Cultural Identity

Throughout the ages, humans from all over the world have created and accepted honorable cultures which they feel a strong connection to and are dependent upon. One’s way of living demonstrates nationality, religion, ethnicity, and art. People who have more than one culture, have been torn between two worlds that have eventually affected their lives. The cultural identities portrayed in both Self Portrait: On the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States by Frida Kahlo and “Legal Alien” by Pat Mora are shown through the symbolism, theme/message, and persona created in the works.

Most people call me Colby, but on the field i'm know as number 40. Soccer has been a part of my life since I was 3, my 12 years of experience have influenced how I act, what I eat and most aspects of my life-like who I hang out with and what I dislike. In the United states especially, sports are a huge part of everyone's cultural identity. With all this in mind I would call my cultural identity a soccer game. It can change in a blink of the eye but is consistent through life.My family is like the other players, education is like the field and my hobbies are like the ball.

There is a Mexican man that enters with the rest of his family. They eat beans, rice, flour tortillas and etc. The family does there every day routine, the dad wakes up at six- thirty to go to work in his truck. The children go to school and the mother stays at home. The things a person does in their all has a reason which goes all back to culture. Culture is what makes up everyone different from one another. Texts such as “What is Cultural Identity?”, “Where Worlds Collide” and “Two ways to Belong” supports that depending on one’s culture it effects one perspective on the world and others.

Being born into a Latino immigrant family has had both perks and downsides throughout my life. I was born into a diverse culture of incredible food, a beautiful language, many traditions, and a huge community of wonderful people. However, I don’t feel as if I live in a community where I fully belong. My entire life, I’ve lived in Rhinebeck, NY, a place where diversity is not a strong suit. I’ve gone to a school filled with kids whose lives are completely different than mine. In my class, there are only two Latino students: me and another girl named Iridian. Of course, my skin color and curly hair have made me feel as if I stick out like a sore thumb. In elementary school, I thought it was the only thing that set me apart from peers.

Before I began this class I thought I was well versed in terms, of race, ethnicity, and nationality. However, I may have been partially wrong. I always considered my race to be Mexican and my ethnicity to be Hispanic while my nationality is American. However, according to the definitions I don’t have a race. On forms, I usually check the block for other and identify by ethnicity. I consider myself of Hispanic ethnicity from Mexican descent. However, to Mexicans from Mexico, I am not considered Mexican. I am a white Mexican, Mexican American or Chicana; both of my parents are born in Mexico of Mexican parents. I am most certainly proud of my roots as well as being an American. In the world we live in today it’s difficult to neglect the fact that I stand out for obvious reasons. That at times I am treated differently. That because of my roots I am told to go back to my country. That I shed a tear as I write this because I live with an inner struggle of who I am.

Recently I have been evaluating what I think to be my own racial and cultural identity. As a Caucasian of mostly German decent who grew up in the upper Midwest, I blended in with the majority of people around me. Due to this fact, I did not often think about race, and when I did it was thinking about how others were different than me and the rest of ‘us’. I was a product of my culture and the society surrounding me; I regret this thinking now, and do deeply apologize.

Growing up, I always felt like an outsider. I yearned for a sense of belonging, but I would always have to bring myself to a constant realization about the implication of my existence—I was black and white, not one or the other, but both. The continual task of “checking one box” on surveys and papers didn’t really help the situation either. Being the product of an African-American father and an Irish-American mother made me appreciate and understand all the variations of race and culture in the spectrum, but it also left me in this murky-gray area with no sense of direction—a feeling that most multiracial

“Don’t listen to them,” my grandmother said as she wiped the tears from my face and ran her fingers through my long, black hair. I remember the constant teasing from my peers in elementary school. Growing up in a predominately white neighborhood, my family and I were looked at differently because we were “people of color.” All of the parents who would drop their children off for school in the morning would stare at my father. Growing up, it was incredibly difficult to figure out who I was because I was Mexican and Caucasian with a Puerto Rican step father who raised me since I was three. Thus, his culture heavily influenced me as well. At family parties I was spoken to in English and Spanish with both Mexican and Puerto Rican dialects.

Does someone's cultural identity affect how they look at the world an other people? Cultural identity affects how someone looks at the world and how they look at others. The culture that someone creates for themselves determines how they look at the world and someone. Your childhood, lessons you learn throughout your life, and your cultural heritage all effect your culture and how you look at people and the world. There is also some people that are not affected by their culture only affected by their childhood and lessons that they grew up with in other words there not affected by their parent's culture heritage their affected by their culture they made for themselves. Culture affects everyone and the extent of the effect determines how

A person’s culture has a great influence on his or her self-identity and behavior. Culture encompasses many aspects, and is defined by Juang and Matsumoto (2011) as a, “unique meaning and information system, shared by a group and transmitted across generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and well-being, and derive meaning from life” (p. 15). As discussed in lecture, different dimensions of culture are identified by Geert Hofstede and different values of culture are identified by Shalom Schwartz (K. Whitten, personal communication, January 14, 2016). The level of emphasis placed on these dimensions and values result in the expression of a unique culture. I interviewed

“What are you?” is a question that often plagues the attention of many multi-racial individuals. While the US Census began to account for mixed race individuals in 2000, the associated problems of self-identification and public perception have been an ongoing issue for many years (Sanchez and Shih). People of mixed heritage, especially children, often experience alienation from their cultural backgrounds, thus leading to confusion of racial identification and a sense of not belonging. Having experienced these issues personally, I understand the consequences that this marginalization ensues.

influenced my cultural identity and how I see myself? I address the complexity of my racial

I remember running through into the arms of my grandmother almost everyday after school. “Why do they treat me differently?” I would cry as she ran her fingers through my long, black hair. Growing up, it was difficult for me to discover my true identity because although I was Mexican, I did not speak the language fluently. Accordingly, I was not a full blood Mexican because my grandmother was mixed with European culture and my step-father was Puerto Rican so his culture heavily influenced my up-bringing. At family parties my European family members would speak to me in English while my Hispanic family members would speak to me in Spanish and it would be two different dialects because of some adults being Mexican and some being Puerto Rican. Nonetheless, the other children at school had to single me out and remind me that I was “different.”

The purpose of this essay is to critically reflect on the new ideas I have learnt throughout this semester, ideas that has changed the way I understand the experiences of the Aboriginal and Torres strait islander people. The essay will also link my understanding of how cultural identity can influence health equity, using the CATSINaM’s definition of cultural safety.

Cultural identity is the basis in which identification is used to express different aspects pertaining to identity and heritage. A person's cultural identity may be created by social organization, as well as traditions and customs within their lives. The two aspects that construct my cultural identity are the frequent chores I must complete every day in order to fulfill my behavioral expectations, and the youth group I attend weekly. These aspects are important to my family and me. Therefore, my identity has an immeasurable effect on my upbringing into this multi-cultural world I live in.