Felix G Rivera - Latino/Hispanic Liaisons and Visions for Human Behavior in the Social Environment

Latino/Hispanic Liaisons and Visions for Human Behavior in the Social Environment has been co-published simultaneously as Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Volume 5, Numbers 3/4 2002.

Latino/Hispanic Liaisons and Visions for Human Behavior in the Social Environment

Jos B. Torres, PhD, MSW
Felix G. Rivera, PhD
Editors

Latino/Hispanic Liaisons and Visions for Human Behavior in the Social Environment has been co-published simultaneously as Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Volume 5, Numbers 3/4 2002.

First published by

The Haworth Social Work Praetiee Press, 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580 USA

The Haworth Social Work Practice Press is an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice
Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580 USA.

This edition published 2012 by Routledge

Latino/Hispanic Liaisons and Visions for Human Behavior in the Social Environment has been co-published simultaneously as Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Volume 5, Numbers 3/4 2002.

2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilm and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The development, preparation, and publication of this work has been undertaken with great care. However, the publisher, employees, editors, and agents of The Haworth Press and all imprints of The Haworth Press, Inc., including The Haworth Medical Press and The Pharmaceutical Products Press, are not responsible for any errors contained herein or for consequences that may ensue from use of materials or information contained in this work. Opinions expressed by the author(s) are not necessarily those of The Haworth Press, Inc.

Cover design by Thomas J. Mayshock Jr.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Latino/Hispanic liaisons and visions for human behavior in the social environment / Jos B. Torres, and Felix G. Rivera, editors.
p. cm.
Latino/Hispanic liaisons and visions for human behavior in the social environment has been
co-published simultaneously as Journal of human behavior in the social environment, vol. 5, nos. 3/4, 2002.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7890-1656-7 (alk. paper)ISBN 0-7890-1657-5 (pbk: alk. paper)
1. Hispanic AmericansSocial conditions. I. Torres, Jos B. II. Rivera, Felix G. III.
Journal of human behavior in the social environment.
E184.S75 L3555 2002

Jos B. Torres, PhD, MSW, joined the faculty of the School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1995. He is Associate Professor there, with primary teaching responsibilities in the areas of multicultural social work, direct practice, and clinical supervision. He is also Associate Scientist with the Center for Addiction and Behavioral Health Research at UWM. Dr. Torres has twenty-eight years of experience as a clinical social worker, providing individual, marital, and family therapy to diverse populations. He is a certified marriage and family therapist with an approved supervisor status in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He also maintains a limited private practice and provides training on cultural diversity in mental health, educational, and work settings. He has researched and published on multicultural mental health education and training, supervision of clinical training and practice, cultural aspects of gender roles, and domestic abuse.

Felix G. Rivera, PhD, is Professor in the School of Social Work, San Francisco State University, where he has taught community organization and social and evaluative research since 1973. Dr. Rivera has forty years experience as a grassroots organizer and has worked with community, state, local, and Federal government organizations as an evalu-ator, planner, and program developer. His research and publications have emphasized the dynamics and implications for practice of emerging communities of color and the implications of community power and leadership for social justice and social change. His co-edited book, Community Organizing in a Diverse Society, is in its third edition. Dr. Rivera has written about the ethical and moral issues associated with research, emphasizing the importance of action, participatory, and emancipatory research. He sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Community Practice the Journal of Health & Social Policy, the Journal of Progressive Human Services, and the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work.

Among the challenges faced by the social work profession has been the enhancement of educational programs and professional literature targeted to accelerate ethnic and cultural sensitivity in multicultural social work practice with diverse ethnic minority groups including Lati-nos/Hispanics. This special volume is devoted to further consideration of social work practice implications relevant to the rapidly increasing Latino/Hispanic population in the United States.

In the context of changing demographics and political realities in the U.S., debates over the impact Latinos/Hispanics will have on political issues and other socioeconomic elements of the nation are vague and inconclusive. Despite the projection that Latinos/Hispanics will become the nation's majority minority population by the year 2020, the debates, in fact, have failed to adequately describe the complex ethnic tapestry of this population. This failure has been limited, in part, by minimal in-depth knowledge of Latino/Hispanic diversity, attitudes, behaviors, and experiences (de la Garza, 1993).

Literature on Latinos/Hispanics reflects a dysfunctional and myopic cultural view in which Latinos/Hispanics are often depicted in stereotypic characteristics and as a homogeneous population. Their ethnic and cultural identity is not a monolithic phenomenon: rather, there is a hybrid cultural potpourri, composed of distinct nationalities that identify with a specific language, culture, or place. The literature available however, frequently presents misguided generalizations about Latinos/Hispanics when a significant portion of the discourse designated as Hispanic or Latino, is in fact, about a single origin group, such as Mexican Americans (Baca Zinn & Wells, 2000; Mazzey, Zambrana, & Bell, 1995). This pattern of generalization often results in minimizing and further masking the extraordinary significant inter and intra group differences that exist among Latinos/Hispanics (i.e., Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Central and South Americans). Grouping together Latinos/Hispanics into an undifferentiated single collective, subsequently leads to cultural distortions and further contributes to impoverished, one-dimensional thinking on various characteristics. These characteristics include ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language, education, immigration patterns, political differences, traditions, variations of certain cultural values, skin color, experiences with discrimination, prejudice and racism, and level of acculturation and/or assimilation (Garca & Marotta, 1997).