A fragile future for South Texas’s immigrant families.
BY IAN TUTTLE
“They call them sanchas,” says Peggy, a former manager for Sam Kane Beef Processors, Inc., a pillar of south Texas’ agricultural economy located on the industrial outskirts of Corpus Christi, Texas, a Gulf Coast city of 300,000 a couple hours north of the border. Peggy is referring to the line workers at the plant; there are about a thousand of them, mostly Hispanic, almost exclusively male. “I would say nine out of ten have someone on the side,” she says—those are sanchas, “other women.” “It’s a very odd culture.”
Precisely what culture Peggy describes is unclear. A chaotic amalgamation of social forces—some arriving from Latin American sending countries, the rest culled from an increasingly heterogeneous America—is creating a new culture among American Hispanics, a fusion of old and new world customs that is driving the devastating phenomenon sweeping Hispanic America: the collapse of the Hispanic family. Whether the “sancha subculture” is behind that trend is unknown; regardless, it is indicative of the pervasive and problematic breakdown of traditional sexual and familial standards that threatens the social stability of a prominent ethnic group and their adopted nation.
South Texas, a region of twenty-eight counties comprising much of the territory south of San Antonio stretching to the Mexican border, is seventy-two percent Hispanic. Texas, by comparison, is only thirty-eight percent. The region includes four growing metropolitan areas whose population growth outpaced that of Texas as a whole from 2002 to 2007, and McAllen, one of those metropolitan areas, boasted one of the country’s fastest growing real estate markets in 2008. In age, south Texas is young. Persons under the age of twenty-five account for nearly half of the population, and the median age along the border is twenty-nine. And the region is a natural entry point for immigrants (legal and illegal) because it has maintained much of the cultural identity of Mexico, which still exercises a significant cultural influence over much of Texas south of San Antonio.
It is in this region—and in similar pockets nationwide—that the collapse of the Hispanic family is playing out most prominently—not only at Sam Kane Beef, but within companies, hospitals, government offices, public school systems, and churches across the region. However, what is occurring in south Texas may be indicative of the future of the country. The Census Bureau predicts that Hispanics will be the country’s largest minority by 2050, tripling in size to become almost a full third of the American population by mid-century. So it is likely that the collapse of the Hispanic family, which is already exacting a heavy toll on Texas and California, will soon become a national issue.
The behavior Peggy describes is difficult to classify: it is neither outright polygamy (the man is married to only one woman, whom he considers his primary companion) nor simple adultery (many Hispanic women appear to have accepted that their partners may be involved with other women). And for the men it is fully justified. “The man feels that he deserves to have his needs met,” says Peggy, “and each woman fulfills a different need. He has the ‘main’ mother of his children, then a woman he can visit on the way home from work, then a woman who will go hunting with him.” And while he only considers one woman his wife, he usually has a child (or children) with each. “We would have a worker request time off because his wife had had a child, then come back three months later and ask for time off—because his wife had had a child. One man had four children in a single year.” For some workers, almost their entire paycheck goes to child support fees—and child support checks are addressed to several different locations.
What is most shocking to Peggy, though, is the wholesale acceptance of this behavior among many Hispanics. “There is no stigma behind it whatsoever,” she says. She recounts speaking to one of the plant’s cafeteria workers whose daughter gave birth at 13; she bore two more children before she turned eighteen. “The parents loved it, encouraged it—they wanted more children in the family.”
In a 2010 report, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) revealed that, in 2007 (the latest year for which data is available), a little over half of Hispanic children were born to unmarried mothers. While this is noticeably behind the illegitimacy rate of black women (seventy-one percent), it is much more worrisome with the Hispanic population expected to triple over the coming decades. And the unmarried birthrate for Hispanics is staggering: Every 1,000 unmarried women bore 108 children, up from 100 at the beginning of the decade and 90 per 1,000 in 1990. The numbers reveal that unmarried Hispanics are having twice as many children as unmarried whites and one-and-a-half times as many as unmarried blacks. And the trend shows no signs of slowing.
Heather MacDonald, a scholar at the Manhattan Institute, has led the effort to study the change occurring within Hispanic America, and she admits that determining the causes of Hispanic family breakdown is difficult. Several forces appear to be working simultaneously.
