Fertility And Reproduction By Chavez Summary

Latina Sexuality, Fertility and Reproduction.
When the U.S. population had reached a record, the 300 millionth person to be born, news reports and the media started to clamor. How with the “major” help of the Latinas did this come to happen (Chavez 70)? It is evident that we need to look deeper into how this data is represented in the U.S. and realize that these representations are not always accurate. A myth is more than a made up story, it can be the topic of what we represent to believe true. “Latina sexuality, fertility, and reproduction are analyzed as key intertwined concepts in a national public discourse on immigration (Chavez 73).” This story is way more convoluted than we are told to accept as true. In general, it may be true that
Latina women tend to have more children, but there are many other key factors to consider and many different myths associated with Latina fertility that need to be revealed.
When it comes to advertising, reporting and the media, those are the sources that have engrained a sense of prejudice to Latina community. As Chavez states, “Such reporting underscored Latina fertility and immigration as key components of population growth and other demographic changes” (71). Latina reproduction isn’t merely perceived as a threat because of population growth but it is considered a threat because it disobeys the invisible line between immigrants and citizens. This grey area is a burning issue when it comes to politics because a majority of the time the mother is an undocumented immigrant (Chavez, 72). It is often believe that Latinas, “Come here, have their babies, and after that they become citizens and all those children use social services (Chavez, 72). In doing so, many believe they become “anchor babies.” It is true that our
constitution grants the right of citizenship for children born in the United States but it has become evident that the rights of a person born in a particular nation may no longer be as permanent and absolute as once considered. When people leave a nation and take up their life in a different place can they be sure they are granted certain rights and if so which ones? In general, one must rely not on citizenship but on the very early rights of being a human and on international agreement on human rights. Chavez reveals that, “Such policies denationalize a people and thus reduce their rights of citizenship to more fundamental rights, and ultimately, less secure rights. Who really protects the human rights on noncitizens (89)?” Also, one must consider that the children of these parents aren’t adults until they are 21 years old, so to grant the illegal-immigrant parent’s citizenship will take 21 plus years if not ever.
It is clear that there is quite a difference between biological and social reproduction and it is this separation that have given rise to the prejudices today. When it comes to social reproduction, it’s more of a faint way to confront citizenship, “that calls into question a group’s loyalty to the nation, their danger to the nation and their legitimate claims to membership in the nation (Chavez 90).” What is extremely sad as mentioned by Chaves is that, “Even with birthright citizenship, the children of Latinas, particularly undocumented Latinas, are cast as illegitimate members of society, as mere anchor babies, whose very existence and purpose in life are reduced to the politics of immigration (90).” When it comes to controlling population, groups of unequal status and social class often fall victims to public debates. Latinas and their behavior is often viewed as foolish, suspicious and messy and have traditional ties that would consider them threatening. For Latinas, their livelihood as women is subject to dominance and redefinition by the larger society, which views them in comparison with more ”modern white U.S. women (Chavez 74).” Much of the U.S. has been persuaded and now share the idea that the logical path is for the “hot Latina” to become the mother to many children; Thus, the mixed image of the Latina is built (Chavez 74). It is now apparent that much of the world’s growth has been viewed as occurring among nonwhite, Third World groups; Mexicans fit as a false class on this description alone (Chavez 79).
Ehrilich talks about the time after the baby boomers, Generation X; Ehrilich wanted to take the emphasis off of procreating and to establish new non-reproductive aspects of sexual activity. Ehrilich believed when it came to sex, “to recreate, don’t procreate (Chavez, 80)” Many modern U.S women adopted this idea, and this is yet another excuse that the women who prefer to be childbearing and “procreating” are the enemy.
While it is understandable that there are many stereotypes about Latina fertility, there are some facts that can’t be overlooked.
To start, almost all women no matter what racial or ethnic group they belonged to want one or two children and that’s a preference that runs through. Next, there have been documented fertility trends that show a striking decrease in the amount of children Mexican-origin born. The drop is credited to the shifting beliefs about marriage, the access to education, the more prominent use to contraceptives and the delay of having children and spacing the time between births (Chaves 94). Also, Latina girls in a study had lower rates of sexual activity than non-Latina girls, which were recognized by Latino cultural norms (Chavez 94). Furthermore, “Latina immigrants tended to be younger, had fewer years of education, were less likely to have medical insurance, and had lower incomes than both U.S.- born Latinas and white women thus the initial higher rates in reproduction (Chavez 98).” Moreover, contrasting a typical stereotype, on average all of the women waited until they were 20 or older to have their first child. Last but not least, based on cultural norms again, Latina immigrants were more likely to have had no more than 2 sexual partners where as white women were recorded to have 5 or 6 (Chavez
100).
Evidently, when it comes to the nitty-gritty, fertility is related to immigration in a way that is often not discussed in the anti-immigrant communication. The way the media, and politics sometimes portrays Latinas as of “threatening” U.S. values, harms this group of beings and puts them in a category of misguided judgments. When people starts to unravel and reveal the myths around Latinas and broaden their minds maybe they will find their beliefs have changed in a way that is beneficial to society as a whole.

Bibliography
Chavez, Leo R. The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2008. Print.