The Identity Of Latinas

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Lazaro Aguilar The Identity of Latinas Over the past one hundred years women’s rights has grown exponentially, but one group women that still struggles today is Latinas. Traditional expectations of Latinas have limited their pursuit of higher education and leadership positions in the work force. Their family and cultural expectation are to be the house wives that care for their family and to be submissive to their husbands. Even though all these expectations have limited Latinas, they are making progress to change their identity through determination and support from the community. The traditional roles that are expected of Latinas in the family household are very historic compared to the way women are now. Their current identity heavily reflects on their past. A role that most women fulfill now is the housewife. Most of the Latina woman’s time is spent in the kitchen cooking and making sure everything is done right for the husband. Most Latinas don’t work because they have to serve their children and take care of the household. In Latin culture a man in the house is treated similar to a king. This structure has positive and negative impacts on Latin family life. Men may take these values differently because there are men that really value their traditions and respect them, but there are also men that think that they have all the power and authority in the house and don’t care about what their wives feelings or even value the hard work their wives do or have any respect for them. This has come to a “machismo”, which is defined as “the true machismo is being a man of palabra, of honoring a women, men, and children. The false machismo is the man who rules, dominates and drinks. There is a role men should take. We do not want to eliminate the part that will stand and protect the family.” (Delson 32) A macho man should be responsible of taking care of his family.

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