The Stakes of Cultural Assimilation
A few years ago, my mother and I spent some time looking through old photographs of our family. We observed how our community evolved over time. One thing that stood out to both of us was the fact that in the 1980’s and 90’s, most Mexican men from our community sported longer hair. If we look at some of the earliest photos in our possession—dating to the 1950s—our male family members did not have this hair style. My father was of this immigrant cohort. With curiosity, we asked him why he chose to wear long hair during this period. Most of the pictures in question documented his experiences in different parts of the United States as a migrant agricultural laborer, which was his first source of employment. His response communicated what should have been obvious to us: there were no Spanish-speaking stylists in the places he worked. They only had access to English-speaking stylists but feared discrimination or were just too ashamed to go into a space that seemed so foreign and unwelcoming to them. They preferred to just let their hair grow out during their stints in the US. We must recall that this was only a couple decades removed from de jure segregation was formally abolished in the country.
