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Hernandez, RudyFatherwork in the Crossfire: Chicano Teen Fathers StrugglingTo "Take Care of Business." JSRI Working Paper.Michigan State Univ., East Lansing. Julian Samora ResearchInst.

JSRI-WP-58

2002-11-0040p.

For full text: http://www.jsri.msu.edu/RandS/research/wps/wp58pdf.Reports Research (143)

EDRS Price MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.Aspiration; *Child Rearing; Cultural Influences;Disadvantaged Youth; *Early Parenthood; Family Influence;Family Relationship; Father Attitudes; *Fathers; HispanicAmerican Culture; Juvenile Gangs; *Late Adolescents;Masculinity; Mexican Americans; Parent Child Relationship;*Parent Responsibility; Parent Role; Poverty; QualitativeResearch; *Urban Youth*Chicanos; Michigan

This paper explores the fatherhood experiences of youngChicanos from the perspective of a social insider, from the same ethnicbackground and neighborhood. This vantage point places the issue of teenagefatherhood for Chicanos within the context of contemporary urban culture aswell as within the structural challenges that many minority and poor youthface in our shifting economy. The study draws on a conceptual frameworkcalled "generative fathering" or "fatherwork"--the work that most men do tomeet the needs of their children and the next generation. Extensive, in-depthinterviews were carried out with seven Chicano teen fathers, or Chicanos whohad fathered children in their teens, who were known to be actively involvedwith their children, as well as with a few teen mothers, other familymembers, and youth advocates knowledgeable about the issues. Four majorthemes emerged during interviews: (1) masculinity and fathering in spite ofthe bad example of one's own father; (2) taking responsibility for one'sobligations, and the ways that sense of responsibility was conveyed to youngmen by strong mothers and grandmothers; (3) competing interests betweenfamilies and children; and (4) creative strategies of exploiting localresources to provide for families ("hustling"). (Contains 67 references.)(SV)

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by Rudy HernendezDirector, Undergraduate Diversity,

College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, MSU

Working Paper No. 58November 2002

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Fatherwork in the Crossfire:Chicano Teen Fathers Struggling

to "Take Care of Business"

by Rudy HernendezDirector, Undergraduate Diversity,

College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, MSU

Working Paper No. 58November 2002

About the Author: Rudy Hernandez

Rudy G. Hernandez was born and raised in Detroit, Mich., where he completed his undergraduatestudies at Wayne State University. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in MSU's Department of Sociology.His focus of study is primarily on Latino youth and family issues. Professionally, he has worked severalyears with youth throughout Michigan and is currently the Director for Undergraduate Diversity in theCollege of Agriculture and Natural Resources at MSU.

3

MICHIGAN STATEUNIVERSITY

Ntithigan State UniversityEast Lansing, Michigan

SAMORAAZ<=I x0INSTITUTE

Julian Samora Research InstituteDr. Israel Cuellar, DirectorDanny Layne, Layout Editor

SUGGESTED CITATION

Hernandez, Rudy "Fatherwork in the Crossfire: Chicano Teen Fathers Struggling to 'Take Care ofBusiness,'" JSRI Working Paper #58, The Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University,East Lansing, Michigan, 2002.

The Julian Samora Research Institute is committed to the generation, transmission, and applicationof knowledge to serve the needs of Latino communities in the Midwest. To this end, it has organized anumber of publication initiatives to facilitate the timely dissemination of current research and informationrelevant to Latinos.

Research Reports: JSRI's flagship publications for scholars who want a quality publication with more detail thanusually allowed in mainstream journals. These are produced in-house. Research Reports are selected for theirsignificant contribution to the knowledge base of Latinos.

Working Papers: for scholars who want to share their preliminary findings and obtain feedback from others in Latinostudies.

Statistical Briefs/CIFRAS: for the Institute's dissemination of "facts and figures" on Latino issues and conditions. Alsodesigned to address policy questions and to highlight important topics.

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4

Fatherwork in the Crossfire:Chicano Teen Fathers Struggling to "Take Care of Business"

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Latinos & Teenage Childbearing 2

Research Questions 7

Methods 8

Sample 10

Analysis 11

Jesiis 11

Junior 12

Beto 14

Andres 17

Responsibility "Takin' Care of Business" 20

Chava 20

Miguel Angel 22

Jose and Maria 24

Strategies of Exploiting Local Resources 28

Summary and Conclusion 29

Endnotes 31

References 32

5

Fatherwork in the Crossfire:Chicano Teen Fathers Struggling to "Take Care of Business"

Introduction

Increased divorce rates and out-of-wedlockbirths have precipitated much national conversationabout the well-being of children raised in singlefamily households. Commonly evoked is the imageof a single mother who is struggling to raise childrenwithout the help of her children's biological father,or a "deadbeat dad." However, realistically, she hasa good chance of remarrying a man whose ex-wifeand children are being primarily supported andraised by yet another man (Coleman, Ganong &Fine, 2000). If the mother is poor and young, theimage quickly becomes that of a Black or brownwoman who is perpetuating her condition byirresponsibly becoming pregnant repeatedly, bymultiple men, most often in her teens, without regardor need for establishing a traditional family; she isreplacing familial support: economic, social,emotional and psychological, with that of the state.The Black or brown father(s) are seen asirresponsible, incorrigible, highly oversexed,sometimes depraved, boys or men who derive theirself worth from irresponsibly fathering as manychildren as possible and who have no regard forsociety's existing mores for civility.

Until recently, most of the academic literaturepertaining to Latino families has primarily onlyincluded Mexican American communities and hasfailed to recognize the important effects thatvariables such as socioeconomic status, immigrationgeneration and nativity have on shaping familyexperiences (Massey, Zambrana & Bell, 1995). Yetearlier studies that underanalyze structural, cultural,regional and ethnic differences within Latinocommunities are applied with a broad stroke todescribe Latino family experiences across the board;unfortunately, they have created an essentializingeffect. Consequently, the simplistic cultural clichésthat they have generated, whether positive ornegative, are not very useful in understandingcontemporary Latino youth or families.Furthermore, very little research deals with the

family lives of minority males, especially Latinos inthe Midwest. This work attempts to add to therevisionist scholarship that Maxine Baca Zinn(1995: pp. 179) describes as having "reshaped ourthinking of Latino Families." Here, I explorefatherhood experiences of young Chicanos from theperspective of a social insider from the sameethnic background and neighborhood. From thisvantage point, I hope to place the issue of teenagefatherhood for Chicanos within the context ofcontemporary urban culture as well as withinstructural challenges that many minority and pooryouth face in our shifting economy.

The study of teen childbearing/rearing has beenlargely motivated by the desire to establishcorrelation and causation with success and failure ofyoung mothers and their children, the people whoselives are believed to be most affected by it.Furthermore, there is no shortage of literaturepertaining to teen pregnancy/childbearing thatfocuses on young women, although considerablyless that focuses on Chicanas and/or Latinas, andeven smaller amounts that focus on adolescentChicano fathers. There is, however, a growinginterest in the subject of adolescent fatherhood. But,compared with our knowledge of teen mothers, thereis very little literature available that offers little morethan demographic data or anecdotal accounts (Allen& Doherty, 1996). Scholars who study teenchildbearing most often attribute teen fathers'absence in the literature to poor birth record trackingmethods, to trouble in recruiting subjects for studiesbecause of the stigma associated with negativestereotypes, and to fatherhood denial ornoninvolvement (Allen & Doherty, 1996. ElaineBell Kaplan, 1997: pp. 22), who studied teenageBlack mothers in northern California, found itimpossible to include fathers in a meaningful way inher study because "[s]adly, most of the teen mothers'fathers and their babies' fathers [in her study] werenot involved in their lives in any significant way."

6

However, I do not believe young fathers to be absentfrom the literature because they are invisible in theteen childbearing/rearing discussion. Rather, theirabsence is a reflection of scholarly theorizing aboutfatherhood that has been closely tethered tomainstream ideals and norms, which offers littleroom for understanding how young men,particularly young men of color, do fathering outsidethe context of middle-class, heterosexual marriageor after its dissolution.

Certainly Chicano teen fathers face incrediblechallenges. The intersection of youth and poverty isa particularly precarious place to be. Add to that thesocial and economic disadvantage related toimmigrant status, segregation, racism, substandardeducation and the restructuring of our economy.Further saddle many of these youths with thecultural and structural forces that obligate them tocontribute to the maintenance and management oftheir sanguinal families, be the "social cement" onwhich poor and immigrant families have longdepended (Gold, 2000; Stepick, 1998). Now add tothis the burden of inventing ways to deal with thesuperfluous responsibilities of contributingfinancially, emotionally and temporally to a childwith whom he often does not reside. Of course notall Chicano teen fathers are poor, not all areindividually as burdened by poverty, racism, etc. Thefact is not all even attempt to explore theresponsibilities one would assume are inherent tofatherhood. Given the paucity of research in thisarea, it is impossible to know how many, but somedo "step up to take care of business," a term usedwidely in inner cities to describe those young menwho care for their children to varying degrees.

This study is largely informed by a structuralanalysis that offers contextual meaning to a criticalunderstanding of family systems.' However, Iemployed the concept of "fatherwork," the workmost men do to meet the needs of their children andnext generation, posed by proponents of thegenerative fathering framework, which operatesunder the assumption that young men have a desireto be involved with their children and that theycontribute positively to raising their children inmany ways that are best understood when viewed incultural and structural contexts (Hawkins &

7

Dollahite, 1997), as ways to explore how youngChicano fathers perceive fatherhood, how thatperception is influential in constructing the meaningof fatherwork, how this fatherwork is tempered bystructural and cultural forces, and how it translatesinto the actual work they do to meet the needs oftheir, family, children and next generation. Giventhat these young fathers are also adolescents, who inmost cases occupy a semi-dependent position withina larger family unit, I purposefully trained myattention to observe the extent to which Chicanofamilies marshal traditional and cultural values, suchas familism, to help mediate the construction of ateen's perception of the meaning of fatherhoodjuxtaposed to their experiences with being young,poor, urban and Chicano. By no means is this studyrepresentative of all young Chicano fathers and theirfamilies, but it does augment the few other studies ofits kind which add to our knowledge of this vastlyunderstudied population.

Latinos & Teenage Childbearing

Background

Many studies point out that teen childbearing hasracialized dimensions and much to do with minoritystatus, lower social positioning, school failure,school dropout and residence in a single-female-headed household (Baca Zinn & Riba, 1999;Erickson, 1998; Romo & Falbo, 1996; Bell Kaplan,1997; Mauldon, 1998). Among the greatest debatesis whether teen pregnancy begets poverty and limitsopportunities, or vice versa. While poverty andlimited opportunities may, in part, be perpetuated byteen pregnancy, the fact is that 38% of all teens livein poverty and that 38% is responsible for 83% of allteen pregnancies (Mauldon, 1998). Studies showthat for most poor teens, educational problems,poverty, underemployment and lack of opportunitiesprecede teen pregnancy, and having a baby has littleor no bearing on whether or not these adverseconditions change (Baca Zinn & Riba, 1999;Marsiglio, 1986, Romo & Falbo, 1996; Erickson,1998; Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 1999). If anything,having and caring for a baby may be one of the onlythings that a teen living in these conditions cancontrol and do successfully (Baca Zinn & Riba,1999; Raley, 1999; Mauldon, 1998; Fennelly, 1993).

Most literature produced on teen pregnancy forthe past decade has centered on the White and Blackpopulations, thereby ignoring the fastest growingsegment of the U.S. society Latino youth(Erickson, 1998; Baca Zinn & Riba, 1999). In fact,the overall numbers of Latino youths have recentlyeclipsed those of Black youths (Hernandez, Si les &Rochin, 1999), and they exhibit the lowest rates ofeducational attainment and are poorer than any otherminority group (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 1999.Researchers (Erickson, 1998; Romo & Falbo, 1998;Baca Zinn & Riba, 1999) have reported that Chicanateens are now the most likely of all racial-ethnicgroups to give birth. In 1994, Latinas had a 107.7birthrate per 1000 live births (Baca Zinn & Riba,1999), compared to 116.2 for African Americans and42.5 for Whites (Erickson, 1998). When the birthratefor teenage Latinas is divided by individual ethniccategories (e.g., Puerto Rican, Mexican American,Cuban American, etc.), Mexican American teenagershad a live birthrate of 116.2, which really means thatMexican American teenagers, taken by themselves,are the racial/ethnic group most likely to give birth(Baca Zinn & Riba, 1999; Goodyear, Newcomb &Allison, 2000). While it is true that recent datasuggests that the national teen birth rate has been inslow decline from 1991 to 2000 for women 15 to 19,reversing a 24% rise between 1986 and 1991, theU.S. retains the distinction of having the highestrates of teen pregnancy and births in the westernindustrialized world. Moreover, recent trends alsoindicate that the sharpest decline was reported forBlack women, but Latinas showed the smallestdecline over this same period (National Campaign toPrevent Teen Pregnancy, 2001). Therefore, despitethe recent decline in birthrates for teenage women ingeneral, the gap between birthrates for teenageLatinas and other women is widening, which makesteen childbearing/pregnancy a continuing concernfor Latino communities, especially MexicanAmerican communities.

Given that great strides, since the introduction ofthe "culture of poverty" theories, have been made inbroadening our knowledge of structural forces'power to cause poverty and strain families (Sullivan,1989 and 1993; Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 1999), thesetrends for Latinas should come as no surprise. Yet

8

most mainstream researchers fail to recognize this(Baca Zinn & Riba, 1999). However, there is agrowing body of literature examining both Latinateenage pregnancy and sexual behavior as it pertainsto acculturation, education and poverty (e.g.Erickson, 1998; Romo & Falbo, 1997; Baca Zinn &Riba, 1999). Most of this literature seems to supportthe notion that cultural norms and values areimportant factors to consider when studying teenagechildbearing (Erickson, 1998; Baca Zinn & Riba,1999). Even though this literature has madeinvaluable contributions that have been pivotal toour knowledge about teen childbearing and how it isaffecting Latino families, it has offered sparseinformation regarding the men involved.

