Cracking Under Pressure

It is an undeniable truth that the transition from high school to college can be a taxing obstacle for any student. Whether it is moving across the country, taking rigorous courses, exploring identity, or having to find a new group of friends; college is no easy task. With that in mind, first-generation students and many children of Latino-immigrant families often carry the additional burden of “not knowing” when starting college life. Unfamiliarity with the college system can add a substantial amount of stress for students entering college. For most, family is a great support system in helping adjust to college life as they offer advice based on their personal experience, this is not necessarily the case for all students.

For Hispanics, family is a crucial component of their lives and is often prioritized above all else. The emphasis on the importance of family is derived from the idea that a familial bond is unbreakable, and thus will be the only guaranteed constant in anyone’s life. However, when it comes to education, many parents believe it is the student’s sole obligation to perform well. Not only must Hispanic students deal with the pressure they impose on themselves to understand college life, but they must also deal with the pressure from their families. Additionally, Hispanic students must reconcile with the fact that their performance in school is a reflection of the community as a whole. This ultimately puts societal pressure on them to be academically successful. Higher education for Hispanic students has become a means to validate their competency to their family, community, society, and themselves instead of an academic investment into their future careers.

The pressure to meet the exceedingly high expectations of a Hispanic family creates more distress for Hispanic students as they seek to make their parents proud in college. The expectations set forth by their respective families lie in two main categories: being able to navigate the real world without parental assistance, and being able to achieve academic success. These types of success are not mutually exclusive. Academic achievement can not be fully realized without a proper understanding of how to register for classes, how to manage finances, or even how to apply for assistance programs. While at the same time, success after graduation in terms of being able to find a job is increasingly difficult without some form of academic success.

This is not to say that Hispanic parents leave their children to completely fend for themselves. On the contrary, much of their actions are solely rooted in the idea of creating a stable basis for their children to focus their attention on school. In the article “The Overwhelming Pressure of Being a Successful Latino” Barbara Ramirez writes, “As we see, our parents work two and three jobs to bring food to the table or enroll us in a decent school; it is almost verbatim that we cannot let them down. We fear to disappoint our parents and have them believe that all their sweat was in vain.”(Ramirez) Ironically, the dedication to support their children’s education inadvertently adds pressure on the student to perform well. The idea of having their parents’ hard work be entirely wasted can become overwhelming. The fear of letting our parents down can become suffocating, which can make it difficult to focus at times. But, our parents aren’t the ones at fault as their exceedingly high work ethic justifies their equally high expectations.

Apart from high parental expectations, the lack of support when it comes to understanding college life piles on to the existing pressure already imposed on Hispanic students by their parents. Students often have assistance when it comes to learning about such topics from their families, however, this is not necessarily the case for Hispanic students. In the behavioral study “Voices of Hispanic College Students” conducted by Cassandra Storlie, it was uncovered that the struggle for Hispanic students in transitioning from high school to college stemmed from “frustration within the family system context” as many faced issues with “limited support by parents, due to the lack of college cultural knowledge, and poor parental assistance with homework assignments”(Storlie). The lack of awareness among Hispanic parents limits their ability to pass on valuable information to their children, highlighting a large inequity in the amount of information that is readily accessible to Hispanic and first-generation students as a whole.

Many often discuss inequities in the material, such as access to new clothes, food, or housing. But equally as important is the ability to access information. Without a proper understanding of college culture and its inner workings, students are left with the responsibility of trying to understand the bureaucracy of higher education instead of focusing their time on schoolwork. For instance, when I was applying for financial aid, I had to watch youtube videos, read articles online, and ask school counselors for help filling out the forms. My parent’s lack of knowledge about the college financial system diverted my focus from my last year of high school to learn about financial aid for several weeks. It is this curse of “not knowing” that makes it increasingly difficult to meet the expectation of their family, further contributing to external pressure negatively impacting these students in the long run.

