HISPANIC-AMERICAN YOUTH RESOURCES

 

ORGANIZATIONS

ASPIRA: And Investment in Latino Youth,

1112 16th Street, NW Suite 340, Washington, D.C. 20036, (202) 835-3600.  This community-based Hispanic American organization is dedicated to improving the economic status of Hispanic Americans by reducing the high school dropout rate.

Center for Urban Ministerial Education (CUME),

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 363 S. Huntington Ave, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, (617) 983-9393. An urban extension center of Gordon-Conwell which provides training specifically designed for urban church leaders-blacks, Hispanic, and other ethnic minority communities of Boston and surrounding cities.

Concilio Hispano

, 16 Cherry Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, Non-profit organization serving Latinos in Cambridge and surrounding communities. Provides youth outreach and counseling, family and professional counseling, and community advocacy.

 

Hispanic Association for Bi-lingual/Bi-cultural Ministries (HABBM) 2617 West 5th Street, Santa Ana, CA 92703, (714) 834-9331

Hispanic Ministries Program, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA 91101

Hispanic Research Center, Fordham University, Thebaud Hall, Bronx, NY 10458

"I Have a Dream" Foundation,

31 West 34th Street, New York City, NY 10001, (212) 736-1730.  A clearinghouse of ideas and programs for their own specific area and the 15 cities where their program has expanded, in order to address the urban education dilemma.

 

Oficina Hispana de la Comunidad, Inc., 125 Amory Street, Roxbury, MA 02119.  Non-profit organization providing training, education, and employment for Latinos in Boston and surrounding communities. Economic empowerment is a very strong element of their agenda.

Roxbury Youthworks

, 130 Warren Street, Roxbury, MA 02119 Non-profit organization serving troubled youth, Latinos included. Offers counseling, employment training and placement, detention diversion, outreach and tracking, special functions, networking with other agencies, tutorials, and athletic functions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Bourgois, P. (1995). In search of respect: Selling crack in el barrio. NY: Cambridge University Press. An anthropologist’s inside look into the life of a Puertorican drug dealer in East Harlem. The aim of the book is to bring the readers to grips with the problems of the inner city.

 

Correa, M. (1998). Between two nations. NY: Cornell University Press. This book deals with the emergence or lack of it of Latino/immigrant politics and a Latino political identity in New York City.

 

Darder, A. & Torres, R. (eds.). (1998). The latino reader: Culture, economy and society. Bladwell Publishers. This book draws the most recent work from Latino scholars and social critics organized around the themes of culture, history and society; politics; gender, sexuality, and power; and labor and the global economy. This is a book for anyone who is interested in the diversity of Latino culture and experiences in the United States.

 

Deck, A.F. (1989). The second wave: Hispanic ministry and the evangelization of cultures. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist. A Roman Catholic priest outlines a strategy for Hispanic ministry and evangelization in the U.S., particularly in the Southwest. He argues that ministry to Hispanics must take place within their own cultural framework. He also writes on work with North American Hispanic youth. Contains numerous significant bibliographic references of interest to Latino youth workers.

 

Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. (1998). The latino/a aondition: A critical reader. NY: New York University Press. Here the writers offer a broad portrait of Latino/a life in the USA and brings together a broad range of Latino and Latina voices, some pioneers in law, sociology, history, politics and literature to address such questions as: Who is Latino, Hispanic, Chicano? How has the silent minority been stereotyped by popular culture? Is assimilation possible for all Latinos? Should Latino children be thought Spanish?

 

Elizondo, V. (1988). The future is mestizo: Life where cultures meet. Bloomington, IN: Meyer Stone Books. An excellent perspective on cultural adaptation.

 

Ford Foundation. Hispanics: Challenges and opportunities, a look at the demographic, economic, social political situation of hispanics in the United States today.  Available free in English or Spanish from: The Ford Foundation, Office of Reports, 320 East 43rd Street, New York City, NY 10017

 

Fund for the Theological Education, Inc. (1988). The theological education of hispanics. New York City. A valuable historical and demographic profile for Hispanics in America.

 

Gallup, G., Jr. & Castelli, J. (1989). The people’s religion: American faith in the 90s. New York City: Macmillan. This book is perhaps the most comprehensive survey of trends in American religious beliefs, including Latinos. A valuable resource providing specific data related to the Latino youth religious experience.

 

Hispanic yearbook. (1998). McLean, VA: TIYM Publishers. This book offers an ample list of resources relevant to Hispanics: a powerful reference tool for the Hispanic community and for anyone wishing to reach the Hispanic American market in the areas of employment, minority business development opportunities, education and financial assistance, and health.

 

Latinos: A biography of the people. (1992). Avon Books. This book discusses current social and cultural issues in terms of historical roots back to Mexico, Africa, and Asia. Includes an excellent biography.

 

Rodriquez, R. (1982). Hunger of memory: The education of richard rodriguez. New York City: Bantam Books. A poignant journey of a "minority student" who pays the cost of his social assimilation and academic success with a painful alienation—from the past, his parents, his culture—and so describes the high price of "making it" in middle-class America.

 

Quest National Center. (1985). Celebrating differences: Approaches to hispanic youth development. Columbus, OH. A position paper developed by the Hispanic advisory committee provides much information as well as good references.