Latino Teen Fathers

In general, literature on teen fathers has not beenvery useful in many ways beyond providing(sketchy) demographic data. What we know is thatmost teen fathers have a genuine desire to beproactively involved in their children's lives(Rhoden & Robinson, 1997). We also know thatdespite an overwhelming percentage of teen fathersnot residing with their children, they still manage tostay involved with their children in important ways(Danziger & Radin, 1990). Where Latino teenfathers are concerned, it has been shown that despitestructural economic factors that severely limit theseyoung men's abilities to provide for their children intraditional ways, they have developed complex andcreative ways to stay involved with and remainsupportive throughout at least portions of theirchild's life, and these ways are influenced by culture(Sullivan, 1989 and 1993; Marsiglio, 1986;Robinson, 1988; Danziger & Radin, 1990). Whilethere very well may be social pressures in "barrios"for teen fathers to accept responsibility (Cohen,1999), there is consistent evidence that thesepressures are not new. They have been, for a longtime, just misunderstood (Mirande, 1998). Latinoscholars who have studied masculinity and manhoodhave, for many years, taken the stance that being acaring, nurturing father and family man is culturallyintertwined with Latino masculinity and is anintegral part of familism. Measuring masculinity byhow well one provides for the economic and

emotional well being of his family rather than maledominance, sexual prowess and aggression (Miran&& Enriquez, 1979 as cited in Reyes, 1995; Mirande,1998; Reyes, 1995; Mirande, 1988; Baca Zinn, 1982as cited in Vega, 1995). Moreover, as theopportunities to earn viable wages in the industriesthat once supported urban Latino families dwindle,these kinship systems are as important to preserveLatino families, communities and culture as theyonce were during other times of great transition;from colonizer to colonizer, from agriculture toindustry, and from stationary to transitory work(Thornton Dill, 1999).

Families, Youth, Poverty and Gender in the Barrio

The focus of this research is on how young, poorChicanos do "fatherwork" to borrow a term fromHawkins and Dollahite (1997). In many ways, theexperiences of many young Chicano fathers areshaped by immigration and poverty. Indeed, theseissues are intertwined, and the literature pertinent tothese areas provides contextual insight into thefamily experiences of first, second and thirdgenerations of Latino youth. Furthermore, this bodyof literature provides compelling evidence thatsuggests that children who are poor and/or are partof an immigrant family, regardless of theirgenerational order, become important householdagents who facilitate settlement (Fernandez-Kelly,1995; Valenzuela, 1999; Gold, 2000; Zhou, 1997;Stepick, 1998). Stepick (1998) describes children asthe "social cement" that holds families together andaid in settlement. Furthermore, these childrenassume adult roles at an early age; they act asinterpreters, translators, daycare providers, financialconsultants, mediators between their families andthe outside world (Valenzuela, 1999).

While these "social cement" traits are shown tobe intrinsic to childhood experiences in immigrantfamilies, several other studies suggest that in secondor third generation Latino families, children serve asthe oil that lubricates the mechanisms that maintainand manage families (Sanchez Jankowski, 1991;Vigil, 1988; Moore, 1991; Furstenburg et. al., 1999;

Zhou, 1997; Gold, 2000). They take on jobs,whether in the formal market or not, at an early agein order to contribute to their families' collectiveincome, oftentimes at the expense of their education.However, the restructuring of our economy from anindustrial base to a service base means that evensecond-generation youth, who may not havelanguage or other barriers common amongstimmigrants, are being excluded from even low-skilled labor (Gans, 1992).

"Neighborhoods are not accidents. They are theproducts of systematic sorting" (Furstenburg, et. al.,1999: pp. 18).

In the Midwest, where this study takes place,manufacturing and low-skilled jobs are disappearingat an alarmingly rapid rate (Mishel & Bernstein,1992: as cited in Zhou, 1997). Jobs that require evenminimal training are being relocated outside citylimits, creating highly concentrated pockets ofpoverty in inner cities barrios where mostLatinos live (Zhou, 1997; Furstenburg et. al., 1999).These concentrated, low-income barrios highlysegregated, alienated from the mainstream, virtuallydenuded of institutional resources and void of viablerole-models have had tremendous socialconsequences on their inhabitants and play animportant role in shaping families and genderrelations (Zhou, 1997; Furstenburg et. al., 1999).Moreover, increasing unemployment has seriouslydecreased the number of marriageable men andconsequently there is a rise in female-headedhouseholds, even for Latinos (Zhou, 1997). While thepoint of departure of most studies on contemporaryLatino families is their close-knit familial structureand extensive kin networks, they also conclude thatthese same families are highly flexible, adaptive totheir environment and hardly the monolithic,patriarchal institutions that was once the stereotype(Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 1999; Coltrane, 1996; Mirande,1998). As with most families, Latino families are inconstant flux, inventing and reinventing themselves,changing in composition, meaning and function inorder to maintain and manage their existence (BacaZinn, 1995; Gold, 2000).

9

Increasing unemployment and shrivelingopportunities for even poorly paid jobs also haveforced many Latino youths to wander in and out ofthe underground economy in order to contribute totheir families' financial stability (SanchezJankowski, 1991; Bourgois, 1995). This situationusually conjures the image of a young Cho lo[Chicano hoodlum] sporting baggy clothes, thickgold chains, tattoos and a wad of cash that couldchoke a horse. However, nearly all studies ofcontemporary barrio youth life (read: gangliterature) support the notion that young Latino menturn to "street culture," informal oftentimesillegal economy, as a means to eke out anexistence and earn respect in the absence of manyviable opportunities (Sanchez Jankowski, 1991;Vigil, 1988; Moore, 1991; Bourgois, 1995;Anderson, 1999; Furstenburg et. al., 1999, Zhou,1997). These alternative forms of "getting over"usually mean getting exploited by older men whohave them "selling wares" for low pay, working longhours and in dangerous conditions and with theconstant risk of imprisonment hardly the hands-over-fists of cash that the media would lead us tobelieve is inherent to selling drugs.

In his study of Chicano youth and barrio gangs,Vigil (1988: pp. 37) explains the activities of youthin school and on the streets by pointing out whatMerton (1949) previously suggested: "...low-income populations have no or little means to attaingoals established by higher-status groups and thusmust resort to alternative, often deviant, paths tofulfillment." Unfortunately, these deviant paths arecondemned by society to be immoral (Anderson,1999; Bourgois, 1995; Sanchez Jankowski, 1991).Along this vein, other researchers are quick to pointout that the national image that Latino youth havecome to represent one that is immigrant, gang-banging, oversexed, hypermasculined and violentlycriminal (Moore, 1991). Consequently, being young,brown and poor maybe not even being poorconstitutes immorality. However, the gang literaturealso points out that entrepreneurialism amongstLatino youth, whether gang member, loose affiliate,or just a kid temporarily "getting over" in theunderground economy, represents an opportunity toachieve a sense of self-competence and of thinking

10

of themselves as capable of economic success,around which their sense of being and masculinity isprecariously constructed (Anderson, 1999; SanchezJankowski, 1991; Vigil, 1988; Moore, 1991;Bourgois, 1995). If this is true, perhaps there is greatreason for these young men, regardless of gangaffiliation, to ape the stereotype in order to havemore street credibility (Anderson, 1999), whichdrastically decreases their odds of legitimateemployment or educational success. However, giventhe few venues for legitimate employment, itprobably matters little.

When, and if, these young men do gain anopportunity to obtain self-worth through legitimatemeans in other words, when a young man gets achance to "go straight" because of a job, aneducational opportunity, getting involved with a"decent" girl from a "good" family, etc. they losestreet credibility, but redefine and reinvent theirsense of being and masculinity (Sanchez Jankowski,1991; Vigil, 1988; Moore, 1991; Bourgois, 1995;Cohen, 1999: pp.1-2) reported that fatherhoodcaused many of the low-income young men in hisstudy drastically to change their lifestyles from onesthat involved crime, womanizing and absenteefathering to law abiding, involved family men. Heattributed this to increasing disrespect in "barrios"and "ghettos" for men who deny responsibility fortheir children, something he called a "qualitativeshift in the code of manhood."

Moore (1991: pp. 9) provocatively states,"Institutions develop where there are gaps in theexisting institutional structure." Of course, she wasreferring to gangs having evolved to fill the socialneeds for Chicano youth that families and school nolonger provide. Most all gang literature pertinent toLatinos takes this approach. Interestingly, virtuallyall the aforementioned literature has a sectionexamining how family and/or fatherhood works toshape and define, at one point or another,masculinity. These studies present evidence thatLatino youths either had very little contact with theirfathers due to absenteeism, or that the relationshipthey had with their father was at best strained. AsMoore (1991: pp. 90) put it, "'happy' fathers werenot much discussed [by her respondents]. Most of

the descriptions of 'grouchy' fathers (and even someof the 'happy' ones) reflect both the pressures andinsecurities of manual labor and also the Mexicanmasculine value of emotional reserve."

Although tempted, I refrain from resurrectingMirande's (1998) treatise on the misunderstoodsense of Mexican masculine nurturance. Rather, myexperience of growing up fatherless and findingmyself strapped with the responsibilities offatherhood at a young age in the very sameneighborhood where I did most of this research,under many of the same social conditions, compelsme to apply Moore's logic on institutional gaps tofatherhood. Perhaps the pressures and insecuritiesabout which Moore speaks are more related to theprecarious situation in which these blue-collarfathers find themselves because of a changingeconomy, one that is seriously limiting pathways toconstructing traditional families that were onceavailable to urban Latinos. If Mirande's perceptionof masculinity (read; machismo) is right and Isuspect it is at least partially the "pressures andinsecurities" about which Moore writes are related tomanual labor in the sense that it is limiting thesemen's ability to provide for their family, is affectingfamilial gender relations (Coltrane, 1996), and isseriously compromising their sense of masculinityand fatherhood. Furthermore, perhaps their sons,who have even fewer legitimate opportunities, arejust now beginning to learn to exploit thoseillegitimate opportunities that are increasingly theonly available resources to them in poor inner cities;learning to forge these resources into viable, iflimited, support for their families Mirande'sfoundation for masculinity.

Non-traditional Fathers

Sociologist Vaughn Call, who in 1993 directedthe national Survey of Families and Households,pointed out that the U.S. Census Bureau candocument that there are 70 million mothers over theage of 15 in the U.S., but has an inadequate idea ofhow many fathers there are (Gibbs, 1993: pp. 53).Not all unwed mothers report the identity of the

father (Robinson, 1988; Lindsay, 1990; Sonenstein,1986; Erickson, 1998). However, where the age ofan unmarried man who has fathered a child to aminor is reported, only 25% of them are minorsthemselves (Wattenberg, 1998; Erickson, 1998), but80% are young; within three years of the age of theteen mother (Mauldon, 1998). The few small, non-representative studies that have comparedracial/ethnic communities and how they deal withteen fatherhood, report that these young men areoverwhelmingly poor, with 80% not residing withtheir child; 60% of Latino teen fathers reside withsanguinal families (Wattenberg, 1998; Horn, 1999).

Indeed, these men paint a bleak picture, but thetask of defining the term "fatherlessness" remainsdifficult and contentious. Both of these men, alongwith a few other conservative scholars, claim thatchildren's welfare is dependent on fathers' presencewithin a family and that responsible fathering ismost likely to occur within the context of aheterosexual marriage. Consequently, they discountthe reality that many, many single women havesuccessfully raised children with very little or nohelp from their children's fathers (Luker, 1996;Coltrane, 1996) and that many fathers who do notprimarily reside with their children remain activelyinvolved with, and influential to, their children'slives (Danziger & Radin, 1990; Lamb, 1998;Sullivan, 1986; Cohen, 1999; Mauldon, 1998).

The foundational premise on whichfatherlessness proponents build their arguments isthat in a heterosexual marriage, parents naturallyoccupy "separate spheres." By this, they mean that afather plays a biologically predisposed role,differentiated from that of a mother because of theirsex. The father is the breadwinner and protector ofhis family. He is the good provider a role that isnaturally fitted to his competitive and aggressivenature indispensable, and one that only hasmeaning within a heterosexual, father-headedfamily. He portrays a role that has remainedunchanged throughout the ages, and one that menassume begrudgingly. A woman's duties are, putplainly, to be a good wife and mother; dependent;

11

roles fitted to her sense of nurturance;complimentary to but never overshadowingmen's role as "king of the hill"; meant to conscriptmen to their moral obligation as fathers andhusbands. Within this context, fatherhood forthem is an institution that not only grants menbiological and moral authority to raise children likeonly fathers can but, by implication, one that alsogrants a family's legitimacy. In other words, if it isnot a nuclear family, it is not a family. As the logicgoes: If we want to restore "broken families" andcure "our most urgent social problem," return fathersto their proper place as head of the household.

The idea that parents' roles are naturallydifferentiated by biological predispositionseparate spheres is not new. However, it hasproven to be more of a cultural ideal than reality, andit is tied to the ideals and myths that are associatedwith nuclear families. Both universal cultural ideals,separate spheres and nuclear families, have longsince been shown to be mechanisms that men use tomaintain power of over women (Coltrane, 1996).2Similarly, the ideal perpetuated by fatherlessnessarguments is that married fathers are extensively andqualitatively involved with their children and theirinvolvement is indispensable and irreplaceable; byextension, the myths perpetuated are that unmarriedfathers are never involved and that single mothers donot perform the duties traditionally performed byfathers. But, just as feminist and racial/ethnic familyscholars have argued that nuclear families are butone form of family, largely only historicallyexperienced by people privileged enough to affordthem, fatherhood within a nuclear family is also justone representation of this experience. It is also anexperience that is mostly representative of aprivileged class. However, many family scholarsstill operate within a deficit framework where thereis perceived to be a norm (i.e., nuclear family,married father, etc.) against which all other types arecompared and found to be deficient. Unfortunately,the idea that gets perpetuated by these deficit-typeperspectives is that there is an underlying biologicalreason (rather than a structural one) that accounts forvariation from the norm.

