Cultural Roots
o The Race Matters Consortium states that among Latino families, “family and extended family are an important source of support.” They go on to elaborate on how “in traditional Latino cultures, extended family care giving has been depicted as a strength of families,” that for these families “the only— and culturally preferred resource—is the extended family” (Freundlich, Morris, & Hernandez, 2003).
o “In the Native American community, the cultural belief is that ‘a child has a right to a quality of life within the tribal culture with Native American parents or caregivers.’” (Freundlich, Morris, & Hernandez, 2003). The Race Matters Consortium’s position paper goes on to elaborate on the two mutual relational systems within traditional Native American traditions. “A Native American child is seen as born into two mutual relational systems - the biological family and the tribal kinship network. The entire extended family has child-rearing responsibility” (Freundlich, Morris, & Hernandez, 2003).
