The Silence of American Immigrants

I just finished reviewing Luis Rodriguez's "Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A." It got me thinking about the fact that so many of the stories I am reading have the thread of immigrant parents who do not communicate well with their American born children. This is always commented upon and seems more prevalent among the fathers than mothers. The fathers are referred to as "a man of few words," and "stoic," and almost universally do not offer much in the way of advice or even bother to speak much to their children. There is the obvious language barrier in some cases, as with Ben Fong-Torres' Chinese parents and the Spanish speaking parents of both Luis and Richard Rodriguez. However, even in the households of immigrants for whom English is not a problem, communication with children still seems to be lacking. This bears more investigation.