A recent trend in scholarship, however, is one inwhich a distinct call is made to abandon deficitperspective approaches. Frameworks that operatewithin paradigms that attribute social problems todeviation from universally prescriptive roles (i.e.,ascent of fatherlessness) are dangerous andcounterproductive. Instead, a call is made forsuccessful fatherhood to be characterized within thecontext of socioeconomic, racial/ethnic andhistorical meaning that men and women worktogether to create, whether inside or outsideenduring relationships (Lamb, 1998; Coltrane,1996). Hawkins and Dollahite (1997: pp. xiii) arguethat a significant reason for the pervasiveness ofliterature that employs such perspectives is that "welack a rich scholarly language to help us articulatefathers' capabilities and contributions." They havecritiqued deficit paradigm theories, in particular roleinadequacy paradigms, in order to attempt to build alanguage and a theory suitable to study fatherhoodmeaningfully a theory they introduced as"generative fathering." They call "generativefathering" an approach to understanding fatherhoodthat "recognizes fathers' current contributions to thedevelopment of the next generation, the constraintsunder which most fathers labor, the good desiresmen have to be generative fathers, and their effortsto improve (pp. xiv). They interchange the words"generative fathering" with "fatherwork" which theydescribe as the work most men do to meet the needsof their children and next generation. Theypurposefully call this "work" to avoid any inferencethat fathering may be a role.

Research Questions

The generative fathering framework clearlyoffers a better alternative than a "separate sphere" ora "deficit perspective" from which to approachstudying Chicano teen fathers. For one, it recognizesthat most young men want to be involved with theirchildren: Secondly, it departs from the notion thatfatherhood is a biological role, which can lead tosimplistic models that posit merely fathering childrenis inextricably linked to identity and self-worth forChicanos masculinity (see Goodyear, Newcomb,& Allison, 2000 for example). Third, it considers thatstructural and cultural factors contribute to how, andhow much, young men do "fatherwork."

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Perhaps most importantly, it not only recognizeshow research and literature have contributed tomyths and misconceptions about teen fathers and/orto their invisibility, but it consciously works to createa more accurate portrayal of young fathers and theircontributions (Rhoden & Robinson, 1997). But, acaveat may be in order: generative fathering isoffered as a conceptual ethic rather than aframework. It is not meant to be an approach todescribe reality, rather it is meant to be a way bywhich to suggest what is possible and desirable(Dollahite, Hawkins & Brotherson, 1997).

While I remain a bit apprehensive about themoralistic undertones that a conceptual ethic maybring to the field, I am optimistic about thepossibilities of this movement's ability to shift thedirection of fatherhood studies away from the streamof popular thought that has historically at worse

damaged our perception of non-White, poor,unmarried and teenage fathers, or at best castthem into obscurity. But in no way is this studymeant to have ethical implications. The underlyingassumptions, however, under which "generativefathering" framework operates that young menhave a desire to be involved with their children andthat they contribute positively to raising theirchildren in many ways that are best understood whenviewed in cultural and structural contexts makesits use worthwhile in the study of Chicano teenfatherhood in the industrial Midwest.

I have shown that much of the recent work onLatino youth and Latino teen fathers presents ademographic picture that suggests they have a highpropensity toward being involved with andsupporting their child regardless of the relationshipthat they have with the child's mother (Danziger &Radin, 1990; Gray, 1994; Sullivan, 1989 and 1993;Marsiglio, 1986; Robinson, 1988). And they jugglefatherhood taking care of their business withtheir responsibilities to contribute to their sanguinalfamilies (Wattenberg, 1998; Fernandez-Kelly, 1995;Valenzuela, 1999; Gold, 2000; Zhou, 1997; Stepick,1998). It has also been documented that, in general,mothers and grandmothers oftentime createobstacles that discourage and/or prevent ameaningful father/child relationship (Allen &

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Doherty, 1996; Wattenberg, 1993: as cited inDoherty, Kouneski & Erickson, 1998); and, thenature of fatherhood and masculinity is in transition(Coltrane, 1996; Mirande, 1998; Kimmel, 1995;Cohen, 1999).

The primary purpose of my work is to explorehow young Chicano fathers perceive fatherhood,how that perception is influential in constructing themeaning of fatherwork (fatherhood, taking care oftheir business, etc.), how this fatherwork is temperedby structural and cultural forces and how it translatesinto the actual work they do to meet the needs oftheir, family, children and next generation. ThereforeI examine ways that the fatherwork these young mendo may be influenced by their perceptions offatherhood and masculinity; how the perceptions offatherhood and masculinity, held by young Chicanofathers, may be constructed from the socialinteractions they have with their own familymembers, children, peers, the mother of theirchildren, and her family; and, finally, how theseyoung men may interpret and modify theirperception of fatherhood and masculinity in order toinvent strategies to maintain meaningfulrelationships with their children.

Methods

The study used basic grounded theory techniques(Glaser & Strauss, 1967) to identify and codecommon family issues related to teen fatherhood thatemerged from in-depth interviews that were firstconducted with four youth advocates who work withLatino families and children, and, later, to identifycommon themes that surfaced from interviews withthe informants. However, one of the objectives wasto provide a richly detailed account of familysystems that operate in an urban context. Therefore,interviews tried to capture other events andoccurrences in these families' lives besides the factthat a young man was a father. And, because of theauthor's "veterano" status (alumni status for lackof a better translation) as both a neighborhoodaffiliate and youth advocate gave me considerablymore access to information that is generally notshared with outsiders, I chose to pattern my studyafter "Portraits of White Racism" (Wellman, 1993).

While my methodology is certainly based onWellman's, it differs from his in many ways.Wellman's study on race and racism was conductedduring racially volatile times of the late 1960's andearly 1970's. Therefore, he thought it best to usepeople who had "lived the lives [he] wanted tounderstand" to collect data rather than rely onconventional research assistants who would morethan likely be White, middle-class and not so quicklytrusted by participants (Wellman, 1993: p. 67). Healso presumed that because of the sensitive nature ofthe issues being discussed, initial group interviewswould minimize the discomfort and render muchricher data. His interviews were "one-shot affairs"and were not personally conducted by him.However, my own experience dictates that Chicanoyouth who frequent youth agencies are not very opento discussing their intimate family business in frontof their peers, nor are they quick to confide in peoplewho are not familiar fixtures at the agency. So, Ichose not to use group interviews as a way to "breakthe ice." Instead, I relied heavily on the relationshipsthat I had with agency workers and the presence thatI had established at the agencies, over the course ofa year, to assuage any apprehensions the youth mayhave had about my interest in their lives.Consequently, my interviews were not one-shotaffairs.

Wellman used tape recorders, which he thoughtwould encourage looseness and spontaneity andallow the interviewers to participate and exchangeideas with their informants. However, to reducediscomfort and because I've been pressured in thepast by authorities to divulge information regardinggang affiliations and delinquency, my interviewswere not tape recorded. Instead, they were laterrecorded as field notes from memory and onlyinformation pertinent to my study was included.There were a few times, however, when extremelypertinent and poignant statements were made, atwhich point I immediately wrote them down andlater incorporated them into the field notes foranalysis. Since most everyone, including my youth-advocate colleagues, had no knowledge that I was astudent, I introduced my intentions from the verystart so that I would not hamper my credibility as anadvocate. Also, prior to all interviews, I described

my research interests and this project to potentialinformants, and I explained to them that I wasfocusing my studies on Latino families and how theyrelated to youth. I reassured the informants that I wasnot out to depict their families or their situations in anegative way. Of course, anonymity was assured.However, given my role in these communities,confidentiality was also a concern.

Like Wellman, I used very unstructured andopen-ended interviews that gave a very broad, butdetailed, account of the informants' life histories andtheir family interactions. In most cases, I neverexplicitly made an appointment for an initialinterview. Instead, I made it my business to frequentthe targeted youth programs in order to build rapportwith the clientele through volunteering as a tutor,mentor, and/or advocate. Subsequent interviewsoccurred in settings that were convenient to theinformants (i.e. family functions, bars, schools). Idid probe considerably during subsequentdiscussions in order to direct our conversationstoward subjects that would shed light on the majorissues I wished to explore.

In order to promote the type of looseness andspontaneity that Wellman sought to create, wheneverpossible, I conducted subsequent interviews duringactivities that would allow me to interact with theinformants in ways that were non-threatening andthat would downplay my position as a researcher. Iexploited chances, whenever presented, toparticipate in functions, occasions or simpleactivities that would allow me to relate with theinformants on their terms. For instance, I assistedone of my informants in changing a bad engine in hiscar. I accompanied another on a trip to visit his olderbrother in prison. I also assisted an informant inrepairing a broken water heater at his mother'shouse. During these sessions we traded anecdotesand stories about barrio life that sometimes turnednostalgic, what Wellman called "reciprocalexchange," which helped to "narrow the growinggap between academic researcher and communities"(p. 72). This technique proved very useful in educinginformation that put the informants' experienceswith fatherhood into perspective in relation to theirlife history and socio-economic setting.

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Throughout the interviews, I was careful not tomention words, like Latino, Chicano, Raza, macho,etc. in reference to fatherhood or manhood. I felt thatthese words might trigger a conditioned responsethat would lead me into stereotypic responses.Instead, I opened my discussion by pointing outanecdotal information provided by agency workersabout the extraordinary lengths to which they wentto keep their family afloat. Other than "getting myhands dirty" by participating in very typicallymundane tasks that are somewhat of a marker ofbarrio life for young men, this proved to be thesingle most important part of my interviews, as itseemed to elicit very richly detailed and unabashedaccounts of their family lives. These interviews did,nonetheless, take on cultural tones. Aside from theshear volume of interviews, one of the major reasonswhy Wellman did not conduct his own interviews isthat he thought it best to pair the racial backgroundof the interviewer with the informant in order todecrease the possibility of ethnocentric bias in hisresearch and to discomfort. Of course, my racialbackground helped me to establish myself as a socialinside, but I became acutely aware of the fact thatmy persona, at times, represented culturallycontradictory terms (i.e., work on cars, talk boxing,etc. is not consistent with the perceptions that mostof my informants had of higher education) for mostof my informants, so their accounts only came to lifeafter my authenticity as an insider was tested inseveral ways. For instance, after my family lineand/or barrio affiliation was comfortablyestablished, my knowledge and experience withbarrio slang and landmarks were constantly beingtested throughout these interviews. Most of theinformants easily slipped between Spanish andEnglish during our discussions as if to test whetheror not I could competently follow the ebb and flowof bilingual conversations. I felt that they sometimesswitched languages because they struggled toarticulate their thoughts in the language that theywere speaking, so I took their cues on when toswitch languages because I did not want for anymeaning to be lost.

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Wellman looked for common themes in 107informants' interviews. He later chose to createportraits, socio-histories, of only five informantswhose ideas, experiences and lives were reflective ofmany. My interviews were largely reflective of mydesire to emulate Wellman's "portraits" theme. But,they developed around my interest in exploring howfamily dynamics influence young Chicano fathers'perception of fatherhood, the changing structure ofmasculinity within structural and cultural contexts,how family dynamics and masculinity intertwine,and how young men construct meaning from this,rather than just plain fatherhood; and in the end, howthis translates into fatherwork. Wellman used theinsight that he gained from analyzing all 107 one-shot interviews to bring the five portraits to life.Because I spent considerably more time getting toknow my informants through conversations andinteractions, and because I wanted to let myinformants tell their own stories, I chose to create"dialogues" by condensing the content of severalinterviews that I had with the same person into oneshort, detailed passage. These short dialogues weremeant to be faithful to informants' stories, reflectedwhat they thought was important about theirperceptions of fatherhood, reflected what I thoughtthey wanted me to know about their lives andconvey the emotion and passion with which theyarticulated their feelings. I arranged the dialoguesaround four themes that emerged during interviews:1) masculinity and fathering in spite of bad example;2) fathering through familism; 3) competing self-interests between families and children; and 4)creative strategies of exploiting local resources toprovide for families: "hustling."

Sample

The sample that I used was not randomlyselected. I used purposive sampling techniques toseek out Chicano teen fathers, or Chicanos who hadfathered children while in their teens, who wereknown to be actively involved with their children. Ifelt comfortable with the validity of this techniquefor a number of reasons: 1) the use of symbolic

interactism as a conceptual framework is not meantto produce predictive research, therefore it isassumed not to have generalizable qualities, or atleast generalizing is always offered with a caveat;2) access to this sample required extensive contactwith agencies that could identify suitableinformants; 3) in most cases, extended contact withpotential informants was also mediated throughagencies and professionals who could identifiedinformants; 4) the nature of issues in this study arepersonally sensitive, which would not lendthemselves easily to random sampling techniques(Wellman, 1993).

In all, I interviewed thirteen informants (seeAppendix A). Of the 13, seven were young fathers,two were young mothers, three were former singleteen mothers-turned young grandmothers and fourwere youth advocates. All the informants, except forone youth advocate, had positions within a familywhere a teen birth had occurred. To avoidminor/consent issues, the targeted fathers were notminors at the time of the interviews, but all wereteenagers when their first child was born. Althoughone young mother was only 17 when I interviewedher, she was emancipated and was living with a"home provider," a person who is not a legalguardian, but is compensated by the state forsupplying room and board.

I knew all 13 informants prior to the interviews,although in two cases not very well. Except for oneof the youth advocates, all of the informants wereLatina/o. One informant/advocate was a middle classAnglo woman who has worked for more than 15years as an advocate in Southwest Detroit and whoseinsights and access have proven to be considerablyuseful. A second youth advocate/ informant was aCuban American woman who has worked for morethan three decades with Chicano youth alsomiddle class, but the mother of a single father andwhose insight was also invaluable. The third youthadvocate/informant was a Chicana who was born andraised in the neighborhood where she works, alsowas a single teen mother and the mother of threesingle mothers. The fourth advocate was a Chicanaand a single teen mother, young grandmother andwho had done extensive work creating programs for

Chicana teen mother in California and Michigan.Aside from the first two mentioned women, allsubjects were urban and working class from Lansing,Detroit and Adrian. All spoke English, but in variedforms and fluency. The interviews were conductedprimarily in English, but Spanish was also usedintermittently, in which cases I preserved the wordsand phrases so as not to lose meaning.

