An ethnography looks at the origin, distribution, and characteristics of a particular race. This paper outlines the factors which need to be taken into consideration when preparing an ethnography of Latino children in American culture. Classical ethnographies have proved very poor vehicles for apprehending how reason, feeling, and will come together in people's daily lives (Rosaldo, 1989, p. 41). Classically, cultures stood as sacred images, having their own integrity and coherence that enabled them to be studied on their own terms from within, from the native point of view (p. 43). Over the years, cultural compartments have crumbled. The so-called natives do not inhabit a world fully separated from those who study it (Rosaldo, p. 45), but rather mingle with it.
Before developing an ethnography for Latino children in American culture, the first step would be to define "American Culture", and American culture per se is difficult to define, since the American population is made up of people of many races, and even the subset of Latino Americans includes people from various Latino groups, each of which brings with it its own cultural identity.
Mainstream American culture is basically that of a well-developed, industrialized Western society, but it is modified because of the diversity brought to it by the many immigrant groups living in the U.S. Many things which are taken for granted by most Americans, such as access to education and health care, were not available to Latino immigrants in their native countries, particularly those coming from poorer countries, or rural areas of richer ones, and are not used to their full potential, often to the detriment of those who do not take advantage of their availability. Many immigrants tend to locate to areas where many of their fellow countrymen reside, and live within these subcultures, speaking their native languages, carrying on their native customs and mores, and not integratin...