work and live in ethnically homogenous settings. Minimally influenced by Anglo Americans culture, these communities supported the maintenance of Mexican familial structures as they might have been practiced in rural Mexico. The male took the role of authority figure and head of the household, and the female took the role of child bearer and nurture (Sanchez, 1994). This family form was a response to particular economic and political forces, as are all family forms, that resulted in the Mexican American family carrying both these ideals and values and the need for modification under new economic and political circumstances in the United States.TRADITIONAL FAMILY STRUCTUREMuch has been written about the traditional structure of Mexican American families. Most of the information obtained these structures appear rigid, cold, and unstable on one end of the continuum or warm, nurturing, and cohesive on the other end. The three main characteristics of the Mexican American family that are usually are male dominance, rigid sex and age grading so that “the older order the younger, and the men the women”, and finally the strong family orientation. To better understand the structure I will begin to give an overview of the structure and how it affects the Mexican American. The first of the three main characteristics, which is male dominance, is one of the popular stereotypes surrounding the Mexican American family. This has become a major part of American usage as the concept we know as machismo. Machismo is often equated with male dominance. Male dominance is the designation of the father as the head of the household, the major decision maker, and the absolute power holder in the Mexican American family setting. In his absence, this power position reverts to the oldest son. All members of the household are expected to carry out the orders of the male head. This concept of machismo has various interpretations. For many, m...
