ex tends not just between the generations but across three gener a tions. This is a hierarchical generational relationship, with children at the bottom; they are expected to show respect and un questioning obedience to both parents and grandparents in general and to their father in particular, as well as to those included in the extended family such as baptismal godparents, in the tra dition of what is called "compadrazgo or coparenthood. Compadres (coparents) are sponsors who assume carefully defined roles . . . linked by tradition through interlocking obligations of mutual aid and respect" (Madsen, pp. 48-9).
Madsen connects the tradition of a male's "supremacy . . . within his own home" (p. 50) to the hard social reality that Mexican-American men are obliged to be subservient on the job or in society. Children are expected to absorb the lesson of this tradition, however. Mothers have the role of socializing and en culturating their children to family norms and structures. This amounts to teaching children their proper role of obedience to their father. But within the authoritarian family context, moth ers also function as intercessors, acting as the "bridge to the father" (p. 5). Indeed, Madsen characterizes the Latin woman in traditional, conservative households as "a skilled manipulator of her lord and master" (p. 53) on many issue fronts, including but not limited to child-rearing matters.
Middle-class American children are expected to respect and obey their parents, but the middle class household of mainstream culture does not appear to make a so
...