Cultural Brokers: Helping

Latino children in elementary and middle school not only experience developmental changes and confront the risks and adventures held by neighborhoods, they must also juggle the values and expectations of two cultures as they navigate their own pathways toward success. Integrating the results of a series of studies focused on the children of Mexican-American immigrants in California, this article discusses ways that teachers, parents, siblings, and program staff can help young Latino students succeed in U.S. schools and live according to their parents' values. E lementary school represents a critical time in the lives of Latino students. It is during these school years that they begin to follow either el buen camino (the good path toward responsible adulthood) or a path leading to high-risk behaviors. Recent studies show that by the third grade, large gaps emerge between Latino children and national norms in reading, written language, and math. These early gaps widen in subsequent years.' In 1995, some 30% of Hispanic young people were school dropouts, compared with only 9% of non-Hispanic white youths and 12% of nonHispanic black youths.2 Thus Latino youths come to be underrepresented in college-prep classes and overrepresented in the juvenile justice system.3 A college education is not the only definition of success in life, but conversations with children of Mexican immigrants reveal that they begin school with high hopes, dreaming of becoming doctors, lawyers, sports heroes, teachers, and firefighters.4 Parents who work in strawberry fields, hotel kitchens, and factories dream that their children will become doctors, teachers, and lawyers.5 A key period of vulnerability occurs, however, as students move from elementary to junior high or middle school. This is a time when students must coordinate their family relationships and responsibili