Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg  yahoo!  Comments

UA study focuses on Hispanic youth

Education is the primary route to security for children of ethnic parents, a University of Arizona professor concludes in a new book on Hispanic youth.

Julio Cammarota, an assistant professor in UA’s Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology and the Mexican American Studies and Research Center , wrote Suenos Americanos, Barrio Youth Negotiating Social and Cultural Identities. It is based on his observations and extensive interviews of youth living in El Pueblo, the name he gives to the barrio along the California coast where he conducted his research.

From 1993-2000, Cammarota interviewed and observed 40 youths between the ages of 17 to 24. Cammarota’s analysis and interviews of Hispanic youths define the complex relationships among low-wage employment, cultural standards, education, class oppression and gender expectations.

Cammarota observed 20 participants who worked at a fast-food restaurant and 20 others working at a community cultural center to investigate how working affects education and how the youths maintained ethnic identities while attempting to transcend barriers.

The study also looks at how gender influences social relationships and life choices, reasons why young Hispanics work hard for their families and future, and the connections and disconnections among work, family and school.

Before joining UA in 2002, Cammarota received his doctoral degree in social and cultural studies from the University of California at Berkeley in 2001.