Joseph Palacio Masculinity

Dr. Joseph Palacios is a man who takes on numerous identities. He is a professor of sociology at the University of Southern California. He is also a Mexican American, a community activist, a Catholic priest, a Fulbright scholar, and a queer man of color. I initially got to know Dr. Palacios in a sociological theory class I took with him and was continually fascinated by the numerous anecdotes he presented to our class. Dr. Palacios has a wealth of life experiences, and his intersectional identities offer a rich context upon which to analyze the evolving role of masculinity across his lifetime. Through this life history project, I examine how Dr. Palacios resolves his intersecting identities in different facets of his life, placing a particular

Latino men in the United States express several different types of masculinities, as demonstrated by Palacios’ family. Palacios mentioned that he spent a lot of time with his father since he had to start working with him at an early age in landscaping for a country club. Ramirez and Flores describe jardinero masculinity as “the distinctly working-class form of masculinity that Mexican immigrant men construct through their daily work activities in residential maintenance gardening” (p. 34). This form of masculinity is characterized by on-the-job drinking, “machista” modes of behavior, and the concept of the male as a provider. Palacios’ descriptions of his father demonstrate all of these characteristics, although his affectionate side provides nuances that remind us that masculinity falls on a spectrum and is not tied to particular archetypes. In contrast, his mother’s side of the family embraces a form of masculinity similar to reformed barrio masculinity. Ramirez and Flores characterize this type of masculinity by “conventional aspirations, such as getting married and having children, working in the formal labor market, and owning a home” (p. 37). Additionally, there is a strong commitment to religion and dedicating oneself to God, especially as a way to shift away from substance abuse, gang violence, and extramarital affairs.

Because his father did not grow up in the United States, he thought that some of the American masculine things were “ridiculous,” especially the notion that American boys should play sports. Similarly, his maternal uncles never pushed him into sports, despite all having played football in high school. Furthermore, when Palacios joined the Boy Scouts of America, his father thought it was absurd. To him, camping was something he needed to do as a migrant worker, not as a childhood pastime. According to Palacios, “I was testing what I thought American masculinity should be. Watching television that was normative – this is what American kids do. You can throw a ball well, play football, play baseball, go camping, climb trees – these are the things I tested. I never liked to climb trees. The thing I liked to do physically was swim.” Even though Palacios initially joined these organized groups in order to fit into a mold of hegemonic masculinity, he ultimately stopped his participation. As John Ibson explains in Picturing Men (2002), homosocial organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America and organized sports were masculinist responses to fears of the social feminization of boys and men. Ibson claims that these responses “provided men an opportunity to counteract the perceived feminizing forces of their lives and to act