Analysis

Major Themes Masculinity and Fathering InSpite of Bad Example

Although all the young men in this studyexpressed desire to participate in their children'slives, the effort made to do so varied widely.Interestingly though, except for one young father, allthese young men presented a very bad image of theirown father due either to bad experiences orabsenteeism. Nonetheless, these young men seemedto present the relationship with their own father,whether bad or good, as the strongest motivatingfactor in their wanting to do fatherwork. Thefollowing three portraits are of young men whodescribe how their fathers' inability "to take care ofbusiness" influenced the perception they had of theirown responsibilities with respect to fatherhood.

Jesus

Jesus is 24 years old. He has two daughters. Theoldest is six years old and the youngest is two yearsold. His girlfriend, who is the mother of his twochildren, is now pregnant with their third child.Although Jesus and his girlfriend have no immediateplans to get married, they do consider themselves tobe an exclusive and committed couple. The age ofthis couple betrays their level of maturity. That is,they take their obligations very seriously and carveout a modest, but respectable, living. Although Iknow his family fairly well, coordinating an in-depthinterview with him had been rather difficult since hehas no phone and lives about 70 miles away. It wasmy luck that I was asked to be a compadre in hisolder brother's wedding and this gave me a real goodopportunity to speak to him.

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RGH: Jesus, what exactly motivates you to be socommitted to providing for your family?

Jesus: I don't gotta tell you how my `apa' [father]has been with my mother and my familia.

RGH: Remind me.

Jesus: El cabron [asshole] would take off for monthsat a time and leave mi `ama [mother] by herself tofend for the children. It was... miserable notknowing where he was or when he was coming back.Me and Rudy [older brother] were forced to hustlepa los ninos y mi `ama [for the kids and my mother].I hated it and I hate him [his father] for it. As I gotolder I started to go out and talk to my old man'scompa's [close friends]. They told me he had a vieja[old lady] on the side... [who] lived a few townsover, and that's where he'd go when he'd disappear.Sometimes he'd end up in Mexico, but most often hewas with this vieja [old lady]. It took me a littlewhile before I found out exactly where she lived, butI figured it out. For about a year, I'd go and park infront of this woman's house, but I never had thecourage to confront the man. What pissed me off themost was that the man would come back home andexpect to be chingon [boss] of the house, like henever left. One time when he was gone, my girl gotpregnant with my first kid. It turns out that my own`ama [mother] was also pregnant. Chingaos... theywere both pregnant at the same time... my fathertook off again. "Andaba yo bien encabronado porquese habia idoy tambien aguita'o... si, tambienaguitao" [I was really pissed off because he hadtaken off and scared, too... yes, scared, too].

Jesus was infuriated at his father because he feltthe pressure of having to take care of "his ownbusiness" and was afraid that he couldn't also takecare of his mother, brothers and sister. So, he calledhis older brother who was living away at the timeand they went together to his father's mistress'house. They literally dragged him out and took himhome. On the way home, they told him that theywould kill him if he didn't stop hurting their motherand neglecting their siblings. As it turns out, hisfather took about two years to really get it together.And, for a short period of time, the child with whom

his mother was pregnant during this episode (who isnow six years old) thought Jesus was her father.Things have changed now, though. His father's athome and his parents appear to be happy. Jesus andhis girlfriend have since had another child. She isone month old. However, the relationship betweenJesus and his father is a little strained. Jesus thinksit's because he is a constant reminder to his fatherthat he wasn't "taking care of his business." Jesusthinks what really motivated his father to straightenup was the fact that Jesus was the man of the houseand his father couldn't handle the fact because he isa very possessive person.

r,41

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RGH: So he's macho?

Jesus: No, far from it. He don't take care of hisbusiness he's just jealous and real possessive.See, [very impassioned] I love my vieja I'd killfor her. My children, I'd kill for them and die forthem all in the same day I'd take the food rightout my own mouth so they could eat. I can't imagineit being any way else for a man. He's not like that, hedoesn't take care of his business he's no man.

RGH: His business? You mean he's not a manbecause he takes off when you need him most,because he has girlfriends... why?

Jesus : Look, I got movida [girlfriends] and my vieja[old lady] knows I think but I never bring ithome and I do take care of my business; I take careof my family feed my children, help my mom andlittle brothers and sisters I'm a man.

Junior

Junior had been a fairly good student throughninth and tenth grade. Through those two years, hewas a fairly normal kid. He hung around with atightly-knit group of (Chicano) guys who playedsports, listened to Tejano music, but dressed in hip-hop clothes. They weren't angels, but by no meanswere they "bad kids" ...at one point, the schoolcalled the protective services because they werefairly certain that his father was beating him uppretty regularly. The relationship between Junior andhis father totally disintegrated when Junior was in

eleventh grade and his girlfriend became pregnantthis was shortly after his parents divorced, which

by Junior's account, was precipitated by his father'salcoholism, explosive temper, recent unemploymentand infidelity. The fighting between Junior's parents,between his family and that of his girlfriend, coupledwith Junior's father pressuring him not toacknowledge the child proved to be too much. Juniorwas invited to leave his father's house. He was 16years old.

I interviewed him after a meeting of a Latinomale mentoring group in which I was involved. Atthe time, he appeared to be much older than the lasttime I saw him, which was when he was in the midstof dealing with his newfound fatherhood helooked very tired. He had on khaki pants, a button-up shirt and a tie slung around his neck, untied. Hehad no books. He nodded to me and took a seat at thefront of the room. He drifted off to sleep a few timeswhile I was speaking.

Afterwards, I spoke with him alone.

RGH: You look tired, boy. What's with the tie?

Junior: I got a job... they make me dress up like amonkey, but it's okay `cuz it gives me a minute tomove wares [sell marijuana] on the job.

RGH: You still got plans to go to school... [localuniversity]?

Junior: Sure, but it looks like I'm gonna end updoing Last Chance College [slang for localcommunity college] for a minute 'till I can get ittogether... Right now, I gots to take care of mybusiness... I gots to provide for my child [with muchpride].

RGH: I thought your baby is in Mexico? What, didyour ex move back to Michigan?

Junior: Oh, she's still in Mexico, so is my baby. Butlisten, I gotta cruise `cuz I gotta be at work in 20minutes.

RGH: You need a ride?

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Junior: Nah, vato [dude], I'm driving my new oldlady's ranfla [car]. She's older, so she got it together

got a car.

RGH: So, you have a kid with her, too?

Junior: Simon [yes], she also got three kids of herown.

RGH: Four kids all together?

Junior: Simon [yes]. That's why I'm hustling somuch.

RGH: Wow, that's a lot of responsibility for a 17-year -old. You got solid plans for your future?

Junior: I'm 18, vato [dude]. And right now, I ain'tgot time for my own future, I gotta make plans formy child's future.

At this point, I asked Junior if he'd be interestedin sharing some of his experiences with fatherhoodso I could use them for this study. Junior's eyespierced me for about 30 seconds. After staring at mewith his jaws clenched, he said yes.

RGH: Tell me about fatherhood.

Junior: [very impassioned] You want fatherhood?Okay, being a father is having [it] up against a wall.I gotta kill myself `cuz my kid needs stuff right now,but I know that in order to really do good for him Igotta get a better job, and... that ain't gonna happenunless I go to school. Yeah, my old man's beenworkin' off and on at GM. He's done now, though.He's trained in machines or something and he ain'tgot no job. So there ain't no good chance of medoing that kinda' stuff. All I can do is these stupid...jobs making minimum wage that's why I gotta dostuff on the side.

RGH: You're young. Wouldn't it just be easier towork on yourself right now? I mean, what motivatesyou to "keep your ass up against the wall?"

Junior: I need to figure out something betterbecause I'm killing myself, now. I can't do this fortoo long. It's killing me. Listen, I gotta go to work.I'll call you later, maybe you can help me figuresome of this out.

A few months later I ran into him at the grocerystore. He introduced me to his "new wife andchildren." He told me that his life had changed forthe better since he quit school and was able to workmore hours. He landed a "good job at a local publicwarehouse," but he knew that eventually, for hiskids' sake, he was going to have to matriculate inadult education. He hasn't spoken to his father sincehe moved in with his wife and he doesn't expect toanytime soon.

Beto

I first met Beto when he was a freshman in highschool. Both he and his twin brother were avidwrestlers. Despite the fact that these boys weretwins, Beto seemed to be much more mature. Quiteoften he took on the role of being the older brother.He was always the one talking for both boys and itappeared that his family also put more responsibilityon his shoulders.

When Beto was in tenth grade and still 15 yearsold, he would drive the family station wagon to andfrom school with his twin and his little brothers andsisters. That year, he also quit wrestling so that hecould get a job and help his single mother out withthe bills. He also went to great lengths to make surethat his twin and his siblings were doing good inschool. He was very proud of the academic andathletic success that his twin was enjoying and heseemed to go out of his way to ensure it. Once, histwin was involved in a fight at school and was surelyto be expelled, Beto took the blame so that hisbrother wouldn't lose his eligibility to wrestle.

By the time Beto was in eleventh grade, he waspretty much working full time, going to school andmaking sure his siblings were making it to school.This is when his girlfriend became pregnant for thefirst time. He quit school and moved his girlfriendinto his mother's house. After the baby was born, he

had an elaborate wedding. His twin was his bestman. He is now 20 years old.

I called him to ask him if he would talk to meabout his experiences with fatherhood. He suggestedthat we meet for a beer after work, which was 11p.m. for him. So we did.

RGH: So what about fatherhood?

Beto: It's not that big of a deal. I love my vieja [oldlady] and I knew that sooner or later we were gonnaget married. So I figured, why not sooner? I waspretty worried about my little brother after I quitgoing to school because you know he has a brightfuture and I used to have my hands full just trying tokeep those otro pendejos [other idiots] away fromhim. But it turned out all right. He graduated. Andnow he's going to community college. He wants tobe an architect of course, he helps me and myolder carnal [brother] out with my jale [enterprise]on the side. I'm so proud of him.

RGH: What about you?

Beto: Me? No hombre [no, man]. I'm doing good. Iwork two shifts and I have a little jale [sellingmarijuana and cocaine] on the side. So, my vieja [oldlady] and my babies have everything they need. Thehard part is trying to keep my little brothers andsisters in line. They don't want to go to school. Theydon't want to work. All they want to do is listen tothat... black] music and play video games. But, I tryto keep them in line.

RGH: What about your dad?

Beto: Do you know my dad? If you know him youbetter tell me where he is. The guy went to Texasabout six years ago to find work and never cameback. News came up from the valley that he's in lapinta [prison]. My jefita [mother] don't believe it,though, 'cuz one of her comadres [best friends] toldher that she saw him in Sananto [San Antonio] witha girl and a baby. I don't doubt it. If I ever see him...lo voy a destripar [I'm going to disembowel him].We don't need him anyways. We got along fine sincehe left and we're doing good now.

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RGH: What about school?

Beto: What about it?

RGH: Do you feel that you want to go back?

Beto: For what? My carnal [brother] graduated andhe's working at the same place I am. He's four yearsolder and I got him the job there. Really, I think mycarnal [brother] is the only vato [dude] there whograduated. So I go to adult ed... so what? You thinkthat if I went to adult ed people are going to line upto give me $100,000 a year job? Adult ed is useless.Right now, I'm doing good and as long as peopledon't think that I'm too smart, they give me work.

RGH: Does your vieja [old lady] work?

Beto: No. Right now she's too busy with the twobabies and besides she helps my jefita [mother] outwith my carnalitos [little siblings]. Hopefully,though, sometime in the future, my jefita [mother]said that she'll watch my esquincles [brats] so thatmy vieja [old lady] can start working. My jefita's[mother's] been teaching her how to cook real good.As you can see, I've been eating pretty regularly.Sometimes, they take orders for tamales and makethem on Fridays or holidays. They don't make muchmoney, but it's something. Eventually, if everythinggoes all right, they'd like to start a little cateringbusiness... you know, for weddings, quinceafieras[girls' 15 year birthday party], baptisms...

RGH: If you already had so much responsibility foryour little brothers and sisters, why'd you have kids?

Beto: That's an easy... question to answer. I had sex,pendejo [idiot]. (We both erupt in laughter over thecomment.) Several of the surrounding men whowere paying attention to our conversation also laugh.At this point, I wasn't sure if Beto was going to becompletely honest with his statements or he wasgoing to perform for the audience. But after herealized that people were listening, he turned to themen and told to them "why don't you comadres[ladies] mind your own... business? This is businessentre machos [between men]." [After that, the menseemed to go about their own conversations.]

RGH: Let me rephrase the question. A lot of guysyour age have babies, but not too many of them takeresponsibility and since you already had so muchresponsibility, why'd you choose to drop out of highschool to play daddy?

Beto: Now it's tricky. Let's see... number one, I wasalready pretty much on my way out of schoolanyway. I mean, I wasn't really doing anything atschool, but getting into trouble and trying to keep mycarnal out of trouble. So I figured, what's thedifference? I don't want to be there... they don't wantme there. I was already working 40 hours and myjefita [mother] still couldn't make ends meet. So, Ileft. Number two, when mijo [my son] was born, myvieja [old lady] told me that if I didn't take care ofhim then I'd be just as bad as my dad. That reallypissed me off so I got two jobs and brought mygirlfriend, who's now my wife, to live with us. It washard at first because there were so many of us, butafter I started really working and not having to go toschool, we were able to get a bigger house. Besides,my older carnal [brother] was being a vago [vagrant].He couldn't keep a regular job or anything, so I toldhim to get out and quit dragging us down. He took offfor a little while... went to Texas to find my apa[father]... then he came back. That's when I got hima job working with me. But now, he's living at hisjaina's [girlfriend's] canton [place].

