Melissa Mesinas

This exploratory study analyzed the influence of Zapotec parental socialization practices on the cultural awareness and involvement, ethnic identity, and Zapotec language use of their adolescent children. A total of 15 parent-child dyads participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents. Adolescents responded to corresponding open-ended questions in a written survey. Results indicate that the children of parents who were the most involved in cultural groups and organizations were more likely to participate in traditional dance and music groups. The children of parents who identified as indigenous and encouraged Zapotec language use were more likely to also identify as indigenous and speak Zapotec. High cultural awareness and participation among adolescents was not always related to indigenous self-identification and/or Zapotec language use. Many adolescents who did not self-identify as indigenous and did not speak Zapotec also reported high levels of cultural awareness and involvement. Implications for parental socialization research on Mexican indigenous immigrants in the United States are discussed.

Indigenous Latinx children and youth are a growing population that has been largely invisible in U.S. society and in the scholarly literature (Barillas-Chón, 2010; Machado-Casas, 2009). Indigenous Latinx youth are often assumed to be part of a larger homogenous grouping, usually Hispanic or Latinx, and yet their cultural and linguistic backgrounds do not always converge with dominant racial narratives about what it means to be “Mexican” or “Latinx.” Bonfil Batalla (1987) argued that Indigenous Mexicans are a población negada—or negated population—whose existence has been systematically denied as part of a centuries-long colonial project of indigenismo (indigenism) in Mexico and other Latin American countries. This systematic denial in countries of origin often continues once Indigenous people migrate to the U.S., as they are actively rendered invisible in U.S. schools through the semiotic process of erasure (Alberto, 2017; Urrieta, 2017). Indigenous Latinx families are often also o...