ABSTRACT
Thepoem“Oye, Researcher” describes howLatino/as’lives, in this case MexicanAmericans, havebeenmisinterpretedby researchersusingEurocentric theoretical frameworks.TheoreticianshavedefinedLatino/as’ reality using an epistemology created out of the experience of Whites, which is believed to apply universally to all groups, as if such an epistemology wasn’t based on lived experiences. Employing the Eurocentric lens, which usually comprises mainstream academic social science training, tends to distort or misinterpret Latino/a realities and perpetuate stereotypical misunderstandings of Latino/a lived experiences. These stereotypes are oftenmisunderstoodas “truths” andhaunt Latino/a families, whereas Latino/a (also Black, Asian, and American Indian) forms of knowledge receive little legitimacy (Scheurich & Young, 1997). In combined quantitative/qualitative parenting style research, Arzubiaga, Ceja, and Artiles, (2000, p. 102) state: “imposing constructs generated through research conducted with White samples on minority groups limits the validity of the findings and questions the study’s goals.” In qualitative research with Latino/a families, researchers have to refocus the theoretical lens used to understand Latino/a families’ lives, hopes, and dreams. The work of researchers, as Delgado-Gaitan states: “Begins in learning how Latino/as perceive their cultural, historical, political, and social experienceswhich receives little attention in the sphere of social science, social policy, and education” (1996, p. 31).
