Feminism Is For Everyone

Oct 20, 2009,3:33 PM

CNN + male psychologists blame suicide rate on bad mothers...what's new.

This is an important article about the terrifying prevalence of suicide and attempted suicide in the Latina community. However, as happens all too often, the published psychological study decides that the major reason for this issue is that Latina mothers don't understand their daughters. The article highlights what is assumed to be a typical story of a Latina girl, Francisca, whose mother is too busy working 3 jobs (their father is not in the picture) to correctly parent her daughter, causing the daughter to be depressed.

Francisca blames her mother for not paying enough attention, in the midst of working 3 jobs and raising 4 kids, to notice the depression. Psychologist Luis Zayas, explains that mothers are also busy trying to instill the cultural values of their homeland, instead of acknowledging the cultural realities of the US. What are the cultural realities of the US? Francisca ends up pregnant at the age of 14, at which point she readily admits that she now understands that her mom was making sacrifices for her.

Which makes me wonder - how do we reach the pseudo-scientific conclusion that this depression is the mom's fault? What about societal factors - the inherent racism and inequality in our educational system, the prevalence of anti-"illegal immigrant" rhetoric in our media, etc. But of course, these issues are not the reason that young Latina girls feel little self-worth. It's their mom's fault.