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Sexual Health eBook Volume3
Chapter 9Contrasts and Contradictions. A Brief Look at the Construction of Sexualities in Mexico, Esther Corona-Vargas & Adriana Corona-VargasSexuality may be regarded as a biologically rooted human characteristic, nonetheless
we consider social forces as conditioning, modulating, and ultimately determining
the experience and expression of sexuality (Singer, 1973). Social contexts
in and of themselves construct sexuality (Caplan, 1978; Weeks, 1986). This
does not mean that biological and emotional factors are to be disregarded,
but rather that knowledge, attitudes, meanings, practices, behavior, and identities
are predominately socially constructed and more than the sum of physical and
psychological aspects.
Sexuality is a product of human history. As Weeks (2003) aptly puts it, “It
is a result of diverse social practices that give meaning to human activities,
of social definitions, and self definitions, of struggles between those who
have power to define and regulate and those who resist” (p. 19).
From this vantage point, any examination of what constitutes the wide array
and variety of sexualities in today’s United States must include some considerations
of Latino sexualities.
What is termed “Latino” culture is not a recent component of North American
culture. Historically, more than one third of what is now the United States
was a part of Mexico. States such as California, New Mexico, Texas, among others,
were explored and colonized by Spain and became independent of the Spanish
Crown as a part of Mexico. They now bear in their geographical names, their
inhabitants’ surnames, their art, and their food the heritage of this past.
Contrary to what may be ordinary, though, for a long time, migrant population
fluxes were more from north to south than the other way around. A very large
group of Mexican origin never left their places of origin when the borders
between the United States and Mexico moved south. This population must have
left their cultural imprint on sexuality.
More recently, in the mid-twentieth century, large numbers of people have migrated
to the United States, not only from Mexico but from Central and South America,
and not only to the Southern states but as far north as New York and Washington
State (Alba, 2002). The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are more than
9 million Mexican immigrants living in the United States. Of these, approximately
4.7 million, or over half, are undocumented. However, about 1.6 million, or
one in five Mexicans, are naturalized U.S. citizens. Moreover, in his analysis
of Mexican migration, Alba affirms that “In addition to the growing regional
diversity of Mexican migration, Mexican migration flows are changing in other
ways. Some indicators suggest that the characteristics of migrants are becoming
as diverse, in terms of migrants’ origin, educational and occupational levels,
as the characteristics of the Mexican population at large” (n.pag.). With this
picture in mind, it becomes important to understand the complex forces that
intervened in the construction of contemporary Mexican sexualities. Sexual Health eBook Volume3 Chapter 9 $20 http://www.1shoppingcart.com/SecureCart/SecureCart.aspx?mid=4DE100EE-C7BD-420F-8352-73712C4F12AA&pid=8db01d2b29efe75c30d0c2f82896b393
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