 

Rogers, D.B. (ed.). (1989). Urban church education. Birmingham: Religious Education Press. Contains specific programming and religious education approaches for Latino youth and adults in an urban context. Presents an analysis of the Hispanic adult learner by Hispanic religious educator Marina Herrera. Contains valuable resource bibliography.

 

Thomas, P. (1997). Down these mean streets. NY: Vintage Books. This book relates the author’s transformation from being a gang member, a junkie, and thief in El Barrio (Spanish Harlem) to a man of integrity. It addresses his struggles with self-acceptance as a dark skin Puertorican and emerges with a new sense of meaning to the concept of manhood, survival and redemption.

 

Voice of Hope Ministries. (1989). Urban youth development manual. Dallas: Voice of Hope Publishing House. Although lacking in substance about the complexity associated with urban youth ministry, this manual provides excellent program structure resources that can be adapted to any context. Recommend as a resource tool for program helps.

JOURNALS

 

Hispanic, 111 Massachusetts Avenue N.W., Suite 410, Washington, D.C. 20077-0253.  A recently published magazine directed at the contemporary North American Hispanic. Contains excellent articles on resources, issues, conference information, cultural diversity, and education affecting Latinos in the U.S.

 

Hispanic Business News.  This national magazine discusses important issues including immigration and education. It is an excellent forum for success stories.

 

La Opinion. The largest Spanish language newspaper in Southern California.

OTHER RESOURCES

 

American Demographics. (1994). Specific hispanics. Ithaca, NY: American Demographics, Inc. This report addresses issues including listenership to Spanish radio, changes in numbers of Hispanics in suburbs, and change in numbers of people from various countries of origin.

 

Perales, C.A. (1998, March-April). Black and hispanic children: Their future is ours. (Special issue on Minorities, Equality, and America’s Future). Journal of State Government, 61(2), 45-48. Available from UMI. Poverty, violence, illegal drugs, and despair dominate the lives of many inner-city children, most of whom are black and Hispanic. To reverse the social and economic decline of poor neighborhoods in major metropolitan areas, the State of New York has embraced an agenda, outlined here, for rebuilding high-need inner-city communities. (Annotation from Dialog; Author/BJV)

 

Roschelle, A.R. (1997). No more kin: Exploring race, class, and gender in family networks. [In Adams, B.N. & Klein, D.M. (eds). (1997). Understanding families. Sage.]. Women’s Studies Program, University of San Francisco, Thousand Oaks, CA 94117. This volume examines extended kinship networks among African-American, Chicano, Puerto Rican, and non-Hispanic white families in the contemporary U.S., drawing on the 1987/1988 National Survey of Families and Households data (N = 13,017 respondents). Most research from both the cultural and structuralist perspectives has claimed that minority family networks are much stronger than Anglo family networks, and that minorities rely strongly on their kinship relations for material aid. This assertion is not supported by the present data. Instead, Anglo men and women give and receive more child care help and household assistance from network members than African Americans, Chicanos, or Puerto Ricans. It is suggested that culturalist perspectives may have overemphasized the extent to which minority groups are characterized by familial values, or that social scientists may have been reluctant to challenge the strength resiliency perspective because it arose to combat social stereotypes. However, that women of color have become much poorer in low-income communities is identified as a primary explanation for the lack of strong kinship networks among these groups. Because minority men and women were not found to rely on family assistance, the argument that network participation is a survival strategy used to alleviate the condition of poverty is also refuted. It is concluded that the integrative perspective offered here, which encompasses race, class, and gender variables, has accounted for the different social groups. Implications of this research for future scholarship and public policy are briefly considered. The volume contains a Preface and eight chapters.

 

Strategy Research Corporation. (1994). 1994 u.s. hispanic market. This is an update of a larger volume by the same general title. The data are national and cover issues such as retail purchases, income, tastes, media usage, and population centers of Hispanics.

 

University of Notre Dame Press catalog on Latino and Latin American Studies, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, IN 46556.  Lists publications by North American Latino authors dealing with religious, cultural, political, sociological, and economic issues. Authors represent various Hispanic subgroups.

Vazsonyi, A.T. (1997, August). Early adolescent delinquent behaviors: Associations with family and school domains. Journal of Early Adolescence, 17(3), 271-293. School of Human Sciences: Auburn University, AL 36849. [e-mail: vazsonyi@humsci.auburn.edu

]. The correlates of family processes and school variables with delinquent behavior were examined via self-report data obtained from a sample of 1,021 sixth- and seventh-grade Caucasian and Hispanic early adolescents in a southwestern U.S. city. The findings revealed: (1) a great similarity for the relations between individual predictor variables and delinquent behavior between the two ethnic groups; (2) that family processes and school variables as domains of influence had independent effects in predicting early adolescent delinquent behavior for Caucasian and Hispanic youth; and (3) that family processes and school variables accounted for about 40% of the total variance explained in early adolescent delinquent behavior.

 

Villafane, E. (1989). Toward an hispanic american pentecostal social ethic. (Unpublished doctoral thesis.) Boston University. Provides a panoramic view about, for, or concerning the North American Hispanic with incredible insight into the Hispanic-American culture. A tool and resource (with expansive bibliography) that should be on the bookshelf of the serious student of Hispanics.

Ana Reid, Anne Montague, Dean Borgman, and Kathryn Q. Powers cCYS