The role of confianza in ethnic social communication among Mexican immigrants making lives in the United States

ABSTRACT

This research investigates how the cultural construct of confianza shapes Mexican ethnic social communication, or coethnic interaction, during adaptation. Using the ethnography of communication, this paper illustrates how confianza makes available the communicative means of revealing oneself, speaking directively, and asking questions, but makes unavailable the means of violating confidences, judging, and expressing superiority. This research argues that the complexity of these coethnic interactions warrants additional research and suggests that scholars begin their studies by considering if and to what extent immigrants feel able to engage with one another prior to investigating adaptive outcomes of their interactions.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnic social communication
• confianza
• cross-cultural adaptation
• Mexican immigration
• ethnography of communication

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Patricia Covarrubias, Jennifer Considine, and Tony Palmeri for their thoughtful suggestions for improving this paper.