RGH: What about your vieja's [old lady's] family?Do you guys get along?

Beto: When she first got pregnant, her mom waspissed off `cuz she thought that I wasn't gonna takecare of her. Her father isn't around and her mom toldme that I was the same type of vato [dude]. Youknow, "hit and run." Now, I think she's happy for us.We go over there sometimes for dinner on Sundays.Still, though, she pushes us to finish school. Mostlythough, she pushes my old lady `cuz she says thatshe needs to be able to take care of herself just incase something happens to me. I know what shemeans though is just in case I leave. I don't blameher though, it's not like she don't got nothing to goby. I mean, it seems like all my friends' jefes[fathers] have split and gone to Texas... or they seemto go too often. Me, I'm not like that. I love my kids

too much. Even if something were to [go wrong]between me and my ruca [girl], I'd still be with mykids. She knows it too `cuz when she gets out ofhand and starts to talk about splitting, I tell her toleave, but she better don't take the babies. That don'thappen too often, though. She knows I love her nomatter what I say. Yeah, I love my kids... I want tohave four more. I figure that six is a good number.

RGH: Six Kids! That's a lot of work, little brother.Do you really think that you could support six kids?

Beto: Maybe not right now, but I got a strong backand I ain't afraid to use it. If I stay working at thewarehouse, maybe I move up to supervisor orsomething. I know one vato [dude] who's only beenthere for eight years and already he's making straightferia [money]. He got to be making at least $11 `cuzhe's driving a hi-lo. Now those vatos [dudes] makemoney. The only thing is though that they give thosejobs to bolillos [Whites]. I think it might be hard toget a job like that no matter how hard I work. That'sthe way it is around here. And that's why I'm savingmy money to go to Texas. Over there, at least a vato[dude] got a chance.

RGH: Go to Texas like your dad went?

Beto: No way. If, and when, I go, I'm gonna takeeverybody with me. None of that me leave first andthen send for everybody. That stupid stuff gots to go.I got familia there that will help us get started. Theykeep telling us to come, but I don't want just to takeoff. I need to figure out a way so that all of us can go.But I know we got to go. And speaking of going, myold lady's gonna think that I got movida [agirlfriend] if I don't get home soon. Not that I don'tgot movida [girlfriend], but I got to do some thingsto keep the peace.

These three young men's experience withadolescence is typical of poor and immigrant Latinochildren. They accept and fulfill many familialobligations that truncate their childhood. In fact, atleast two of these three young men had acceptedresponsibilities normally associated with parenthoodlong before they became actual parents. They alsoplace high importance on family. All three live with

their partner and strive to construct their meaning offatherhood based on what they perceive to be atraditional and cultural mode, parents who livetogether and raise children. Perhaps this situation iscircumstantial or temporary, related to the fact thatthe particular point in time at which I interviewedthem, they were getting along with their partner.However, they all presented great disdain for theirown fathers' inability to support and maintain afamily in a traditional way, "take care of theirbusiness." None of these three informants oncealluded to sexual prowess, domination or thebiological act of fathering a child to having beenstrongly associated with their sense of masculinity.Rather, manhood (masculinity), for them, is verymuch a cultural ideal to which they aspire and it istempered by whether they can support their childrenand be available to them; do fatherwork.Interestingly, they all chastise their fathers forhaving been unfaithful to their mothers, but theyseem to tolerate infidelity for themselves, as long asthey "don't bring it home" or it does not effect theirability to keep the peace in their household.

This issue is informed by Elaine Bell Kaplan(1997: pp. 121-125), who presents evidence thatyoung black females perceive a qualitativedifference between male and female love, and shesuggests that in the midst of limited access to malelove, due to an "...absent father, which mostsociologists use in describing fathers who are notavailable emotionally or financially for theirchildren...," young black mothers look to their looksons to provide that male love missing in their life.Where Jesils, Beto and Junior are concerned, theylament the absence of their father and are quick topoint out passionately the profundity of their love fortheir children. They imply that they love theirchildren permanently and unconditionally. They"will kill and die for them all in the same day," butthey distinguish this love from the love they feel fortheir partner. They do what they have to do, whetherlegal or otherwise, to make sure their children haveaccess to a father's love, which they associate withstability. For these young men, they experience forthe first time the fatherly love without which theyperceive they were raised.

11.11TO

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Ironically, although they perceive their fatherlylove as a source of stability for their children and asa source of self-respect for themselves, they alsounderstand that the stability that they are providingis precariously balanced due to their limitedopportunities for gainful employment andadvancement, they have their "ass up against awall." While these young men seriously increasedtheir life's load by accepting what they perceive tobe their parental responsibilities, it did not come atthe expense of opportunities. These young men hadenormous familial responsibilities and access to fewlegitimate opportunities regardless the birth of theirfirst child. As Beto (a high school dropout) pointsout, his older brother who is a high school graduateand who has no children works along side with himat a warehouse for minimum wage. And his littlebrother who is a high school graduate, attends juniorcollege and who has no children, works along sideboth of them selling drugs.

Not all the Latino teenage fathers in this studywere victims of poverty or products of what theyperceived to be deficient fathering. For the followingyoung man in particular, the immediate issuessurrounding his situation were different. Because ofhis father's employment offered stability for hisfamily, he had access to a middle class, suburbanenvironment. Consequently, his opportunities forlegitimate success were much greater. However,what remained constant was the pursuit of a culturalideal of masculinity if at first misguided.

Andres

I first met Andres when he had just beenadmitted to college. He pretty much seemed to be amiddle class kid with a lot of ambition. He had fairlystrong aspirations of going to law school and knewthat he had to perform well as an undergrad in orderto realize his dreams. He was a very bright studentand I had no doubt about his academic success.However, he was very timid and seemed to be a bitintimidated by other students who were from urbanareas. Also, when I first met him he had no real senseof ethnic identity.

Over the course of his first year in college, hebecame involved in an activist Chicano studentgroup and went through an ethnic transformation.Although, I've witnessed this ethnic birth amongmiddle class suburban kids quite often, he seemed tograsp at stereotypical images and adopt them as hisown. This, too, I've seen, but not quite to the extentthat this young man had gone. Perhaps it seemed abit extreme to me because when I met him at thebeginning of his first semester, he introducedhimself as "Andy from middle class suburb." He wasdressed in Docker pants and boat shoes. A year later,he was invited to speak to a group of local highschool youth whom I had helped mentor. Heintroduced himself to these kids as "Andres frominner city." His head was shaved, he had a bigMayan calendar tattooed on his arm and he wasdressed like a cholo. He was boasting of his pastescapades as a gang member and said that he hadfathered a child, but he had never seen it.

Of course, I knew he was from a middle classsuburb and probably the closest he ever got to citywas to watch the central city's football team playgames at its suburban stadium. But, I acted stupidand I could sense that he was relieved that I didn'tmess up his game. Afterwards, however, I did askhim about his child. He told me that some girl hadclaimed that he was the father of her child, rightbefore he went to college. He said that he wasn't toosure about it, so he just ignored it. "I been with a lotof jainas [girls] and any one of them could make theclaim, but just `cuz they claim, don't mean that it'strue. Yeah, these crazy... just see a vato [dude] tryin'to do good and they attach themselves. I ain't havin'none of it."

Throughout the course of his college career, hehas maintained a fairly high profile as a studentleader and I would see him regularly either in passingor at cultural programs. The past year, I noticed thathis involvement in student activities began to wane,and when I did see him, he had a little boy with him.About a year ago, he introduced me to the little boyas his son. He told me that he started to get realserious about finishing school because hisresponsibilities had increased immensely.

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When this interview took place, his appearanceand demeanor had gone full circle since I first methim. Although his hair was still quite short, it wasnowhere near the shaved head that he had previouslysported. He no longer dressed like a cholo. Althoughhe didn't look like a preppy school kid either, heappeared to be a lot less preoccupied with his image.

Andres: You know, a lot has changed since we lasttalked. My kid is living with me, now. I got backwith his mother. We're kind of like a full-fledgedfamily. We're thinking about getting married nextyear... after I graduate and figure out what I'mgonna do with my life.

RGH: Why the big change?

Andres: Man... you know, I had been listening tothe wrong people. I got influenced by what I saw onTV and at the movies somewhere along the line Igot the impression that it was a macho thing to bebragging about having a kid. You know... prove topeople that I had a past. I don't know who I wasfooling, though. All it got me was a court date and alot of flack from my old man. My old man is reallyold. He's 66 years old. You know, he kept telling mehow he came to Michigan to pick sugar beets andthat he refused to get married let alone father anychildren until he was on his feet. He didn't land agood job 'till he was 40. He didn't start working theautos until he was 40, and that's when he started afamily. Then, I ended up in court for non-payment ofchild support. I was 19 years old and beingthreatened with jail time if I didn't make good onsome cash. I tried to be stupid and so I denied thatthe kid was mine. Well, a paternity test was done,and it ended up that the kid was mine. I knew allalong that the kid was mine. But, I didn't want toadmit it because things were going so smoothly forme at school. At the time, it got out at school, too.And, mostly all those vatos that I was running withcouldn't have cared less. The girls, though, reallygave me a hard time. They started calling me...[names] for not taking care of my business. Beforelong, the vatos must have started listening to thembecause they started razzing me about it, too.

RGH: So it was peer pressure?

Andres: Some, but not all. It was really one dudethat made me open up my eyes. He's an older guywho really called me out on the way I was behaving.He told me that I was listening to the wrong people.And that the only way I could regain my father'srespect was to step up and take responsibility. Myolder brother is in prison. He started messing uppretty badly and before he knew it he was a junky.He got put inside because he was stealing an awfullot. You know, I really believe if he had had a betterlawyer he'd still be this side of the wall. But what dowe know about the law? That's why I want to be alawyer. My brother really hurt my old man. My oldman keeps blaming himself. Then, when I went tocourt, it was the first time I had actually seen my oldman cry.

RGH: Why'd he cry?

Andres: Because he said he failed to raise a man. Heasked me what kind of man would want to deny thathe had a child. I told him that it wasn't mine and hismother was just trying to ruin my chances of goingto school. He told me that he had seen the baby andthat there was no way that it wasn't mine. And, noamount of education, or success will make himbelieve that I'm a man. He was going on and onabout how he sacrificed and worked double shifts sothat we could live in Rochester Hills. He worked inYpsilanti and mostly during the week he slept thereon a cot so that he wouldn't have to commute.Seriously, I very seldom saw the man, when I wasgrowing up, except on the weekends. Then he saidhow he wouldn't even teach us Spanish because hedidn't want us to be disadvantaged in any way. Hewanted us to be aggressive like the gavachos. Hewanted us to go after what we wanted. He said thatthat was his mistake because somehow we learnedthat lesson too well. He was supposed to retire thatyear but he didn't. He chose to work extra so that hecould contribute some money to my son's mother.He told me that he was ashamed of me and not tocome and speak with him until I was ready to acceptmy responsibility.

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RGH: So you had a kid, did that make you a man?

Andres: It's not that simple. I had to take a real hardlook at myself. I had never seen my father cry noteven when my older brother went to prison. I wantedhim to be proud of me. I'm not gonna tell you that itwas an instantaneous decision. I wanted to finishschool. And, I had already made a name and life formyself over at college and it didn't include a kid.You know, I'm not stupid. I know that my fatherdidn't want me to quit school. I know that he wantedme to claim my child. But, I needed to figure out away to claim my child and not quit school.

RGH: Did you? How?

Andres: I still can't explain how this happened.After we had gone to court and called each otherevery name in the book, I managed to get back withmy kid's mother. Don't ask me to explain that, evenI don't understand it. But it happened. I took out astudent loan to make good on my past child supportand then they moved to college with me. Sure, I hadto seriously adjust my life, but I love my son and hehas made me grow up a lot. I can't say that I'll bewinning any awards any time soon for father of theyear, but I'm there and I'm learning. My son hasbeen the single biggest inspiration in my life. Thesecond biggest inspiration is my father. I've provento him that I can be a father. Now, I can't wait tograduate in order to prove to him that all his workwasn't fruitless. Both these men in my life haveshown me that there ain't no textbook written aboutLatinos, Chicanos, Mexicans... that can teach youabout how important family is. When I got to collegeI didn't realize how much I already knew about myculture. I resented my father for not having taughtme more. Now I know that it's nothing you canlearn... it's something that you have to live.

Andres' experience with fatherhood and cultureis distinguished by his more privileged situationhe had access to legitimate opportunity. Although hisfather was an immigrant, Andres perceived him tohave put off having a family until he could provide astable environment, or perhaps more importantly,until he could provide his children with access togood education and opportunity. What Andres

learned from his father's example was that he shouldpursue success through education, and that successwould define his manhood. He was also stronglyinfluenced by the media's stereotypes of machismo.Because he grew up in a White middle class suburb,he had little opportunity to assuage the power of themedia's influence through meaningful socialinteractions with other Chicanos.

In a misguided effort, largely influenced by themedia, to be perceived as Chicano, he initiallydefined his masculinity by what he perceived to be"macho" irresponsibly fathering a child andhaving a criminal past, what Beto disparaginglyreferred to as "hit and run." And, if there is one, hehad a good reason to deny his parentalresponsibility; he did not want it to hamper hischances for attaining academic success.Interestingly, similar to the situations of Jesus, Betoand Junior who were influenced by what they feltwas the absence of their father's love, in the endAndres was also strongly influenced by his father'slove. However, the strength of his father's culturalconvictions about fatherhood and family, and thethreat of withholding the source of fatherly love andapproval motivated Andres to "be a man" andacknowledge and support his child. What's more,where Jesils, Beto and Junior had little access toopportunity because of their social positions,regardless of their parental responsibilities, Andreshad more access because of his relatively privilegedsituation and doing fatherwork did little to changehis life's trajectory; he finished school and isproviding gainfully (legitimately) for his child.

