Posts Tagged: intermarriage
Beyond Heritage and Identity
Recent events, however, have caused me to consider still another possible option, although at this point I'm not sure what to label it. For now, I'll simply call it an ethnic special interest. Let me explain.
My father was raised in Guadalajara, Mexico. His family fled to the United States in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution. Growing up in early post-World War II Kansas City, Missouri, I was immersed in Mexican lore by my father, who wanted to develop in me a robust Mexican identity. But he also helped imbue in me a deep love for my country, the United States. Maybe that's the reason I don't see any inherent conflict between having both a strong ethnic identity and a strong dedication to one's nation.
My mother's parents were immigrants, too: my grandmother from Austria; and my grandfather from Ukraine. They also raised me in an ethnic tradition, but not a nation-based one: a Jewish ethnic tradition. They seldom talked about Austria or Ukraine, places that mainly brought painful memories of anti-Jewish oppression, from which their families had fled. This brings me back to my earlier ethnic categorical musing.
Current events – the ousting of the Russian-leaning president of Ukraine, Russia's occupation of Crimea, and continuing tensions involving the two nations – have provoked in me a sense of connection spawned by my ancestry. It's not a Ukrainian ethnic identity, of which I have none. Rather it's a special interest because events there may connect, in some yet-undetermined way, with part of my personal heritage.
I raise this topic because a rapidly-increasing number of U.S. Latinos have mixed heritages. Sometimes these are people with two or more national-origin Latino heritages. Sometimes they involve non-Latino along with Latino heritages. As we move further into the twenty-first century, issues of heritage and identity are likely to become even more complex.
The basic question is this: in what respects will future Latinos grow up as Americans with Latino identity, Americans with specific Hispanic national-origin identities, or merely Americans of Hispanic heritage? This question will become even more challenging as Latinos continue to intermarry and mixed Latinos – people like me – become an increasing part of the U.S. cultural kaleidoscope. The ways that Latinos address and wrestle with the complexities of ethnic identity amid multiple heritages could play a significant role in the future Hispanic trajectory.
Source: Univision's Hispanic Insights Blog, Beyond Heritage and Identity by Dr. Carlos E. Cortés, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Riverside, June 27, 2014.
Ethnic foods on the rise
The demand for ethnic foods in supermarkets has continued to increase due to several factors, as reported in Facts, Figures and The Future by The Lempert Report. Among them:
- Intermarriage is on the rise. About 15 percent of all new marriages in the United States in 2010 were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity from one another, more than double the share in 1980 (6.7 percent), according to Pew Research Center.
- The growth of Hispanic and Asian populations in the United States continues. By the year 2050, Hispanics are projected to account for 30.2% of the total U.S. population, and Asians will account for 7.8%, up from 4.6% in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Roberta Cook, a Cooperative Extension marketing economist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Davis, has been tracking demographic and fruit and vegetable consumption patterns in the U.S.
“The changing ethnic makeup of the U.S. population is definitively favorable, since Hispanics and Asian Americans consume fruits and vegetables at higher rates than African Americans and white,” she says.
Other trends that have contributed to the higher demand of ethnic foods:
- Today’s school-age children are growing up exposed to food diversity: a new School Nutrition Association survey shows most school cafeterias in America offer Mexican and Asian dishes, and many experiment with Middle Eastern, Greek, Kosher/Halal and Indian foods.
- College dining halls also serve foods from many cultures, and help refine students’ palates as they prepare for adulthood. The campus dining experience influenced where 44% of students decided to attend, according to a 2011 Technomic study.
The Lempert Report adds that two-thirds of consumers who eat ethnic food at home say ‘authentic or traditional flavors’ is the most important factor when buying or eating it.
Source: Facts, Figures and The Future by The Lempert Report / Consumer Insight, Inc., Melting pot for a world of tastes, Feb-April 2012.