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Latino Families As Figure 10.6 shows, the proportion of Latino families headed by married couples and women falls in between that of whites and Native Americans. The effects of social class on families, which I just sketched, also apply to Latinos. In addition, families differ by country of origin. Families from Mexico, for example, are more likely to be headed by a married couple than are families from Puerto Rico (Statistical Abstract 2011:Table 69). The longer that Latinos have lived in the United States, the more their families resemble those of middle-class Americans (Saenz 2004).

With such wide variety, experts disagree on what is distinctive about Latino families. Some researchers have found that Latino husbands-fathers play a stronger role than hus- bands-fathers in white and African American families (Vega 1990; Torres et al. 2002). Others point to the Spanish language, the Roman Catholic religion, and a strong family orientation coupled with a disapproval of divorce, but there are Latino families who are Protestants, don’t speak Spanish, and so on. Still others emphasize loyalty to the extended family, with an obligation to support the extended family in times of need (Cauce and Domenech-Rodriguez 2002), but this, too, is hardly unique to Latino families. Descrip- tions of Latino families used to include machismo—an emphasis on male strength, sex- ual vigor, and dominance—but machismo decreases with each generation in the United States and is certainly not limited to Latinos (Hurtado et al. 1992; D. Wood 2001; Torres et al. 2002). Compared to their husbands, Latina wives-mothers tend to be more family- centered and display more warmth and affection for their children, but this is probably true of all racial–ethnic groups.

With such diversity among Latino families, you can see how difficult it is to draw gen- eralizations. The sociological point that runs through all studies of Latino families, how- ever, is this: Social class is more important in determining family life than is either being Latino or a family’s country of origin.

Asian American Families As you can see from Figure 10.6 on the previous page, Asian American children are more likely than children in other racial–ethnic groups to grow up with both parents. As with the other groups, family life also reflects social class. In addition, because Asian Americans

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As with other groups, there is no such thing as the Latino family. Some Latino families speak little or no English, while others have assimilated into U.S. culture to such an extent that they no longer speak Spanish.

machismo an emphasis on male strength, high sexuality, and dominance