First is immigration, which has forced a clash of customs. It is well-documented that Hispanics have significantly higher birthrates than white Americans, which has fueled steady population growth throughout Latin America and is driving the Hispanic population boom in the United States, but it is unclear from what this inclination stems: perhaps from the need of those in farm-based economies to have many children, perhaps because of higher infant mortality rates in Latin America, perhaps from a deeper concern for the perpetuation of bloodlines than is seen in the United States, perhaps from some combination of these motives or others. However, with migration to America, that custom has confronted progressive American culture. The CDC report shows a threefold increase in the percentage of children born to unmarried women among white Americans since 1980 (the first year of available data for all races), a phenomenon, at least in part, of decreasingly stringent sexual mores. Hispanic immigrants, who are inclined to raise large families, have had to confront America’s increasingly tolerant sexual culture, and they seem to have embraced a sort of synthesis: large “families” without the traditional family structure. Though this cultural collision may bear partial responsibilty, it cannot be the sole cause. As Mac Donald has observed, the illegitimacy rate in Latin America is also very high. Can this be chalked up to globalization? That seems unlikely. But immigration is undoubtedly playing a role in the collapse of the Hispanic family; it is the extent of that role which remains unclear.
Second is a lack of focus among Hispanics on education. The contrast here, notes Mac Donald, is with Asian immigrants who, on average, demand significant academic effort on the part of their children. That same demand and effort are missing in Hispanic families. And perhaps because of a lack of focus on the classroom, Hispanics are more likely to end up in poverty, to be unemployed, and to end up in prison than are Asian Americans, who are disproportionately represented at elite universities, are the highest earning ethnic group, and, according to a study published in 2010 in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, are at the lowest risk of any type of youth substance abuse, from cigarettes and alcohol to marijuana and harder drugs. Moreover, Asian Americans have the lowest illegitimacy: just seventeen percent.
Third is an attitude that has been uniquely demonstrated in Hispanic culture: machismo, a desire among many Hispanic males to demonstrate masculinity. The overwhelming majority of the men at Sam Kane Beef, notes Peggy, have facial hair, and she suggests that the number of women a man can claim acts as a sort of “machismo signifier,” a type of status symbol. (She describes it as “collecting” women.) And neither the attitude nor the behavior is restricted to low socioeconomic classes; both are present among wealthier Hispanics, she says, just more discreetly practiced.
What in the breakdown of the Hispanic family distinguishes it from the collapse of the black family, chronicled meticulously since Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s groundbreaking 1965 study, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action? Mac Donald, in a 2006 City Journal article, identifies a key difference: “many of the mothers and absent fathers work, even despite growing welfare use.” Peggy affirms this: “Labor at the plant is enormously difficult, and the workers are incredibly diligent, incredibly hard-working.” And this poses a striking contrast to the sense of entitlement Peggy observes in the men. Whether these conflicting strains will persist remains to be seen. Peggy notes that younger generations of Hispanics are not demonstrating the same work ethic as their elders. “They are unable to cope with the strain of the work at the plant,” she says. “Our turnover rate peaked at sixty percent at one point—three out of five hires leaving within months.”
The decline of that work ethic—and the perpetuation of the decline of the Hispanic family—may hinge, at least in part, on a related trend Mac Donald observes: growing welfare use. That federal and state welfare systems provide financial support for children born into poverty may not act as an impetus to out-of-wedlock births, but it certainly is no deterrent. Peggy says that the multigenerational Hispanic family structure can better utilize the monies offered by welfare programs: “The daughters give birth, and the mothers and grandmothers take care of the babies using welfare money.” However, an official from Texas’s Department of State Health Services (DSHS), speaking on condition of anonymity, argues that, where drugs are involved, the system does, in fact, act as an impetus. Using state welfare money, she says, women can purchase large quantities of meat and trade it for drugs; by bearing more children they increase their welfare subsidy and feed their (or their partner’s) drug habit. These instances are the exception, rather than the rule, but they reveal the inherent difficulty of constructing and maintaining a fair and sustainable welfare system.
