Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – When Jennifer
Amador, 17, went on her first date three
months ago, she took along her sister
Aura Muñiz, 28.
Muñiz has since chaperoned Jennifer at
movies, nightclubs and the beach.
With all the “bad people” in the world,
said Amador, a high school junior, “you
need an adult there. A family member is
going to be there for you and is going to
protect you.”
While the traditional Latino practice of
requiring a chaperona for daughters is a
dying custom in the United States, it’s not
dead yet.
And it’s more prevalent in south Florida
than elsewhere, said University of Miami
demographer Tom Boswell, because
“you’re only going to find it when parents
were born in Latin America, raised there
and came here as adults. They are the
only ones that will make an issue of this
and try to institute the same tradition in
the United States.”
According to the 2000 Census, 51 percent
of Miami-Dade, Fla., residents, 25 percent
of Broward County, Fla., residents
and 17 percent of Palm Beach County, Fla.,
residents are foreign-born most from
Latin America.
Boswell said because well-educated,
moneyed families generally don’t require
chaperonas anymore, only 10 percent or
fewer of Latinos in Florida enforce the
rule. And most of them stop within a few
years of immigrating.
Cynthia Colmenares, 18, moved to Miramar,
Fla., from Venezuela three years ago.
When her two older sisters, now 33 and
30, were growing up in Caracas, Cynthia’s
father required they be chaperoned.
“Today that doesn’t happen,” said Colmenares,
a high school senior. “Twenty
years ago it did, but now my dad doesn’t
really care. Times have changed, I’m the
fourth child it’s not worth it. Who’s he
going to send with me?”
Families that come here “adapt to the
American way, (children) go to school;
they don’t want to be different from the others,”
said the Rev. Jorge Alvarez of Taft Hispanic
Baptist Church in Hollywood, Fla.
Still, said Marita Alvarez, a radio personality
for Palm Beach’s 1190 AM, a Spanish
station, some parents continue to send
chaperones on dates because “a tradition
is forever, it goes on from generation to
generation. That’s what we bring to this
country and to this culture.”
Edith Rodriguez of West Palm Beach,
Fla., makes no apology about insisting her
daughter be flanked by chaperones on every
outing. “It’s not because I don’t trust
my daughter,” said Rodriguez, 50, a bookkeeper
for a cultural organization. “I just
don’t trust anybody else.”
Growing up in Puerto Rico, Rodriguez
said, her parents would not let her out of
her house without a chaperone, even after
she married at 21.
“When I was young I didn’t like it. I
couldn’t go out to buy milk or ice cream
by myself, even after I was married and
owned a home. But now that I’m a mother,
I understand why my parents tried to protect
me. It’s a matter of culture and family
honor.”
Rodriguez’s daughter, Camille Perez, 15,
has never known an unchaperoned existence.
“I’m used to it,” she said, “but now that
I’m getting older and I’m in high school, I
want to be more alone.”
Amador said it doesn’t matter if none of
her friends get chaperoned.
“I’m so unique in that way. It’s awesome,”
she said. And it’s not a burden she
said, because, “if your boyfriend really likes
you, he wouldn’t care if you’re alone or
with a thousand people.”
Manuel Vasquez, professor of religion
at the University of Florida, said the chaperona
may undergo a revival despite its
dwindling presence now.
“Children of the third generation begin
to ask questions of Who am I?’ and there
is a recovery of some of the patterns that
the second generation rejected,” he said.
“Maybe in the third generation, women
will say, It’s actually kind of charming.
It’s part of my distinct ethnicity and I
want to explore it.’ ”
