Mexican American Traditions
... 3 hundred years. Catholicism is not only a religion to Mexican Americans, but also a way of living, they are taught since they are children to worship God, the saints and the virgen de Guadalupe. Mexican American children are not asked whether they want or not go to church, or if they want to go trough certain religious rituals such as, first communion, and baptism. According to Dr. Arnoldo de Leon, “Approximately 20 percent of Mexican Americans in the United States belong to Protestant communions.” (par. 3) Moreover, whenever a person rejects the Catholic Church and its traditions, that person is rejected from the family. Hundred of persons that had opposed to follow their religious traditions in the Catholic Church to become a member of another Christian denominations had alleged that they were rejected from their families. When these situations occurred families disunite, family relations changes, and in an overall situation, the whole community gets affected. Is not only the religious traditions that affect the community, but also the family traditions. Family traditions are also an immense influence within the Mexican American Culture. One of the major problems that Mexican Americans have is the problem with education. Mexican Americans have always focused on their economic situation, since the majority of Mexicans have crossed that border by choice, most in search of jobs. Parents do not give the opportunity to their children to stay in school or to graduate, or more important to go to college. According to Mijares a UCLA dropout specialist, “Many of these parents (Mexican Americans) felt the eight grade marked the end of their child's education. In Mexico, only the wealthy and college-bound go beyond the eighth grade" (McIsaac par. 13). Parents do not encourage their children to get good grades, but to get a job and help with the expenses of the family, and they do that, because they see that other families are doing it and feel that okay. This family tradition affects this culture, and that is the reason that most Mexican Americans have the worst jobs. Mexican Americans families are the lowest income families as Rafael Valdivieso states, “Lack of education probably contributes to the fact that, as a group, Mexican Americans have lower-status occupations than does the U.S. population as a whole. Mexican Americans are concentrated in blue-collar jobs, farm work, and service occupations; comparatively fewer hold white-collar jobs.”(par. 11) For the majority of Mexican American’s families, low paying jobs migrant farm work has become a tradition, as farm worker Ruben Ortiz stated, "The fields are for Mexicans. Only Mexicans,"(Zeman par. 14). Family traditions similar to this, are the one of the worst traditions that still nowadays Mexican American families carry out. Dropping out of school and getting jobs at an early age is not the only problem for Mexican American’s economic status. One of the oldest traditions and still alive is the marriage tradition. It is a tradition in Mexico and also here in the United States, that women have to get marry as soon as they turn 18 or at their early 20’s. Another more significant marriage traditions is that the woman have to procreate more than 2 children. As Census data indicates, “Mexican Americans tend to marry and have children at earlier ages…As a result, the proportion of Mexican-American children living i...