Race Across Generations: "Thinned Attachment" and "Cultural Maintenance" Among Three Generation Mexican American Families.

This paper investigates the racial and cultural incorporation trajectories of Mexican Americans in California. My work is based on sixty-seven in-depth interviews with twenty-nine three-generation Mexican American families (the immigrant generation and their children and grandchildren born in the United States). I add to assimilation theory by pinpointing key decisions and experiences that influence families' incorporation pathways. I advance assimilation theory by sketching out two typologies: "thinned attachment," wherein Mexican cultural commitments wane over generations, and "cultural maintenance," wherein traditions and culture are retained over generations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]