Mexican American intermarriage in a nonmetropolitan context.

Using marriage records of Pecos County Texas from 1880 to 1978 this analysis traces Chicano intermarriage patterns in a nonmetropolitan setting over an extended period of time. The exogamy rate for individuals is operationally defined as the number of persons in a specific ethnic group who marry individuals outside the group divided by the total number of persons of that given ethnicity who marry. Results show that from 1880 to as recently as 1960 only 2% of the countys Chicano were exogamous; these percentages are considerably lower than intermarriage rates in metropolitan areas. Beginning in 1970 Pecos County exogamy rates show a significant increase when compared to pre-1970 rates; this is important because Texas compared to other southwestern states has exhibited the greatest amount of social distance between the 2 populations. The analysis shows an overall outmarriage rate of .091 for marriages and .048 for individuals documenting a considerable social distance as historically existed between Mexican Americans and Anglo Americans in this region. The differences in intermarriage rates before and after 1970 can be partially interpreted by Alvarezs (1973) sociohistorical concept of 4 significant Mexican American generations and their interactions with the majority society. The increase in exogamy suggests a lessening of normative proscriptions concerning majority-minority contact in at least one area of the nonmetropoitan southwest.