Responsibility "Takin' Care of Business"

A recurrent phrase that appeared throughoutthese interviews was "taking care of business." Thisphrase was used by both men and women primarilyto describe the compliance of obligations, but itsmeaning took on several cultural and gendereddimensions. Sometimes it was repeated in Spanish(atender a sus asuntos) after it was said in English, asif the informant speaking wanted to accentuate it ormake sure I understood that it had special culturalmeaning. In most cases it was used in the context ofmen attending to their families' needs doing

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fatherwork. In other cases, young men used it todescribe the work that the women in their lives didto keep their families together.

In one situation, Miguel Angel, who had been"sucker punched" by another neighborhood youth,described how his mother told him he had better"take care of his business," retaliate or hewould certainly be considered a "sissy." This youngman recounted his mother's words being: "...sabes[you know], no seas chill& [don't be a cry baby],now that your apa's not here, you have to set anexample for your little brothers. Vete a atender a tusasuntos [go take care of your business] because ifyou don't people are going to get the idea that no onein this family can [take care of business] and we'llall be in bad shape."

Miguel Angel recounted this story when he wasdescribing the obligations that he felt he hadassumed in the face of his father's death. Themessage he received from his mother throughinstances like this is that the presence of men whocan protect families is important. However, he alsorecognized and praised, as did most other young menwho had little or no contact with their fathers, hismother for the work she did single-handedly, afterhis father's death, to maintain him and his siblings.

Most often the phrase was used in context of theperceptions of "good" fatherhood and whatinformants perceived to be associated obligations.The informants in this study who had presented theirown fathers as bad examples described them as "nottaking care of their business." Or, the informantswould use the phrase to describe themselves as"good" fathers. I pressed for a definition of the termwhen it was used in this context. Invariably, theinformants would attach the meaning to providingfinancial help to meet the immediate physical needsof their children as a responsibility or obligation.However, it was also very clear that the definition ofthe phrase, and the informants' perception offatherhood, extended the obligation to includenurturance of their children; for example, spendingqualitative time with their children, teaching themthings, attending doctor appointments, meeting withteachers, etc.

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What was also very obvious about the variousmeanings of this phrase was that it was flexibleenough to allow the young men to construct aperception of "good" fatherhood without holdingthemselves to the same standards with which theymeasured their own fathers. Oftentimes the sameyoung men who disparaged their own fathers forinfidelity or not "being with" their mothers, but theyclearly implied that "good fatherhood" takingcare of business for themselves, did notnecessarily mean that they were expected to beinvolved with or faithful to their children's mother.

Fathering through Familism

While the lives of the following two young men,Chava and Miguel Angel, are marked by poverty,violence and reckless or absent fathers, their storiesgive a rich description of the influence and powerthat Latinas wield to maintain a family. They alsorender a view into the complex and changing natureof gender relations in Latino families. Both theseyoung men attribute their sense of masculinity,whether culturally based or not, to strong women.

Chava

Although I've known his daughter's maternalfamily all my life, I first became acquainted withChava when I worked at a local community agency,about 10 years ago. At the time, Chava was amember of the **** [local gang]. This gang is one ofthe oldest, most highly organized, most feared andmost brutal Latino gangs that operate in this city.Although this community agency targets gangmembers, and at any given time inside its walls theremay be four or five area cliques represented byyouth and/or adults, it has long been considered to beneutral territory. Agency workers say that this isgood for gang members. The neutrality makes themfeel comfortable enough to venture outside theirniche to receive services, which is not typicalbehavior. However, this center is also a hub ofactivities geared toward non-affiliated neighborhoodyouth. And, this is bad for them since, oftentimes,the center is considered to be a primary recruitmentarea for gangs. However, recruitment is not toleratedand most kids respect the rule. The kids who don't

respect it, are often reprimanded by their peers. Thepoint is that "good" kids are often placed at furtherrisk by well-meaning agencies. Since the baby'smaternal grandmother and I worked together at thisagency, it gave me a very good opportunity to do amultiple interview. The following is a discussionwith both Chava and the grandmother, La la.

RGH: Tell me about when Dulce got pregnant.

La la: You know, it was bad enough that she wentand got herself pregnant, but... she didn't have to goget pregnant by this idiot. I guess, Chava wasn't thatbad of a kid... Right after mija [my daughter] hadthe baby, Chava was having some real troubleadjusting to his new circumstances. I mean, it wasn'tlike he dropped everything because mija [mydaughter] was pregnant, but I could tell he was tornbetween la vida loca [the crazy life] and having achild. His mother was no help either. I mean, Chavawas 15 and his mother was barely 30 years old. Shewas depending on him to bring home money so thatshe could support her habit and other children by adifferent father... I think they may have even sharedthe same probation officer once or twice. He wouldcome around every now and then with a bag ofpampers, but he would make sure that they werehidden in a shopping bag or a duffel bag. Boy, washe in love with that child. I could tell. There reallywas no other reason for him to come around... Dulcewould either go upstairs or take off the minute shesaw him coming. So, it wasn't like he was comingaround to see her. I had a hard time figuring outwhether or not to let him come around because hewas so deep into the gang movida [movement]. Wehad our house shot up a couple times before we hadto move, so I was scared. I know it wasn't becauseof him, but it still scared me that he might bringsome...our way and we end up paying for it. But heloved his child, so I really encouraged him to comeby. In the end, I think he may have been coming bybecause of me, too. I mean, after I really got to knowthe idiot, I came to like him. And his own motherwas such a mess.

Chava: All the craziness broke loose when mija [mydaughter] was about a year old. See, this is aboutwhen I got picked up by the chota [police] becausethey said I killed a leader of the ***** [local gang].When they picked me up, they said I had this guy'sdrugs and gun. They charged me with first degreemurder. I didn't do it, but I had such a bad reputationin the neighborhood. And my camaradas [friends]were really starting to get pissed off because I wasslowly trying to find an out. As it came down, thecops planted the drugs and the gun. I still think thecops killed the guy and then wanted to get me off thestreets, too. And, even if my carnales [friends] hadcome out in my defense, who's gonna believe them?

Lala: Anyway, I rallied a lot of support from thecommunity and we hired a lawyer. As it turns out,the cops ended up losing some of the evidence. Howconvenient... just as soon as we start fighting thesystem, they claim they lost the gun. They didn'tlose the rocks [crack cocaine], though. So, mijo [myson referring to Chava] got off with probation anda teller [electronic tether]. About then, Chava'smother took off with some vato [dude] to Chicago.Since Chava was still a minor and he was onprobation, his grandmother and I agreed to watch outfor him. For the first month he stayed with me.Meanwhile, Dulce started going through problemsof her own, so she moved in with some guy she wasseeing at the time. She may as well have left thebaby because Roni, Rocky, Luisa [her otherdaughters] and I were ones taking care of her. But itgave Chava a chance to really bond with the baby.Afterwards when Chava went to stay with hisgrandma, I would drop the baby off to them and theywould take care of her. It was crazy, but it workedout well for the baby because she really got a senseof who her family was.

Chava: After I got rid of the "teller," I enrolled in aGED program. I did this mainly to keep myprobation officer off my back, but little by little Istarted to really move away from the streets. I don'tknow if it was really because of my baby... but, littleby little I really started to become a real vatohecho y derecho [a real dude straight].

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La la: He says it's because he found Jesus. I reallythink that the first degree murder charges scared...him. He had to convince some of his doubtingfriends that he really didn't do it because theywanted him dead. Remember he was accused ofkilling one of his own leaders... it's probably acombination of everything. To this day, even thoughDulce still isn't with him, every time she falls hardfrom a relationship, or loses a job, or... getspregnant... he's always there to help her out. He'sreally a good guy now. His baby is 10 years old andshe goes back and forth between my house... and hishouse. I know I said this already, but he is such anice man he lives with his grandma and takes careof her. He even takes Dulce's other children eventhough they're not his. Can you believe it? Chava?Tattoos por donde quiera [all over the place]. I wouldhave bet a million dollars that he wouldn't have livedpast his seventeenth birthday...

Chava: Even I would've taken some of that action!

La la: Now, he's like the son I never had. If it weren'tso crazy, I'd try to set him up with one of my otherdaughters... but that'd be a sin. Maybe if my ex-husband had been half the man Chava is, my girlswouldn't be in such a mess... I hope one day Dulcecan work it out with Chava."

Miguel Angel

I've known this young man since he was afreshman in high school. He is the oldest of fourchildren whose father was killed in a drug raid about10 years ago. Even though his parents weren'ttogether when his father was killed, he had a fairlyclose relationship with him. Early in his high schoolyears, he became involved with the drug trade andwas pretty heavily involved in a neighborhood gang.When he was in tenth grade he was arrested forkidnapping and attempted murder. He waseventually cleared of those charges, but he did getprobation for two years.

Currently, he is a sophomore in college. He isstudying graphic arts and is quite active in studentgroups. I ran into him on campus in September andwe talked about his academic progress. He said that

he had made the dean's last year and was reallycomfortable with his studies. During the course ofour conversation, I noticed that he had a picture of achild on his key ring and I asked him about it. Hetold me that it was a picture of his son. Upon hearingthe news that he was a father, I asked him if hewouldn't mind talking to me about his experiencesfor my project. He agreed.

RGH: Hey vato [dude]... I didn't know you were adad. Why the big secret?

MA: It ain't no secret, homes. It's just that I don't gotellin' everybody my business. Ya sabes, buey [youalready know, idiot]... when the jainas [girls] findout you got a kid, they don't give you no movida[play].

RGH: Oh, I understand... for a second I thoughtmaybe you were embarrassed.

MA: Chale [no way]! How could I be embarrassedof mijo [my son]? He's the best thing that everhappened to me.

RGH: So, tell me about it.

MA: Bueno [well], things were going great for meas a student, sabes [you know]. I mean, I got jale[work] doing some artwork over in the city, thenover here everybody wants me to do artwork too.Business is so good that I even had cards made up.See, here's one for you. If you ever need somepainting done, let me know... to doy una quebradita[I'll give you a break]. But comoquiera [anyway], itwas a bit hard coming to school and hanging out andstudying with a group of people, then having to backinto the barrio and live with another group of peoplewho aren't really into to school. Yeah, then I have tolook out for my jefita [mother] and my carnalitos[younger siblings]. As much as I wanted just to moveto campus, it just wouldn't work because my jefita[mother] needed help. The good thing, though, isthat my little brother is graduating this year and he'sbeen a real good kid. You know, he's not a torcido[delinquent] he never took no twists and turnslike I did. From the start he was a good kid and he'salways helped out at home when I couldn't be there.

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But now that mijo [my son] was born, I had to getmy own canton because my ruca [girlfriend] and myjefita [mother] don't get along. You know, she'sVietnamese and my jefita [mother] got a problemwith that. And besides, my ruca's [girlfriend's]family had a problem with me. They didn't want mecoming around. She lived over there up on ****Street where all the chinitos [Asians] live. They'repretty tough, too. I had a few run-ins with some ofthose vatos [dudes] who didn't like the idea of usseeing each other. It was hard `cuz I was trying tostay out of la vida [the life], but those vatos [dudes]were leaving me little choice. A couple of times I hadto call some camaradas [friends] to come and helphandle the situation... a merito me iba pa' lo mismo[I was almost headed in the direction of my previouslife]... my jefita [mother] saw me going back to theold ways and she got really pissed off that it wasover a girl. She kept telling me that the girl was nogood and she was just gonna get me into trouble ordead. After mi ruca [mi girlfriend] got pregnant, Iknew my mom wouldn't have nothing to do with it.I also knew that her family wouldn't either. So, Irented a canton and that's where we live now. It's alittle bit hard. Especially when mijo [my son] wasfirst born `cuz he needed so much attention and otherstuff, like leche y paflales [formula and diapers]...we make ends meet, though. She gets WIC and Ibring home enough money for us to eat and play.Sometimes, though, it gets hard to study, so I justcome to campus and go to the library. Mi ruca[girlfriend], she don't understand about a lot ofthat... I try to reassure her, but she thinks thateventually me va dar pa' buscar una Chicana [I'll gettempted to find a Chicana]. I try to tell her that halfthe Chicanas I know you can't tell whether they'reChicanas or chinitas [Asian girls]. She don't buy itthough.

RGH: What about your mom? Who's filling yourspace?

MA: I feel real bad about that. I tried to explain toher that I had to take care of my own. But, she wentoff on me and told me that mi ruca [my girlfriend]isn't one of my own, and that I turned my back on mifamilia and mi gente [my family and my people]. AllI can do now is try and make sure that my carnalito

[younger brother] is doing his part. And he is. I'vealready talked to him about next year. You know, hewas admitted to the university, too. He's gonna startnext year. But I already explained to him that hebetter not get any stupid ideas about moving on tocampus. I also talked to him about the rucas [girls].He don't need no kids. So, I told him that I wouldsmoke his ass if he got anybody pregnant. He's coolabout it. He knows that my hands are tied and that heneeds to do what he got to do in order to help la jefita[mother] out.

Both these young men, at one time, representedsociety's ugliest nightmare and the stereotype ofurban, Latino youth that the media perpetuates. Theywere products of poor single-mother households,involved in sex, violence, drugs and gangs. Thesetwo young men were "throwaways" destined,some would say, to perpetuate the "culture ofpoverty" that "fatherlessness" produces. While intheir teens they have children out of wedlock and,without the moral guidance of a father, they willeventually end up dead or in prison. However,fatherlessness arguments critically underestimate thepower and influence that women have over creatingand maintaining families alongside the power thatpoverty has to seriously limit legitimate opportunity.In this case, women were not only responsible forthe well-being of their families, they were alsoresponsible for nurturing their sons' sense ofmasculinity.

