Modern Transnational Familia - Exploring cultural gaps in the experiences of Latinx families

Abstract

This thesis addresses the complex experiences of transnational Latinx families living here in the United States based on eleven interviews conducted, as well as prior research centered around Latinx transnationalism. Transnationality, in this work's context of Latinx families, refers to families that live some or most of the time separated from each other, yet hold together and create something that can be seen as a feeling of collective welfare and unity commonly referred to as ‘familyhood’. This includes families in which the parent(s) live in the same household as the child(ren) but still experience the changes to, and tensions within, familial relationships attributed to transnational families in which the parents and the children reside in different countries. This thesis focuses on supporting the latter part of this definition in which Latinx families living together in the United States are included in the scope of transnationalism. The separation between family members in previous literature has been mostly focused on geographical separation.By including families in which geographical separation is not the primary gap between family members, other gaps in areas such as culture and language can be explored. This work will explore those gaps as they appear in the lived experiences of Latinx familias.