Latino Student Association adviser Carmen Rudin recalls memories of her childhood as she discusses family dynamics with a group of high school students who share a Latino background.

Carmen Rudin, Latino Student Association (LSA) adviser, said the discussion at the Feb. 9 meeting focused on family dynamics.

“The subject that we talked about was our relationship with our parents and family in general, the difference in how we see them and they see us,” Rudin said.

Rudin said the fact that she grew up in a Latino household allows her to provide insight and wisdom to students.
“I understand them even though my parents are older,” Rudin said. “I went through the same thing.”

Rudin said this conversation holds a special importance within the context of the Latino community.

“In our culture our parents want total obedience and we live in a society where there are so many choices,” Rudin said. “Here, kids are more individual, they have free will, and that’s kind of clashing with their parents.”

Sophomore Deasy Jimenez said the timing and the topic of the meeting showed her that affection can take more forms than the stereotypical image.

The fact that it was around Valentine’s day, it let us know that love isn’t just about couple relationships.
Daniel Perez, Rudin’s co-advisor of the LSA, said he hoped the discussion helped students have the knowledge to improve their family relationships.

“My ultimate intention was to provide some psychoeducation about how misunderstandings happen between parent-child dyads,” Perez said.

Perez said he spoke of the five love languages: acts of service, words of affirmation, gift-giving, quality time and physical touch. He said it can prevent problems in families when members show and perceive love in different ways.

“When students don’t know how they feel most loved and how their parents feel most loved and how each person tries to make others feel loved, that lack of info and understanding can create feelings of unhappiness, invalidation and unworthiness,” Perez said.

Perez said while a parent may show love to their child through working long shifts to provide financial support, the child may view love as spending quality time together and therefore feel neglected. He said people can fix this, however.

“Once you gain info on how we all operate at different perspectives, we can make an attempt to match that person’s frequency.”

Rudin said the next LSA meeting takes place third hour March 8 in C350. She said she welcomes students of all Latino backgrounds to come take part in meaningful discussions and cultural activities.