Of course the stories of Chava and Miguel Angelchronicle their early trajectory toward death orprison. And, of course, their fathers were absent,very much like the stories of Junior, Beto and JesOs.However, these two young men represent perhapsthe poorest families in my study and they were noton the periphery of the informal economy trying tosupplement their legitimate livelihood, they wereright in the center. The gang literature wouldinterpret their fatherhood as a "life altering"occurrence, one that would motivate them to "gostraight," perhaps even provide an opportunity forthem to remove themselves from the throes ofpoverty. But when you look closer, these young menwere involved in illegal activity so that they couldperform duties normally associated with parenthood

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long before they became fathers. Both young men, intheir early teens, were helping to provide theirmothers with support and stability for their families.Their sense of fatherhood is like the neighborhood inwhich it was developed "is not an accident... [it]is a product of systematic sorting" (Furstenburg, et.al., 1999: pp. 18).

When "Chava's mother took off with some vato[dude] to Chicago" his own family networkdisintegrated. It came at a time when he was facinga particularly difficult situation related to his gangactivity. But, Lala marshaled her resources andextended the bounds of her family to him in order tohelp stabilize his life so that her grandchild wouldbenefit from gaining a sense of not necessarily whoher father was, rather a "sense of who her familywas." It appears that the same worked for Chava, ashe later extended his sense of family to include hisdaughter's siblings, who were not his children.Interestingly, this woman's insight that allowed herto place more importance on family networks thanfatherhood ensured that her other grandchildrenwould benefit from the fruits of her labor. And thatChava, this new member of her family, would definehis role as a father based on his membership in thisfamily network.

The strong women, who forge an existence outof informal work and social networks, and to whomthese young men attribute their sense of fatherhood,manhood, masculinity or machismo went toherculean lengths to instill a sense of familism.Whether a heightened sense of familism is aresponse to structural pressures or a function ofculture, and I suspect it is a combination of both, isinconsequential. What is important here is that wesee that culturally deterministic arguments about theintrinsic nature of masculinity for Latino men, andits importance to Latino families, are not valid.

Competing Self-Interests

The following portrait was originally intended togive a rich description of the interactions between ayoung couple and their child. However, the youngfather played such a tangential role in his child'ssituation, he consequently never felt the need to even

participate in a discussion related to his child, withhis child's mother. Instead, what came to life in thisinterview was a fierce competition between motherswho were both concerned for the well-being of theirchildren.

Jose and Maria

During the course of volunteering at aneighborhood youth agency, I met both Maria andJose under differing circumstances. In fact, it wasn'tuntil I saw them together that I realized that theymight be a couple, or at least connected by acommon child. This intrigued me the most becausethey, I had assumed, were from differentneighborhoods and had very different backgrounds.I first gravitated toward Maria because she bringsher very young child (eight months) to the centerwith her when she comes in for her GED instruction.

I sometimes tutor Maria in the subjects on whichshe will be tested. She hopes to take the GED test inNovember. She is a very bright child and I believeshe will do well on the exam. However, her tutoringsessions are usually cut short if there is no availablestaff member to distract or care for her child so thatshe can study uninterrupted. When this happens, sheusually resigns herself to the fact that her visit willbe unproductive, so she either hangs around playingwith her child to see if its father will show up, or sheleaves to take care of other business. A few times,I've also witnessed her exploit in other ways the factthat someone at the center will watch her child. Forexample, one day she showed up with her childpromptly at 1 p.m. (when the center opens. Ihappened to be there that day, so she asked me if Iwould help her with fractions, something she findsparticularly hard. She told me that it would be goodbecause she knows I'm "real smart" and Teresa (astaff member) had agreed to take care of her childwhile I helped her. I agreed, then she asked if shecould go to the store to buy a pack of cigarettes anda pop before we got started. Well, she ended uptaking off for more than an hour-and-a-half. Ibecame increasingly worried because theneighborhood is kind of rough. But then, I wasassured by Teresa that she sometimes does stuff likethat because she has no time away from the baby.

Although she gets reprimanded, she continues to doit because some of the staff members will tolerate itto a point.

The next time I was at the center, Maria askedme again if I would help her with studies. I agreed.She was apologetic about what happened the lasttime, but she told me that she just had to "take careof some business" and she knew I would understand.This lead me to ask very pointed questions about hersituation. Specifically, I told her that I know howdemanding the responsibilities of having a child are,which lead me to ask whether or not she had muchsupport in terms of her parents or the child's father.Maria took this as a cue to give me her life's story,almost in a way that I felt she may have feared that Ijudge her harshly for her situation. When I realizedthis, I assured her that I didn't have any thoughts,good or bad, about the fact that she has a child. I alsoassured her that I admired her for her tenacity inpursuing her GED, given the extra obstacles that shefaces. Consequently, to my relief, she changedconsiderably the tone of her story. Instead ofsounding to me that she was trying to "justify" hersituation, she focused more on the obstacles. Hereshe describes her life, what has lead up to herimmediate situation and what she perceives to be heroptions for the future, even if in the very immediatefuture. She is clearly distressed and frustrated byhow she is stuck in a difficult situation, but she stillfeels optimistic about her future. Interestingly, evenas she clearly vents her frustration, she never oncementioned the possibility of quitting, nor did I getthe feeling that she felt sorry for herself.

RGH: Tell me about being a mom while in the fostersystem.

Maria: I used to be at the Academy for TeenMothers, but my home provider was a "ho" that hadmen coming in and out all the time. Besides, it wastoo dirty in that house for me to be trying to raise mybaby. Then one day, a man came in through mywindow and started going through my stuff while Iwas asleep on the bed with my baby. That was it. Ihad enough and I left. But wouldn't you know it?They tried to get me into trouble. They wanted to takeaway my baby. I was real scared. The good thing was

that my caseworker knew how hard I try to be a goodmom. So, she found me another home provider, butthe catch is that I have to do my GED. That's a goodthing because it gives me a good reason to get up andout of the house. The only thing is though, my homeprovider lives way up there on the west side, so Igotta take three buses to get here and it takes a longtime. I'm glad that this place opens at 1 p.m., or elseI'd have to be getting' up real early."

RGH: Does your home provider help with caring foryour child or does she help you out by taking youplaces instead of your having to ride the bus all overthe place.

Maria: Basically, my home provider just provides ahome. Right now, me and her are having someproblems. See, I got to get out to the bus stop tocatch the 11 o'clock if I'm gonna be here by 1 p.m..Then if I stay here 'till 4 or 5 o'clock, then I'm notgonna get home 'till, sometimes, after 9 p.m. Shedon't want me comin' home no later than 6 p.m. I tryto explain to her that it takes so long to ride thebusses, but does she listen? No. She just keeps tellin'me that I should be there all the time, so I can spendtime with her daughter. Man, I'm 17 years old andhave a baby. What do I got in common with a 14-year -old? Nothin', that's what. She's always tryin' tobe my mom. Like right now, she's real pissed at mebecause the other night, after GED I rode the bus toJose's house to drop off the baby. I stayed for a littlewhile and I fell asleep. I woke up about 10 p.m., butI was too tired to ride the bus home, so I just stayedthe night at a friend's house. I called her and left amessage, but she still got real mad. She called mycaseworker talkin' about 'I just wanna follow myown rules and I just wanna think that I'm grown anddon't have to answer to anybody.' Now, she told mycaseworker that if I want to stay with her that I'mgonna have to be home directly after GED. Shecalled it 'house arrest'. Like I'm supposed to do that.She ain't my momma. She's crazy. Don't she knowthat I'm only 17 years old and I gotta get out to havesome fun, too. What does she care where I'm at aslong as I have my baby?

RGH: How about Jose? Does he help you?

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Maria: Jose??? He wants to be involved in thebaby's life. I mean, he comes here a lot so that he canget close to the baby. At least that's what he tells me.To me, it seems like he might be coming around hereso much because of that Dominican. You know her.She's the one with the body that acts like she don'tnotice all these punks drooling about her, just 'cuzshe don't speak English. It don't bother me, though,because soon enough she'll listen to someone for toolong and end up pregnant, just like me. Then where'sthat body gonna be? I just hope it's not Jose thatknocks her up. I don't wanna' be getting in no fightsover fathering time... I mean, she can have him, aslong as it don't interfere with me or my child.

RGH: Does he help you, though?

Maria: He'll take the baby, even overnight, once ina while. The problem is that he ain't got no ride, so Igotta take the baby on the bus to his house and drophim off, then go pick him up. You know, his familyloves the baby, but they hate me. His mom told himto get a paternity test. And he's the only one I beenwith, but she said that I'm such a 'ho,' just like mymom, that I probably don't know who the father isand I was just trying to mess up his life because hecomes from a good family... Yeah, and she don'twant me and him seeing each other, but she stillwants to see the baby. So, when I drop the baby off,I can't come in the house or anything if his mom'shome. Sometimes it's worth it though because whenI do drop him off, then I got time to myself.

RGH: You know, winter's just around the corner.What are you gonna do when it's snowing out? Youcan't have your baby outside for such a long periodof time.

Maria: I don't know what I'm gonna do. That's whyI'm killin' myself to pass this test by November. Ifigure that after I pass the test, I can go out and get ajob, even if it's at McDonald's. I'll only need to do it`till I'm 18 and can move out on my own. By thattime, hopefully, I can get myself together. Mycaseworker said that she'll help me find a job anddaycare. Maybe I can buy a car. These busses arekilling me. If I can get a car, then I can get a job andmaybe me and my baby can have a better life.

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I set a subsequent appointment to interview bothMaria and Jose. Maria was 20 minutes late andseemed a bit embarrassed that she had totallyforgotten about our appointment. She told me thatshe was sorry that she had forgotten about it becauseif she had remembered, she wouldn't have gotteninto a fight with Jose's mom over the weekend. Shesaid that she was convinced that Jose wasn't going toshow. He didn't.

Maria: Sorry I'm late. You know, that old witch[Jose's mom] is always messin' with me. I can'tstand her. Jose had agreed to take the baby thisSaturday. I went all the way over there. Took threebusses. And wouldn't you know it? He wasn't evenhome. His mom told me just to leave the baby and Icould come back to get him on Sunday morning. Youknow, I didn't feel right about leaving him 'cuz Josewasn't there. I mean, I don't think that anybody inthat house would hurt him, but I came all the way todrop him off to Jose. The least he could do is bethere. Then, I made the mistake of askin'... where hewas and she jumped all over me. She told me that itwasn't any of my business and I shouldn't concernmyself with his whereabouts. Well, that did it. I toldher that she was crazy if she thought I was gonnaleave the baby there, now. When I said that, all of asudden she got real nice and started telling me thatshe had a hard night and that she had been workingall night and she didn't know why she snapped at melike that. Anyways, then she invited me in and Ididn't trust her but I had already made plans to besomewhere, so I decided that if she wanted to befriendly, I would take advantage of it. She ain'talways real friendly with me, you know? So we satdown and she made me a cup of coffee 'cuz she saidshe had been meaning to talk to me anyways andnow was as good a' time as any.

RGH: What did she say?

Maria: I just sat and listened. She started tellin' mehow she worried for the baby's safety sometimes`cuz I gotta take her all over the place on the bus.And, she knows how hard it is for me and shedoesn't want me to think that she doesn't like me.But, I wasn't believing none of it. I know she hatesme. Yeah, she told me how they had such high hopes

for Jose. They scrimped and saved all the time just tobe able to send him to Catholic school so that hewouldn't have to be around the "elements" in theregular schools. Then she told me how disappointedshe was that I got pregnant because she thought thatJose would put off going to college like everybodywanted him to. Even though Jose wanted to stayaround on that Saturday to be with the baby, that oldwitch convinced him to go to a college day with therest of the kids on his track team. Yeah, she told mehow she thought it would be the best thing for thebaby if I just left him [Jose] alone so that he could goto college and become somebody. You know, for asecond there I started to really believe all of it, butthen she started tellin' me how if I really wanted todo something with myself then maybe I should thinkabout givin' the baby to her to raise. That did it man.I told her that for one thing, I didn't just 'getpregnant,' Jose 'got me pregnant.' And yeah, eventhough I didn't have no parents or didn't go to noCatholic school, I still had dreams about beingsomeone, too. And another thing, I wouldn't have tobe takin' no busses all over if he would take some ofthe responsibilities. Who does she think she is? Sheain't takin' my baby. What she needs to do is quittreatin' Jose like a baby so that he can take care ofhis business. Yeah, I ended up not leaving the babyand I just went back home. Then the stupid idiot'sgonna call me four hours later, after I take threebusses to get back home, and tell me why don't Icome and drop her off now. I just laughed and hungup the phone. So anyways, I'm sorry if I ruined yourchance at talkin' to the both of us, but it wasn't reallymy fault.

RGH: Would you consider taking help from Jose'smother if she were to offer it within reasonableterms?

Maria: Sure. But I ain't givin' up my baby. Rightnow, I'm feelin' like I'm doing all this extra workand I'm goin' really far out of my way so that Josecan be involved with the baby. But, I'm starting tosee that it's just not worth it. The way it is right now,I only do it `cuz I ain't got no money for nobabysitter and there really ain't nowhere else I cango. But as soon as I can afford to leave the babysome place else, I can't see traveling all that way on

the bus. It's just not worth it. Just once... just once,I would love it for them to come and pick her [thebaby] up. But they got two cars in that family, andthey ain't even offered. It's almost like they want meto fail so that they can take the baby.

Even in the poorest neighborhoods, what littleopportunities and privilege that are available topeople are unevenly distributed (Furstenburg, et. al.,1999; Newman, 1999). Families perceived to be"better off" financially and circumstantially are alsoperceived to be ferocious protectors of theirresources (Anderson, 1999. Sometimes, as familiesand children interact, it pits the interest of familiesagainst those of others. Jose and Maria represent acouple that clearly occupies different substratawithin the same neighborhood. Maria did not enjoythe same benefits afforded Jose through his familynetwork. She never met her father. She says that shebelieves that he's either dead or in prison. Hermother was a "tecata" [heroin junky] andsubsequently ended up incarcerated when she(Maria) was about 10 years old. Immediately afterthat, she stayed with her mother's sister, but she was"all messed up, too." So, she has been shuffledbetween foster homes since she was 11 years old.

