Parents cringe as more Latino students go away to college

Parents cringe as more Latino students go away to college

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2075669,CST-EDT-esther01.article

March 1, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

'Go away!" I tell them. Let me explain. On occasion, well-meaning teachers call me in to high schools to talk to kids who are poised to be the first in their family to attend college. I get to impress these future leaders of America and their parents with the endless benefits of higher education.

Dutifully, I cover all of the important stuff that comes from completing a degree or certification: the increased opportunity for a lifetime of stable careers, the pure joy of intellectual enlightenment. Then I get to the part that makes parents cringe: the unparalleled fun of breaking away from all you know and becoming an independent adult for the first time ever.

Often this goes over poorly with the parents in the room. When it's a predominantly Hispanic crowd, the brows furrow in a synchronized wave of distaste at the mere mention of "going away" to college. That's because in Latino households where a college education is a cherished hope, it's also generally expected that the student in question will stay home to be supported by the family in the endeavor.

Culturally speaking, Latinos are literally all about the family. Generations live together under the same roof, caring for each other from infancy to old age. You fear Dad more than you fear God, and Mom is the center of the universe. So no matter how much of a fancy schmancy smarty pants you think you are, you just don't break Mami's heart by going away to college!

From the perspective of so many parents who didn't get the opportunity to do so themselves, you just don't let your tender young child go off hundreds of miles away to study and do who-knows-what with who-knows-who. In my case, my parents knew better than to try to stop me, and lo all these years later, I can finally say there are a whole lot of others following in my footsteps.

A recent study by the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute found that since 1975, the share of Latino freshmen at four-year colleges who choose schools more than 50 miles from home has risen from about 46 percent to nearly 59 percent. At the same time, those attending four-year colleges within 10 miles of home dropped from 30 percent to 15 percent, while the proportion of white freshmen who went away to school stayed unchanged, about 66 percent.

This obviously points to the explosive growth of an acculturated Hispanic middle class comfortable with the idea that college is a ticket to the "American Dream" and that high school kids graduate and leave home for school, rather than get a job to help support the rest of the family.

Sure, the whole issue of where Latinos study is trivial when you stop to consider that despite all efforts, only 27 percent of Latinos ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in college in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Education. That's an increase from the 1980s, but still low compared with whites, at 43 percent, and blacks, at 33 percent.

But going away -- if the opportunity is within reach -- is really important. Even Latinos who stay home know they're missing out on a special part of life. "At first, I really didn't want to go away," Ana Perez, a senior at DePaul University who lives at home in Humboldt Park and commutes to school, told me recently. "I'm really close with my family, and I didn't want to lose out on being with them."

Ana admitted that although her parents never came out and said she shouldn't go away, her college years were never discussed in the context of being out of the nest. Now in her final months as a college student, she says she's happy with her choice, but "I wish I could have done it. I didn't get to experience a lot of things -- being on my own, learning how to rely on just myself. When I have my own kids, I definitely will encourage it."

That's just how it goes: the Esthers and the Anas of the world will continue to go out and broadcast how rip-roaring wonderful college life can be, and in a few generations, a whole culture will be changed for the better.