-THE HISPANIZATION OF NORTH AMERICA-

Sociological transformation of North America

It is the opinion of several learned political analysts, that North America is undergoing an unprecedented profound sociological transformation; not only in their traditional moral and social mores, but also politically. Not long ago, like about 30 years ago, and that’s just a generation, it was unthinkable or even remotely accepted, the sexual practices so common today of gay rights and same-sex marriages. Abortion and divorce were considered a taboo subject and people were skeptical about its appropriateness. Children back then were brought up differently than most are today, and parents viewed their responsibilities as much more stringent and their enforcement of discipline much stricter as well. And in this respect, almost the same can be said of the teacher’s involvement with the children; when whatever happens, he was respected and defended by the parents. However, the last three decades have seen a dramatic change in these contemplations; partly due to the liberalization of the laws and their judicial sentences, and partly due to the fragmentation of the family and the home; mainly due to the extremely high divorce rate and last but not least, women entering the workplace in record numbers. The result has been in many ways, mostly negative and detrimental to society, and its true consequences remain to be fully seen. Just one illustrative case: young boys (so far no girls have been involved) randomly and for no apparent reason, shooting and killing many of their peers in their schools. It has reached plague proportions, and there has not been a single month lately that we have not been informed of one of these new massacres. What’s going on? All perplexed, they ask the same question; but for the purposes of this presentation, suffice it to say that, unfortunately, it is part of this sociological transformation and deterioration that surrounds us.

Is this happening in the countries of the South? Partly yes and partly no. Hispanic cultures differ in many ways from their Anglo counterparts. On the one hand, the vision that Latinos have regarding family life, including sex, children, their discipline, marriage, divorce, etc., is very different. This does not mean that there is no social deterioration in our countries, such as alarming crime rates; but this is due to completely different factors than those to the north. The drug is, in my opinion, the most related, and is common to both sides. And second, moral standards are much more “relaxed” in Anglo culture than they are in the South.

There is, however, something else present in Hispanic culture; they are not generally found in the North, which, in the opinion of sociologists, have profound implications for the transformation, evolution for better or worse, of modern society; And it is: that although both parents are working, there is always someone at home, like the grandparents, waiting and taking care of the children when they return from school. The other thing is that in Latin America, for economic reasons, children spent, if anything, much less time glued to a television or game stations; therefore, they are less exposed to the violence so prevalent in these electronic games and television programs; not to mention the self-centered effect this has on the minds of the young. The underlying result, apparently, is that there are no school shootings by young children in schools in Latin America, or why in all these cases in the United States, none of their perpetrators is Latino. It is also the possible reason why crime, contrary to general perception, is ¾ higher among black, white, and other Americans than among Hispanics. This is so even when Latinos are grouped together regardless of ethnicity. Not everyone who speaks Spanish belongs to the same race. Most Native Americans in western, southern, and central America speak Spanish, but they differ racially from other Hispanics. If this had been taken into account by crime tabulating institutions as mentioned above, the percentage of true Hispanics involved in crime would have been much lower.

Interestingly, Latinos and all Spanish-speaking people are increasing much more than other groups in the United States. In the western states, especially California, Arizona, and New Mexico, and needless to say, long before the Anglo-Saxons arrived, they had a flourishing society where the Hispanic culture predominated. Their population is not only increasing, but is much larger than any other group. Also, the crime rate there has always been lower than in states with small or negligible Hispanic populations.

In other states far to the east, such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, Florida, Rhode Island and even Chicago and New York as cities, with a very high concentration of Hispanics, have shown lower crime rates than most of others. cities or states.

We could conjecture then, that the Hispanic Latino culture is less prone to change as fast as the Anglo counterpart, and that it is less prone to produce these aberrations that we are seeing lately, with these very young boys, for no reason. , walking into a school, and starts shooting everyone on sight. In general, even when Latinos tend to be impulsive, they are also less likely to commit violent crime. At least, this is what the statistics show. I believe that the Latino temperament helps them dissipate tensions that, when repressed in any other way, often erupt into uncontrollable anger. Uncontrollable anger is the seed of crime.

Contrary to some political discourses, the Latino population in the United States is definitely not a negative factor as its leaders claim and say, and could very well be, in the short and long term, a stabilizing force to heal many of these sociological wounds that prevail in recent years in North America. Some of the characteristics of Latinos, especially family ones, should be studied by those in charge of influencing society; to stand out in his recommendations for a profound change in the social future of North America.