Cultural Autobiography : Cross Cultural

Throughout my life, I have struggled with accepting my cultural identity. My parents were born and raised in India, but I was born here, in the United States, and hence, born an American citizen.

As I grew older, it was impossible to notice that my world was imperfect. In elementary school, all my parent’s problems here hidden; I didn’t understand my family’s economic status. As I grew older and began to ask my parents question about our lifestyle and compared it to the other people around us. This conversation would always end in the same place; because we can't afford it. My high school is composed of economically unstable families, and economically stable families. Seeing that other families were better off than mine, I grew up with the idea that a comfortable life, is a luxurious life. I know that others around

I was born in Dallas, Texas but when I was 3 years old I was taken to my parents’ home country, Mexico. My mother took my younger sister and me to Mexico while my father stayed in the United States and worked to provide for us. I spend 6 years in Mexico and I went to school there. I had an amazing childhood in the place my parents were born and had the opportunity to grow up around my family and culture. I became a fond lover of the traditions and the peaceful life of what I consider my country. I have many amazing memories from living in Mexico. The way everything called for a celebration where everyone was invited. The dedication that every festival I attended showed. Simply all the traditions that even when I live miles away from Mexico have stuck with me, things I still celebrate with my family every year. I love to be able to call myself Mexican American and to be able to share my parents. My love for Mexican culture plays a role in my decision to want to go to Spain. I want to see where some of the customs I know originated from and see where my ancestors came from.

To some, being poor is embarrassing and shameful, but to a select group of people; being poor is something they’re grateful to be. They embrace it and use it to their advantage to achieve better lives

What is culture? Culture is the idea of what is wrong or right, the concept of what is acceptable within our society. Culture serves us as a guide, taking us to the "right way" and helping us to make sense of things that surrounds us. There are many different cultures around the world. A lot of them are similar in specific ways and others are just completely different, this difference explains why we think that people from different backgrounds are "weird".

Born in California and raised in the deep south, I grew up in two conflicting societies. The cultural geography of both areas differs on a magnitude of levels and complicated my development into the cultures around me, however in retrospect influenced me to be a multidimensional and considerate person. At a young age my parents introduced me to progressive values. During the developmental toddler stages, I immersed myself in two different cultures: what I experienced at school and what I experienced at home. Charleston, South Carolina embodies small-town society though the Greater Charleston Area expands rapidly each year, pulling migrants, including my family, to the growing city. The overwhelmingly conservative views of Traditional Charleston

When I first saw in the syllabus the type of paper we would be writing for this course I thought about what culture means to me. What was the culture of my family? Where did we come from? How did we end up in Virginia? How did we end up believing some of the things we believe? To me culture was basically how I was raised—my behaviors, beliefs, values, and ideas cultivated during my youth and its evolvement as I grew into an adult. This truly was to be a very interesting and involved quest for information. Though I attempted to use websites such as www.genealogy.com and www.ancestry.com, I found most of the information from a couple of the adults in my family. Adults? I, too, am an adult, but in my family, age comes

Since poverty can span multiple generations its important how socioeconomics keeps the disadvantaged from achieving success. Poverty and the distribution of wealth are class issues, admittedly complicated by race and gender, we are born into a particular social class, and most of us will die in the same one into which we are born. While some will rise above our class origins, many more equally conscientious willing and able will remain in poverty. Although there are some cases that maybe used to counter the effects of socioeconomics on success, overachieving through hard work may still be halted and misunderstood. When people ask me how I managed to move out of poverty, I always get a lump in my throat. It is not because I am embarrassed to tell of my journey or because I want to forget that part of my past. Instead, I fear that people will think that I just decide to pull myself up by my boat

Bell Hooks has made this point valid. When we grow up in poverty and see it around us this makes us feel sorry for the person going through this phase. A person in poverty is still a person just like everyone else. When it comes to school there is no money for books, computers, lunches, and especially going out. A student can feel scared to continue school and would want to give up and throw it all away. Money is the main reason why a person living in poverty cannot move forward and take steps back. There is so much more about living in poverty that will make you thing different. Happiness can result as the outcome because you realize how valuable and precious things really are. I have learned that I would rather be happy and healthy and work hard little by little to earn money even if it is not much. Bell Hooks has made me realize that education is very important and it is something that needs to be valued by time and effort not about money and spending it on expensive

Growing up with two different Heritages is like growing up in two different worlds, it was tough growing up being Native and Hispanic I would either get made fun of because I was Native or I was made fun of for being Hispanic. I guess you can say that I have somewhat of a different life, living with any Hispanic family but considering myself more Native, because just at home i just speak spanish, and eat amazing food made by my mother who isn’t even Hispanic who’s just Native American who didn’t consider herself Native American because she herself lived with my grandmother or she lived with a family friend who was Hispanic and showed her things about a culture that she didn’t know anything about.

When a child is born, they can be born into circumstances in which they cannot control. They can be born into wealth, or into poverty. Some may be born into privileged home, others into a restricted or a “broken” home. People come from many different homes with many different stories, but they don’t let their origins define the rest of their life. One’s course of their life isn't determined by their background.

Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor. I think the most frustrating part of living in poverty is the lack of resources. Most things cost money and if you’re poor it usually means you don’t have the money to purchase those resources. In most cases those resources that one can’t afford are the things that will help them get out of

Sir Frances Bacon said, “If a man be gracious to strangers, it shows that he is a citizen of the world, and his heart is no island cut off from other islands, but a continent that joins them,” (Jenkins, 1994). This quote represents all the core values that I cherish and to which I adhere. Personal culture doesn’t have to be linked to a certain country of origin or a specific ethnicity; it can be as simple as a person’s core values. The Southern way of life is a culture all in itself.

I did not realize until about the 5th grade, what being poor was all about. From kindergarten until then, kids didn’t really pay attention to what you wore to school, what type of home you lived in, or what your parents did for a living. What mattered was how nice you were, that you shared your toys, and took turns on the playground.

How does a person begin to write a narrative of their own life, relating events and ideas back to their own culture? Well, first, I’d like to give some baseline information about myself. I am a white, middle-class, educated, mid-western, Christian female athlete. I come from a traditional family with a mother, father, one brother, and two sisters. Taking those characteristics into account, I would say that I am a privileged member of society, and being privileged has been part of my culture. In addition, the largest influences on my life and worldview were my family, school, church, and the area I grew up.