Who gets to say they’re first-generation in the U.S. — immigrants who have settled here, or their U.S.-born children — is an issue that is hotly debated by Latinos, whose positions often contradict historians and social scientists.
Why it matters: The disagreement shows how a new generation of U.S. Latinos, while standing firm that they are not foreigners, are showing pride in their immigrant roots.
- Over the last two weeks, many adult children of Latino immigrants have written to Axios Latino to say they see themselves as first-generation despite what academics say, illustrating their changing identity and how they view their immigrant family.
Zoom in: After posing the question to Axios Latino readers, non-academic respondents overwhelmingly said first-generation refers to the first that is U.S.-born.
- “Children born in the U.S. to immigrant parents are the first generation that will live the full experience of life in a country that is not their parents’ original home. They are the first generation full-on navigating culture, language and identity dynamics,” writes Roberto A. Cornelio.
- “My father, who immigrated from Honduras, always referred to his children as ‘first generation’ because he believed that we were the first to have the opportunity to live the American dream starting at birth,” Manuel Bonilla writes.
- “I always thought it referred to the children of the immigrants as they would be the first generation born in the U.S.,” Lisa Garcia writes. “So, as a child of an immigrant, I consider myself first generation.”
Historians, sociologists and psychologists all refer to immigrants as the first generation in the U.S. — period, Cynthia Duarte, director of the Sarah W. Heath Center for Equality and Justice at California Lutheran University, tells Axios.
- “I can see in an average conversation around immigration or immigration history that the second generation, when they describe who they are, they say, ‘Well, I’m the first in my family to be born in this country.'”
- “But there is no generation zero. The immigrant experience can’t be nothing. It is the first experience in this country. “
- “When we’re talking about intergenerational understanding of the immigrant story in a more general way, we need to start with the immigrant experience as that first experience.”
- Duarte says she often has to explain to freshmen who claim they are first when they are second, and the students don’t react well to that.
Yes, but: Alexandro Jose Gradilla, a Chicana and Chicano Studies professor at California State University, Fullerton, tells Axios he can understand why a new generation of U.S.-born Latinos see themselves as first despite what history books say.
- “We’re always viewed as foreigners, and I think we’re finally seeing people kind of flip that and saying, ‘We’re not foreigners, but I own where I come from. Whether or not I was born there or not, I own that I come from that space.'”
- “There’s a desire to connect. There’s a desire to not feel rootless. And they don’t care what anyone else says.”
What we’re watching: The question of generation identity could come in in popular culture soon through movies, music and art. Expect that to be debated.
- Duarte says academics will continue to count immigrants as the first generation to be consistent with the research.
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