Familial pressure not only comes in the form of school success but can additionally come in the form of insistence to act more American to better fit in school. Gloria Anzaldua briefly explores a similar concept in her novel Borderlands, La Frontera. In one portion of the novel, she remembers her mother saying, “ ‘I want you to speak English. Pa Hallar buen trabajo tienes que saber hablar el ingles bien. Que vale toda tu educación si todavía hablas ingles con un accent,’my mother would say, mortified that I spoke English like a Mexican”(Anzaldua). While growing up, Hispanics often learn Spanish as their first language. Learning to be fluent in Spanish from an early age reinforces an individual’s connection to their culture and community. But, when it comes time to start schooling, Hispanic parents seem to emphasize the importance of being more “American”.

For Hispanic parents, acting American seems to primarily lie in being able to speak English properly, and they are even willing to sacrifice their child’s connection to the language to promote a higher level of proficiency in English. Such a reverence of the English language minimizes the value associated with being able to speak Spanish. This mindset makes students feel ashamed about being able to speak Spanish, which distracts them from their studies as they are worried about how they are perceived socially by their peers.

The desire to fit in school is an additional source of stress that negatively impacts the college experience for many Hispanic and Latinx students. In a previously published paper, I conducted a small study on the high school and college experience of students who identified as Hispanic at USC. Through the study, it was found that “Many of the students surveyed said they felt ‘isolated’, like an ‘outcast’, ‘experienced culture shock’, felt ‘at an automatic disadvantage’, and had difficulty being ‘taken seriously’ ”(Rosales). Despite the presence of many cultural clubs at USC, the vastness of the constitution emphasized the students’ positions as minorities within the school. It goes without saying that a pleasant college experience would not be characterized by such an impending sense of isolation. The lack of representation within school leads to the deterioration of the student’s mental state, making it more difficult for them to succeed academically and socially within the school.

The desire to belong can also lead to self-sacrificing personal identity, which can also strain a students’ mental health. In “The Trademark of Personal Identity and Cultural Significance” I realized that in rejecting to use my given name “I had found myself in a position of sacrificing my cultural identity for the sake of trying to fit in. In reality, the desire to fit in is at the root of everyone’s shame. We choose not to share certain parts of ourselves solely because we are afraid of how others might perceive us if we disclose the more intimate parts of who we are”(Rosales). The constant fear of being judged prevents Hispanic students from opening up, they consistently have their guard up around others that they don’t necessarily know. Inevitably, this makes students feel even more socially isolated as they don’t believe others will accept them for who they are. The feeling of acceptance is crucial to success as it allows students to focus their time on learning as opposed to trying to prove themselves to their peers. It is their struggle with their identity, the issue of acceptance further contributes to their unnecessary stress as students, a stress that is likely to manifest in the form of poor grades.

Conflicting values within the Hispanic community may also place a substantial toll on the mental state of Hispanic students. Despite the fact that being able to speak English is a crucial skill to have in the US, the growth in English proficiency as opposed to Spanish proficiency within younger generations outlines the loss of cultural connection to the Spanish language. In the article, “What does it mean to Latino in America Today?”, a Los Angeles City council member states “Within a short period of time, everybody will have trouble talking to their grandmother”(Vega). Vega goes on to mention how younger generations are becoming increasingly more proficient at speaking English. It is evident that the city council member agrees with this point as the loss of the Spanish language within the community is inherently damaging to people’s connection to the culture as a whole.

However, as discussed earlier, Hispanic families seem to stress the importance of being able to speak English at a fluent level, which can often require sacrificing some ability to speak fluently in Spanish. Thus, two conflicting ideals are set in front of students. The difficulty for students lies in being able to strike a balance between the two conflicting ideals. This highly depends on the individual’s identity, and for many being able to determine this balance proves to be challenging as it requires self-reflection and exploration. Furthermore, language forms a large portion of one’s identity, and to claim that one language is more important than another completely disregards the complex nuance of that individual’s identity.

Grappling with opposing aspects of identity is a common internal conflict that many Hispanic students must deal with throughout much of their academic careers. Such a conflict can ultimately prove to be distracting for students, but it is necessary to help the student thrive and grow within a given institution. In a Los Angeles Times article, Brian de Los Santos discusses his journey of self-discovery as a Hispanic student in America and states “In college, I did not feel like I was entirely from Mexico or the U.S. and toyed with identifying as Chicano. I was attracted by the feeling of nepantla — the Nahuatl word for ‘in the middle’”(Santos). The thought of not being Mexican enough to be Mexican or not American enough to be American is a common struggle that children of Mexican-American immigrants must face while growing up. De Los Santos was able to conclude that he is a mix of the two and can’t find himself identifying more with his American or Mexican identity as doing so would feel like a betrayal of the other. It is up to each student to come up with their conclusion on how they choose to identify as it is essential to being able to confidently traverse college life.

