The Mexican American Experience, a radio program produced by the Longhorn Radio Network, includes interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns. Program summary: Ellen L. Treviño, program director for the Nueces County Social Cultural Intervention Program discusses her work with children from the barrios of Corpus Christi. The program uses recreation and art to help children in minority or low-income communities build awareness of their culture, their community and their own value. Treviño explains that many children in the barrios think that they cannot keep up with other kids and she believes that low self-esteem stems from a general cultural alienation. Moreover, schools have unconsciously exacerbated the problem by stigmatizing Spanish and making children feel more insecure about their communication skills. To help build their self-esteem and prevent social and behavioral problems, the program offers free cultural and recreational activities, like soccer and dance, which require children to interact with one another in a positive and egalitarian setting. The staff accepts the children as they are and treats them as friends. Treviño has seen kids who participate in the program raise their grades and participate more in school. She has also seen the positive effects on parents who get more involved in the program and their children's activities. The program regularly screens the participants to detect any behavioral, social or academic problems and then seeks to address those problems privately with the children in special sessions. If professional help is needed, they turn to their contacts in the community and county for assistance. Keywords: Acculturation, Adjustment Problems, Art, Assimilation, Ballet Folklorico, Barrios, Behavioral problems, Big Brother\/ Big Sister, Chicano Children, Children, Cultural Arts, Dance, Education, Ellen L. Treviño, English Only, Ethnic Alienation, Ethnic Pride, Folk dances, Language Deficiencies, Language Discrimination, Language Stigma, Low-Income families, Motivational Education Training, Motor coordination skills, Nueces County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center (MHMR), Parenting, Peer pressure, Performance, Poverty, Primary prevention and intervention, Role Models, Schools, Self-concept, Self-Esteem, Soccer, Social Cultural Intervention Program, South Texas, Spanish immersion, Speaking Spanish in the schools, Stigma. Broadcast date: 1980-02-21.
Creator/Contributor:
Longhorn Radio Network (creator), Fregoso, Rosa Linda. (host), and Treviño, Ellen (interviewee)
Date Created/Date Issued:
2/9/1980
Owning Repository:
Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The University of Texas at Austin
sound recordings, grabaciones sonoras, radio programs, programas de radio, and Audio
Extent:
25 minutes, 11 seconds
Rights - Use and Reproduction:
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Language:
English
Place of Publication:
Austin (Tex.)
Topic:
Mexican American children--Education, Cultural assimilation, Asimilación cultural, Mexican American children--Ethnic identity, Mexican American children--Social conditions, and Self-perception in children