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Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
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OCR for page 1
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Introduction
Life's Work
Marta Tienda loves numbers. She also loves people. How are
these two related?
Numbers, Marta knows, can answer questions about people--
questions such as: Why are some people rich and others poor?
Why do some people have good jobs while others have low-
paying ones? Why do some people have a better chance of
getting a college education than others?
Marta asks these questions because she's curious, but she also
wants to find solutions. Marta is a sociologist, a scientist who
studies the behavior of groups, organizations, and societies. You
might even consider her a kind of detective.
Just as a detective pieces together clues to re-create a picture
of a crime, Marta searches for clues in numbers to form a picture
of a group of people. And just as a detective's work helps solve
personal crimes, Marta's work helps solve social injustices: why
certain people get more in life than others.
Marta Tienda knows the pain of having less. She grew up
poor, the daughter of a Mexican immigrant who never had a
chance to finish elementary school. But she beat the odds and
became one of the country's top sociologists. And ever since she
was a college student, Marta has used social science to improve
the lives of other people--people just like her.
ix
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In theirfaces
Marta saw reflections
of her ownfather.
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1
SOCIOLOGY OF THE SOUL
I t's going to be a hectic day, thought Marta Tienda. It was July
1971, and Marta was standing behind the counter where she
worked in the basement of the Alpena County government
building in Alpena, Michigan. She gazed out over the long line Like these Mexican
of men, women, and children snaking through the office as they farm laborers crossing
the Rio Grande River
waited to be certified (approved) for food stamps. Almost all of (above), Marta's father,
them were Mexican American migrant workers from Texas. Toribio (opposite),
came to the United
Many of the workers had been traveling with their families
States illegally to find
from South Texas to this northern region of Michigan for years, work picking crops.
often picking crops on the same farms summer after summer. In
their faces Marta saw reflections of her own father as a younger
man, standing in line just for the chance to do a hard day's work
at low wages. Speaking little English--and lacking both job skills
and schooling--her father had crossed into the U.S. illegally from
his home in Mexico in 1941.
Marta's job was to decide whether each person deserved
United States government food stamps, which could be used to
buy food at supermarkets. Workers who earned less money or had
bigger families were eligible to receive more food stamps.
Marta had just finished her junior year of studies at Michigan
State University. She was excited about this summer job.
1
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Working at the state agricultural department gave her a chance to
interact with people in need.
Next up at her counter was a young woman who couldn't have
PERSON A woman uses food
stamps to buy been much older than Marta, who would turn 21 the next month.
groceries. Each
A baby nestled in the young woman's arms, and a five-year-old
"food coupon" has
a certain dollar girl clung to her side. The little girl's curly black hair and big
PEOPLE value that can be brown eyes reminded Marta of herself as a young girl, when she
exchanged for food.
and her family had picked tomatoes, cucumbers, and cherries to
make ends meet.
Speaking in Spanish,
Marta asked the woman
questions that would
tell her the amount of
food stamps to approve.
"Did you work in the
last month?"
"No," the young
mother replied in a soft,
hesitant voice. If she
had answered "yes,"
Marta would have then
asked the woman how
much she earned.
"How many people
in your family?"
"Six." It was common for migrant
workers to have large families.
Marta then told the woman that
she was eligible for food stamps.
Because the woman had not earned
any income in the previous month, the
stamps would be free.
Marta loved her work because she could
make decisions that improved the way people lived. Though she
didn't yet know it, that summer put her on the path to becoming a
social scientist--a career that would give her the opportunity to
make a difference in the lives of many more people.
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~Expanding the American Dream
The United States was built on a democratic ideal--the ideal that
all people are created equal and that they have the right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In other words, anyone who
works hard and plays by the rules deserves to lead a good life.
In reality, that's not always the case.
Why is that?
Many social scientists gather facts to show that not everybody
enjoys the same chance of achieving the American dream. A social
scientist might say, "Let's figure
out how many people are in The United States was built on a
this situation. How many are democratic ideal--the ideal that all
cut off from having an opportu- people are created equal and that
nity to live the American they have the right to life,
dream? Is it a third of the popu- liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
lation? Is it more? Less?"
Finding out why certain groups are disadvantaged is an impor-
tant step--that way, the people who govern can decide how to
remedy it.
Suppose we find that Anglo-Americans (those with mainly
European backgrounds) make more money than Mexican Americans.
The American Dream
has existed throughout
the history of the
United States, and it
continues to guide
people today. Marta's
father strongly believed
in an important part
of the dream: That
with hard work and
discipline, his children
could grow up to live
better lives than he did.
SOCIOLOGY OF THE SOUL 3
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Mexican immigrants
who came to the
United States
PERSON illegally often
worked long hours
picking crops. These
laborers are picking
cantaloupes in
PEOPLE California.
Is that because people of Mexican descent are deliberately kept
out of jobs that pay well? Or is it because many of them are
recent immigrants, or the children of recent immigrants, and are
still getting their education?
Marta Tienda's career has centered on how to make the
American dream a reality for more racial and ethnic populations,
particularly Hispanics. She focuses primarily on how to provide
greater opportunities in education and employment.
~The Power of the Personal
Marta's humble origins have motivated her entire career. As a
social scientist, she brings the power of personal knowledge to her
work. In fact, many of the questions she asks rise directly from her
own experience.
When she probes the history of Mexican Americans, for exam-
ple, she is exploring her own past.
When she looks at the effects of poverty on families, she is
remembering her own childhood of need.
4
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When she considers what it's like
for a single parent to raise a family,
she is reflecting on her mother's
death when Marta was just six
years old, leaving her father to
raise five children by himself.
Most of all, when Marta
Tienda seeks to find out why
some people make it and
others do not, she recognizes
the power of a parent's drive Toribio Tienda, with
for his or her child to succeed. Marta (left) and her
older sister Maggie,
Without her father's determination, Marta knows,
was determined that
she would not be as successful as she is today. Intent that his his children would
children would finish high school, her father set the standard for receive the education
he could not get for
excellence. He encouraged them to do their schoolwork and
himself.
never missed a parent-teacher meeting for Marta or her brother
and three sisters.
Marta's father had a dream of a better life for his family--a dream
that began with a perilous journey.
SOCIOLOGY OF THE SOUL 5
Representative terms from entire chapter:
marta tienda
