| In-depth, qualitative interviews with young Latino fathers are used to bring to light the work young men do as family men in a Midwestern rustbelt barrio. Teen childbearing has been a topic of much research and policy debate for many years. However, recent and dramatic changes in the demography of the U.S. landscape, and racial patterns of teen pregnancy necessitate more attention to Latino communities. Despite a common assumption is that African Americans are responsible for the recent rise in teen childbearing, the fact is that during the nineties, birthrates for African Americans have remained the highest, but they have risen more rapidly for Latinos, particularly for Mexican Americans. Latinos have also recently become the largest category of minority children in the U.S. This study focuses on young Chicano fathers, most of whom do not reside with their children. It finds that these young men go to great lengths to construct and maintain relations with their families, their children's families, and neighborhood institutions in order to construct culturally meaningful and valued expressions of masculinity and fatherhood. Keywords: Chicano, Mexican, fatherwork, fathers, fatherhood, masculinity. |