The loaded burden of having to represent your entire community at a level of higher education serves as an additional source of pressure that can make schooling more challenging for Hispanic students. In the survey I conducted of Hispanic students at USC, one student said “The more advanced classes were not diverse and I found myself to always be the only Latina in the class. I also always had white male professors who I never felt comfortable around, and who would underestimate my abilities” (Rosales). Although it may seem difficult to believe, many latino/a students don’t take rigorous courses, such as AP classes This means Latino students not only had to prove they are capable of taking difficult courses but that the community as a whole is equally as intelligent. When some are exposed to only a select few individuals from a particular community, their impression of the entire community is based on the interactions they have had with the select few. Thus, how Hispanics conduct themselves within a class and at school becomes more important due to how their actions implicate the rest of the community.

From a young age, Hispanics growing up in the US are conditioned into believing that they must strive to be the model student, such a mindset comes at the sacrifice of the students’ well-being. The idea to be the best student likely originates from the desire to break from the typical stereotypes associated with being Hispanic. As Hispanics are not typically associated with being high achieving individuals, parents put pressure on their children to overcome that stigma and be the ones to prove the rest of society wrong. I was put under similar pressure in high school as my parents were never satisfied with anything less than an A. Thus, I associated my worth with being able to obtain all A’s and this forced me to sacrifice much of my social life during my high school years.

The emphasis to perform well prevents students from growing as people during their educational careers. In Coelho’s novel Pedagogy of the Oppressed he says, “The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world”(Coehlo). Essentially, as Hispanic students in college begin to obsess over securing straight A’s, they are prevented from growing as individuals throughout their college experience. They restrict themselves from exploring their interests and thus are unable to form long-lasting passions. Their view of their world may become narrowed, affecting their perspective on the world for the remainder of their lives.

The compounding pressure imposed on Hispanic students by their psyche, their family, and their community has lasting negative impacts on their college experience as a whole. Each of these pressures can seem overwhelming on its own, but when all three must be dealt with simultaneously it is practically impossible to not feel suffocated. As pressure for all three sources battles for attention within the mind of the student, the student must still go through their day-to-day as if they weren’t stressed. Such an expectation for any student is emotionally taxing especially when such pressure is prolonged over a period of 4 years. Yet, there are thousands upon thousands of Hispanic students who still graduate with their degrees every year. Despite the immense amount of stress, we stay resilient, push forward, and find a way to not crack under the pressure.

Works Cited

-, Barbara Ramirez, et al. “The Generational Pressure of Being a Successful a Latino.” BELatina, 23 Oct. 2020, https://belatina.com/generational-pressure-latinos-success/.

Anzaldúa Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Aunt Lute Books, 2007.

De Los Santos , Brian. “For Me, Being Latino Means Living between Two Worlds.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 21 Sept. 2016, https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-hispanic-heritage-month-20160916-snap-htmlstory.html#:~:text=My%20family%20in%20San%20Francisco%20during%20my%20middle%20school%20years.&text=Being%20a%20Latino%20in%20the,a%20hyphen%2C%20asterisk%20or%20modifier.

Freire, Paulo, et al. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.

Rosales, Eduardo. “A Name: The Trademark of Personal Identity and Culture Significance.” Medium, Writing 150, 20 Sept. 2021, https://medium.com/writing-150/a-name-the-trademark-of-personal-identity-and-culture-significance-849d90956e5d.

Rosales, Eduardo. “Nuestra Hispanidad.” Medium, Writing 150, 27 Oct. 2021, https://medium.com/writing-150/nuestra-hispanidad-e22b4ed2dbd5.

Storlie, Cassandra A., et al. “Voices of Hispanic College Students.” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, vol. 36, no. 1, 2013, pp. 64–78., https://doi.org/10.1177/0739986313510283.

Vega, Tanzina. “What Does It Mean to Be Latino in America Today?” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 May 2016, https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/06/living/latino-identity-america/index.html.