Extended Kinship in the United States: Competing Models and the Case of la Familia Chicana

Abstract

The Parsons' isolated nuclear family, the Litwak and Sussman modified extended or neolocal nuclear family system, and the Yorburg typology qf four family structures (extended, modified extended, modified nuclear, and nuclear) are discussed. In light qf the discussion and relevant literature, extended kinship among Chicanos (persons of Mexican-descent in the United States) is explored through intensive, open-ended interviews with four cases of three generations qf Mexican-descent families in the Michigan-Indiana-Illinois region and the charting of their family trees. La familia chicana is posited as a modified extended or kin-integrated family extending over time and space from Mexico at the turn of the century to present day industrial America, with antecedents retraceable to pre-Columbian periods.