Familismo is a concept that is commonly implied in Latinx households. Familismo is a concept “theorized as a core cultural value that requires the individual to submit to a more collective, family-based form of decision making, and responsibility for, and obligation to ensuring the well being of family members” (Martinez 25). FamilIsmo is a cultural practice that emphasizes family first rather than the well-being being of an individual person. In other words, familismo focuses on keeping a balanced family, and maintaining that balance. Children of parents who follow familismo have to sacrifice their dreams and aspirations for their family. They often have to give up their dream colleges, dream jobs, dream careers, and their dream lives to satisfy the needs that their family placed on them.

Familismo should be considered when analyzing data on Latinx students’ school selections because students who are raised in families that follow familismo often don’t get the liberty to go to out-of-state colleges because they would be “abandoning” their families. Most of these students have to go to colleges that are more local to their area because that way they are in contact with their families so they get support from their families and can pursue their education. ” For several students interviewed, choosing the specific college to attend depended on the proximity of the institution from home, partly due to their desire to continue benefitting from their strong familial ties and support while in college.”(Martinzez 28). This quote clearly points out that familismo is a determining factor for why many students choose a specific college. Letting go of family ties is hard because familismo is like a seed that when planted young, can keep growing which only makes it harder to stop. This is why breaking out of familismo is hard because it’s been taught at an early age. This results in why Latinx students choose specific colleges.

The approach that Martinez uses for gathering her data is by interviewing students who identify as Latino to listen to their output on the type of college that they will be attending. To be more specific, Martinez primarily focused on Mexican students since familismo is more common there. Her key research results concluded that students are more likely to choose a specific college because of high connections to familismo . In other words, it can be concluded that Latinx students are driven to choose a specific college not because of their own intuition but rather the influence of their families and the pressures that they have when deciding what college to attend.

My own experience with choosing a college differs a lot compared to the examples provided in the article because fortunately I was not really hit hard with familismo. This is because my father allowed me to choose the school that I wanted to go to. He wanted me to pursue my dreams and aspirations. He wanted me to have the life that I wanted. He did not force me into a specific school or specific major that would only make him happy. He respected my college choice and major and ever since he has done nothing but support me.