And illegitimacy takes a devastating toll on the economy. Sam Kane Beef originally provided insurance for both employees and their families, but a million-dollar bill for the simultaneous Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) treatment of one employee’s two out-of-wedlock children—each born to a different mother—forced the company to restrict insurance coverage to employees alone. And the financial burden that the company was forced to offload fell onto the shoulders of Medicaid and other government programs. Moreover, the detrimental effects of single-motherhood are well-documented: children raised by single mothers are more likely to grow up uneducated, impoverished, and imprisoned—an enormous burden on America’s public schools, courts, and prisons. Illegitimacy is proving a massive drain on both private and public coffers.
Are there solutions to this trend? The matter goes much deeper than public policy, though significant reforms could contribute to the trend’s reversal—or at least its slowing. Some have asserted that the Catholic Church, focused for so long on internal struggles, neglected its responsibility to act as a moral force for Hispanics, and Peggy observes that the men and families in question demonstrate little spiritual activity. “They might believe in God,” she says, “but they are not involved in churches or any other activities we might consider spiritually enriching, and they certainly don’t talk in spiritual or religious terms.” But she wonders whether the reemergence of the Catholic Church would make much difference: “If the Catholic Church became a socially engaging force again, would it even help? The families are the ones encouraging this behavior.” Any process of transformation, then, is forbiddingly complex. Effective change will require significant policy reform in multiple arenas, as well as a moral renewal within both the larger American and Latin American cultures. The initial problem, amid such overwhelming difficulty, may be determining where to start.
However, this is not to say that the Hispanic family is in imminent, unavoidable doom. Hispanics have not suffered the same ghettoization as blacks—though inklings of that can be seen in heavily Hispanic states along the southern border. The Catholic Church remains a potentially positive force, particularly when its moral values receive backing in the home. Latin America is home to half of the world’s Catholics, but in recent years Catholics have been leaving the church in droves amid infighting between conservatives and progressives. Yet, despite the loss, many Latin American immigrants maintain at least a vestigial Catholicism, and new efforts in Latin America to reach out to those who have left the Catholic Church may prove effective among American Hispanics, as well. Moreover, the attenuation of the Catholic Church has not entailed a widespread rejection of Christianity. Pentecostal Protestantism has seen dramatic growth throughout Latin America, and a variety of denominations hope to fill the spiritual void. There is ample opportunity for spiritual renewal—if these institutions will accept the challenge to assert a revitalized public morality.
And any resurgent public morality must be accompanied by thoughtful public policy reforms. A study published in 2007 in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found that Hispanic immigrants to the U.S. are more likely to engage in illegal drug use and alcohol abuse—and that likelihood increases as they become acculturated. Considering that many of these immigrants are coming from quasi-narco-states like Mexico, this tendency is particularly disturbing. The DSHS official argues such drug use has much to do with familial collapse. Severe, mandatory sentences punishing drug use lock Hispanic men into the prison system without providing opportunities for rehabilitation; even after their release, a criminal record diminishes their chances of employment and financial security. Her theory suggests several crucial reforms: an immigration policy that would strengthen America’s borders and reinforce ideals of citizenship; drug policy reform that would effectively target minorities and the poor, who are disproportionately more likely to become substance abusers; welfare reform that would prevent systemic exploitation; and prison and sentencing reform that would facilitate treatment and rehabilitation. Those changes are not enough, she says, but they will be a start.
Finally, employers have the ability to effect behavioral change. Peggy notes that Sam Kane Beef has always been willing to hire individuals passed over or rejected, for whatever reason, by other employers; many of their employees, she says, are “those on the fringes.” Reflecting on the company’s hiring process, she affirms, “If you’re willing to work hard, we’re willing to consider you.” And, she points out, Sam Kane Beef has created a healthy work environment that encourages employees not simply to work hard but also to fulfill familial and social responsibilities—from paying alimony on time to attending rehabilitation programs. Peggy says that local judges are aware of the unique atmosphere at Sam Kane Beef and that it factors into their consideration of employees’ cases. Where the government incentivizes or perpetuates troublesome behaviors, individual employers have the opportunity to disincentivize by creating healthy, socially responsible work environments. Sam Kane Beef offers a strong, encouraging example for other employers.
But the burden of transformation remains, ultimately, in the power of America’s Hispanic community. And that community is at a crossroads. If older generations—or, perhaps, the newest generation of parents—can shift the cultural paradigm, the Hispanic family may be rescued. But if they will not, Hispanic social stability faces a long slide into chaos, and, as Hispanics become a greater part of the national population, America will likely slide, too.
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