When she was 16, she became pregnant, and soher foster family "got rid of her." Since she had beenin constant trouble for truancy and delinquency, shehad few options. So, her caseworker put her incontact with what she called a "home provider."From what I could gather, it wasn't much more thana foster home that agreed to take her child as well.What is crystal clear from this story is that Maria hadfew legitimate opportunities in life before herpregnancy and little had changed because of it. Whatis also clear is that Jose's chances for going to schoolwere good before the birth of his child and they hadhardly changed, either.

By middle class standards Jose's family wouldhardly be considered privileged. However, hismother brandished considerable power because shecontrolled membership in her family network, whichconstituted a fair amount of access to resourcesone of which was fatherhood. Although she wasclearly accepting of her grandchild, she would not

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extend her family to the child's mother the way La lachose to extend her familial resources to Chava. Ofcourse, La la's family network eventually enjoyedthe payout of that investment. La la had fourdaughters, many grandchildren and no men to helpout. What she received in return was not only Chava,but also his grandmother and her resources. But, forall practical purposes, Maria is alone in this world.Jose's mother sees extending her resources to Mariaas a detriment with no real return on herinvestment. She discourages Jose from making goodon his parental responsibilities for fear that it willhamper his future and what her family has investedin it. Instead she offers to "take care of Jose'sbusiness" meanwhile Jose gets on with the businessof "becoming somebody."

Maria says she is "goin' really far out of my wayso that Jose can be involved with the baby."However, regardless of how far she travels and howmany buses she takes so her baby can spend timewith Jose, Jose is not the one with whom she isnegotiating for a bit of fatherhood for her child.Fatherhood is at such a premium in theseneighborhoods that Jose's mother is able to negotiateher son's potential masculinity withoutcompromising her family or extending it to Maria.

Maria's only asset to barter with for a small pieceof family life is her baby, and she will not give herup. She is her family. And, while she has not yetbeen able to negotiate successfully Jose's presencein her child's life on her terms, she is protective,nonetheless, of the of the potential resources, for herchild, that Jose represents. She says it best whenconfronted by the possibility of Jose may fatheranother child. "I don't wanna' be getting in no fightsover fathering time... I mean, she can have him, aslong as it don't interfere with me or my child."

Maria's story is sad commentary on poverty,youth and single motherhood. Along with the othermothers, twice and three times her age andrepresented in these family stories, Maria showssuperhuman resolve and strength in her pursuit ofproviding a stable and loving environment for herchild. She is hardly the "perpetual welfare mom whoirresponsibly gets pregnant in order to 'get over' on

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taxpayer's hard earned money." Similar to her malecounterparts in this study, she has aspirations for afuture that include an education, withoutcompromising her role as a parent. In fact, alsosimilar to some of her male counterparts, she isgoing to great lengths to "take care of her business,"something, I suppose Mirande would call machismo.I'm sure that she will instill in her son theimportance of family that these experiences areteaching her, and along the way, how to "be a man"and "take care of his business," what Hawkins andDollahite (1997) would call fatherwork.

Strategies of Exploiting Local Resources

All of these young men (and women) hadaspirations that included education, better jobs,meaningful relationships and stability for theirfamilies, but those aspirations were tempered by thereality of the obstacles that they faced on a dailybasis. The obstacles included their responsibilities tocontribute to extended families, to their children andstrained relations between their families and thefamilies of their children. These obstacles werecomplicated by the increasingly fewer legitimateways to earn a living. Although the odds seemagainst it, all of my informants saw their situations tobe temporary. They were very motivated by whatthey perceived "good" fatherhood taking care ofbusiness to fmd ways that would allow them tomeet their families' current needs while trying toattend to a more stable future.

In the Midwest, urban Chicano youth, whosegrandfathers were lured to settle from agrarianeconomies by stable employment in the autoindustry (Baba & Abonyi, 1979), around which theybuilt and maintained families, and reinventedmasculinity and fatherhood, watch as their fathersstruggle to cope with the changing structure of oureconomy, and not be able to meet the standards thattheir own fathers set for maintaining families.Chicano teen fathers, with few legitimate resources,opportunities and experience, struggle to fill the"institutional gap" created by this scenario. Andwhile I agree with Cohen's (1999) assertion that weare experiencing a "qualitative shift in the code ofmanhood," I challenge the notion that it is because

fatherhood represents an alternative to "streetculture." Where there are none to begin with,legitimate opportunities do not simply materializewhen a young man becomes a father, meets a "goodgirl," or miraculously receives a letter from MITcelebrating his good showing at an inferior school byinviting him to participate in college night (pardonmy cynicism).

In urban barrios, there are increasingly fewalternatives to "street culture." As is evidenced bythe portraits of Maria, Chava, Beto, Junior, Jesils andMiguel Angel, "hustling" is not the specific domainof violent and depraved street criminals. Even afterChava and Miguel Angel became "law abidingfamily men," they were still "hustling" to the extentthat their family needs demanded. While one cannotcondone their involvement in selling illegal drugsfor obvious reasons, it is clear that their "hustling" ismuch more complex than simple juveniledelinquency that is most often associated with innercity youth, perhaps "fatherlessness," and deemedimmoral. Ironically, "hustling" may be one of theonly means, whether immoral or not, by which theseyouths may strive to achieve the moral standards setby family values stalwarts, a stable family.

In an important sense, the underground economy(hustling) is what is providing these communitieswith stability (Newman, 1999; Stepick, 1998). And,if Baca Zinn's (1995) suggestion that familism, forLatinos, is more a response to structural forces thana cultural relic, and I suspect she's right, then as poorfamilies struggle to maintain stability, they will bedrawn more and more toward this undergroundeconomy, where a family's configuration is far fromdependent on the role of a traditional father. Rather,the maintenance, management and stability offamily and gender is not only the responsibility ofeveryone involved, it is vitally dependent on theircollective efforts even supporting and therebyhelping to construct the meaning and roles of youngfathers. As the structure of legitimate opportunitycontinues to crumble in these urban barrios, it isprecisely around "street culture" that young fathersand their families are reinventing the meaning offatherhood plugging that institutional gap.Perhaps this is a "qualitative shift in the code of

manhood," one that is precariously perched on themargins of our society. Furthermore, while thesedata support Cohen's (1999) assertions that there isincreasingly less respect in barrios for young menwho disregard their parental responsibilities, theyhardly show that fatherhood causes young mendrastically to change their lifestyles.

Summary and Conclusion

Using structural analysis to inform the generativefathering conceptual framework as an approach forexploring Chicano teen fatherhood within the contextof family systems, from an insider's perspective,produced considerable insight into howcontemporary, urban Chicano families stretch andstrain themselves to adapt to changing conditions.The assumptions that generative fathering brings tothe field of family studies have proven to be anextremely valuable concept from which to approachyoung fatherhood within Chicano communities. Itrevealed the complicated process that young menundertake to translate their desires to be good fathersinto effective fatherwork. It also showed that despitethe non-traditional ways that these young men dofatherwork, it is important to their children andfamilies, and it is a culturally unique response to theconditions of their social environment

It also shed light on the ambiguous and changingnature of manhood and fatherhood; extremelyconvoluted power/gender relations; how indistinctthe boundaries between different positions may bewithin families. And, it allowed for the collection ofvery rich data pertinent to those boundaries.

Four implications that this analysis produced aresalient. First, not all teen fathers are a negligiblequantity in the lives of their children. Some docontribute meaningfully and dutifully to theirchildren's lives. The amount, meaning and impact ofthose contributions are easily overlooked whenfatherhood is narrowly defmed as a role that existswithin the context of a heterosexual marriage.However, by slightly changing our perspective fromone that overlooks or demoralizes thesecontributions to one that validates the fact that youngmen can, and do, do work associated with

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fatherhood, these contributions summarily come tolight. It seems obvious that new frameworks areneeded that demarginalizes the ways in which non-White, poor and teenage fathers fit into the paradigmof family studies.

Second, fatherhood for these young men is notmerely a biological occurrence. Rather, it is acomplex process that is shaped by these youngmen's ability to interpret and modify the perceptionsof fatherhood that they construct through socialinteractions with their families, children, peers andinstitutions, which in turn helps to shape and todetermine how, and how much, fatherwork they do.And, the fatherwork that they do is related to thestructure of legitimate opportunity and familynetworks. Despite witnessing the disintegration of ameans by which their fathers and grandfatherscreated a sense of manhood around the support andmaintenance of families, all the young fathers in thisstudy expressed desire to participate financially andemotionally in their child's life. Given many social,institutional and circumstantial barriers, thesefathers went to great lengths to recreate a sense ofmanhood and fatherhood take care of businesswhose foundation rested on their ability to exploitthe informal market "hustle." However, theimportance of their "hustle" preceded theirfatherhood in that their obligation to their sanguinalfamily networks demanded that they help to extractstability from an environment that offered little. Inother words, they "hustled" to "take care of familybusiness" long before they became fathers. Inexchange, these powerful family networks mostoften were the single most important resource indetermining whether the barriers to their ability tocreate a sense of fatherhood could be successfullynegotiated. However, the social exchange betweenfamilies was not an easy process given that thecompetition was stiff for limited resources, andresources were not easily surrendered once attained.

Third, in the face of much emphasis given toassumptions about patriarchy and traditional genderroles that supposedly distinguish Latino families, themothers in this study played pivotal roles in

determining and facilitating father participation inmany important ways. They helped to define theambiguous nature of their sons' new roles as fathers,especially in cases where their sons had nomeaningful and/or positive relationships with theirown fathers. They created powerful social networksthat facilitated, discouraged, or substituted theinvolvement of their sons in the lives of their ownchildren. In all cases here, mothers had the ultimatepower to restrict or grant their ex-boyfriend, ex-husband or ex-son access to their children.

Fourth, the fathers in this study could not by anystandard be described as "altar boys." However, todescribe them as irresponsible, incorrigible, highlyoversexed, sometimes depraved, boys or men whoderive their self worth from irresponsibly fatheringas many children as possible, and who have noregard for society's existing mores for civility"hit and run experts," immoral, products of andresponsible for "fatherless America" is alsowrong. These young men all had a desire to beinvolved with their children in meaningful ways;they made many important and valuablecontributions to the lives of their children andfamilies; and those contributions are best understoodwithin cultural and structural contexts. In spite ofinfidelity, living away from their children, havinglimited access to educational and employmentopportunities, the opposite of characteristics thatcritics use to distinguish good fathers, these fathersengage in fatherwork that is a productive, culturalresponse to structural forces.

In conclusion, some of these stories representextreme circumstances, marked by poverty, crime,violence, drug abuse and lack of educational, healthand employment resources. These conditions are notendemic to Chicano or Latino communities. Theyare, however, increasingly part of the landscape ofurban centers that have been hardest hit by arestructuring economy in the industrial Midwest.These urban centers are the environment with whichmost Chicano and Latino teen parents have to learn tocope in order to carve out their own existence, letalone one for their children. To be sure, these

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structural conditions have great bearing on teenagers'immediate lives and futures, regardless of prematureparenthood. The teenage fathers in this study all hadvarying conceptions of what their obligations were totheir children. However, considering the substantialbarriers present in their environment, that they hadany sense of obligation at all, is admirable. And, theextent to which some of these young men and theirfamilies went to establish and maintain familyrelations, is downright remarkable.

Finally, while my data set is small, it is very rich.Unfortunately, these stories had to be condensed.However, I intentionally created and inserted tedious"dialogues" of these people so that their situations,actions and reactions would be understood from thecontext of their lives' experiences. I am sure otherswould interpret these data differently; please do.However, these data are not meant to be generalized,nor are they to represent all, or even all Chicano,teen fathers. These stories represent the struggles ofurban Mexican American families in the Midwest,where neighborhoods built on industry areapproaching a century of precarious existence butare still growing through reproduction andimmigration as I write.

Endnotes

1 This study was also slightly influenced by thethree sociological premise on which HerbertBlumer bases symbolic interactionism (Winton,1995), and they are: 1) "...human beings acttoward things on the basis of the meanings thatthings have for them"; 2) "...the meaning ofsuch things is derived from, or arises out of, thesocial interaction one has with one's fellows";and 3) "...these meanings are handled in, andmodified through, an interpretive process usedby the person in dealing with the things heencounters Wellman (1993; pp. 85."

2 Poor women, women of color and working-classwomen have always had to participate inproductive labor, that middle- and upper-classwomen have also participated in work outsidethe home, and that men have benefited byencouraging women not to do productive laborbecause it raises men's wages by decreasingcompetition, and it gives men leverage overwomen in romantic and marital relationships(Coltrane, 1996.

3 Former president of the National FatherhoodInstitute and author of several articles and otherliterature attacking single mothers, non-marriedfathers and feminist arguments that he presentsas misandronistic and anti-family.

36

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39

Working Paper No. 58 http://www.jsri.msu.edu/RandS/research/wps/wp58abs.html

Julian Santora Research Institutethe Midwest's Prenier L atino Research Center

Fatherhood in the Crossfire:Chicano Teen Fathers Struggling to

"Take Care of Business"by Rudy Hernandez

Michigan State University

Working Paper No. 58November 2002

Abstract:

Increased divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births have precipitated muchnational conversation about the well-being of children raised in single familyhouseholds. Commonly evoked is the image of a single mother who is strugglingto raise children without the help of her children's biological father, or a "deadbeatdad." However, realistically, she has a good chance of remarrying a man whoseex-wife and children are being primarily supported and raised by yet another man(Coleman, Ganong & Fine, 2000). If the mother is poor and young, the imagequickly becomes that of a Black or brown woman who is perpetuating hercondition by irresponsibly becoming pregnant repeatedly, by multiple men, mostoften in her teens, without regard or need for establishing a traditional family; sheis replacing familial support: economic, social, emotional and psychological, withthat of the state. The Black or brown father(s) are seen as irresponsible,incorrigible, highly oversexed, sometimes depraved, boys or men who derivetheir self worth from irresponsibly fathering as many children as possible and whohave no regard for society's existing mores for civility.

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