Some Latino girls who have called the Hotline Help Center Teen Line in Garden Grove have lost hope and are considering taking their lives, said Barbara Barrientos, a supervisor. But Barrientos does not blame acculturation. Latinas, she said, face the same pressures that their peers of other ethnicities must overcome: drugs and alcohol use, sex and problems with boyfriends.
They also are influenced by cultural expectations of what their roles and responsibilities should be as women, Delgado and others say. At the same time, what oozes from TV, magazines and billboards is a constant invitation to adopt the culture of mainstream America.
"A lot of the girls that I work with are having difficulty adjusting to the different standards in school, especially," said Orleda Roa, a teen program supervisor at Girls Inc., a nonprofit organization in Orange County that helps girls in Costa Mesa, Tustin and Santa Ana.
"They're falling behind and it's very difficult for them to catch up. A lot of these girls have to be at home doing their chores and watching their younger brothers and sisters. It's not that their parents don't value education like so many people tend to think. It's that the parents work and need help."
None of Roa's clients have been depressed or suicidal, but social worker Rose Escutia says that as Latina mothers increasingly join the work force to supplement their household income, more Latina daughters are dealing with depression.
As it then falls on the eldest daughter to care for her younger siblings, the responsibility of being caretakers at a young age clashes with the expectation that they also must succeed in school, said Escutia, who works at the Assessment and Treatment Services Center in Orange County.
"On one side, while going to school, society tells you to . . . be independent," Escutia said. "But being raised in a Latino background, the family wants you to stay more dependent to the family. The girls feel stuck and they feel guilty that they can't provide everything the family is expecting. That's where the depression comes in."
Escutia also has noted that the Latina adolescents who are having the most difficulties come from homes where a stepfather is in charge, or there is domestic abuse or alcohol or drug abuse. Other therapists are treating more Latinas with eating disorders.
