafica, Andrew I. Schwebel, Richard K. Russell, Paul D. Isaac, and Linda B. Myers, eds. Mental Health of Ethnic Minorities

This edited collection is based on papers presented at a conference held at Ohio State University (1986), entitled Minority Mental Health: A Multicultural Knowledge Base for Psychological Providers. The chapters included in the book are expanded versions of the themes covered in the conference. This excellent book is a welcome entry into the ever-expanding field of psychology known variously as minority mental health, cross-cultural counseling, and multicultural counseling and psychotherapy. It is a field that has grown considerably in the last two decades, as counselors, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and other mental health providers and researchers have attempted to understand the complex role that race and ethnicity play in the counseling and psychotherapeutic process. It is a complex and controversial field, and one that doesn\u27t fail to attract criticism as well as a growing number of dedicated proponents

[Review of] Felix M. Padilla. Puerto Rican Chicago

Felix M. Padilla\u27s Puerto Rican Chicago is a noteworthy contribution to the ever burgeoning literature on the Puerto Rican community in the United States. While it is clearly a detailed sociological history of the Puerto Rican community in Chicago, it is also a study which positions this community in a broader network of racial, ethnic and class interactions. As more literature documents and analyzes the histories of diverse Puerto Rican settlements (from New York to Hawaii), scholars will begin to form a more complete picture of the impact of migration, race, labor and industry, and culture on the development of the various Puerto Rican communities in the United States

[Review of] Diego Echevarria. Los Sures

Perhaps one of the more perplexing, yet also intriguing aspects of Diego Echevarria\u27s film, Los Sures, is the illusion that he creates of isolation and disconnection from the larger world that shapes and engulfs his subject -- a Puerto Rican community in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. The way Echevarria presents the Los Sures community gives one the sense that it sits alone and apart in a land of unknown origin. Yet it is located only a stone\u27s throw away from one of the most affluent urban centers in the world. Not even the Hasidic Jews, who share the larger community with Puerto Ricans, African Americans and others are allowed to intrude into this filmic portrayal of a Puerto Rican community cut off in the midst of urban America

[Review of] Joseph P. Fitzpatrick. Puerto Rican Americans: The Meaning of Migration to the Mainland (2nd Edition)

Joseph Fitzpatrick\u27s second edition of Puerto Rican Americans returns to a form familiar to readers of the literature that emerged during the 1950s and 60s. In that sense, Fitzpatrick\u27s new edition is comprehensive, multifaceted and filled with supporting data touching almost every aspect of the life of the Puerto Rican migrant in the United States. In this new edition, Fitzpatrick builds on the solid foundation of his earlier work (1971). While occasionally leaving himself vulnerable to his critics, as he did in his first edition, this new effort represents a significant contribution to the on-going dialogue and analysis of the Puerto Rican community in the United States. Fitzpatrick\u27s interpretive essay, as he would like it to be known, accomplishes an efficient restorative blend by drawing on data and studies published over the last fifteen years and effectively integrates these new findings with his earlier edition