Cultural Immersion Study Of Hispanics

Hispanics believe in a strong family tie and machismo; holding men to the responsibility of providing food, protection and financial support (Kirst-Ashman, 2011). Employment discrimination makes it difficult for Hispanics to obtain or maintain a

This brings me to the certain unfairness, stereotypes, and myths about Hispanic/Latino culture. While growing up we experience some of these types of situations. When we think about a Hispanic/Latino person we think about tamales, tacos, rice and beans which is a stereotype. However, Susie Jans-Thomas wrote Beyond Tamales, Tacos, and Our Southern Neighbors: Exploring Latino Culture in Child and Young Adult Literature to show that there is more to them then just those expressions. I believe we have all experienced or witnessed racism, power abuse, and felt lost in one point of our lives. This just shows that we need to try to work harder and together more.

To help me understand and analyze a different culture, I watched the film Selena. The film tells the life story of the famous singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. Not only does it just tell personal stories from her life, it also gives insight to the Mexican-American culture. Her whole life she lived in the United States, specifically in Texas, but was Hispanic and because of that both her and her family faced more struggles than white singers on the climb to her success. Even though the film is a story about a specific person, it brought understanding into the culture in which she lived. Keeping in mind that these ideas that I drew about the Mexican-American culture is very broad and do not apply to every single person in the culture, there

Growing up in a Hispanic household has taught me many things. I have learned to see things as an optimistic person, and that it doesn’t matter where you come from as long as you work hard for what you want anything is possible. My family has always implemented the values of life that lead me to perceive what it was about to throw at me.

My cultural interview was with a coworker, 28 years of age and of Hispanic descent. While conducting the interview I learned a lot about the Hispanic culture. Many Hispanics like to be called Latino (a). Some do not like to be referred to as Mexican when they are from other countries other than Mexico. Hispanics also use slang within their culture just like African Americans. Within the culture the male is the dominant figure in the household. All the decisions that affect the family go through the father. If there is no father in the house, the oldest son fulfills that role. The older son may drop out of school so that they may assist the mother at the house in the absence of the father. Many Hispanics

My Hispanic culture is exceedingly unique contrast to other cultures because we have countless of beliefs, holidays, lifestyles, etc. My world of Hispanic culture raised me to become an independent and determined person because being the first generation of a Hispanic family to attend college has my family beyond thrilled for me to put value to our heritage. Putting value in our heritage is a magnificent emotion because people anticipate Hispanics to fail; but, we prove them wrong when we accomplish our goals. The Hispanic culture’s strength is unbelievably astonishing because we are ambitious of our dreams and we don’t cease until we fulfill our wish. Including the Hispanic culture at University of Washington may open people’s mind that we

The culture I choose to explore is the Hispanic culture. I choose this culture because many of the people I work with and many of my friends identify with the Hispanic culture and I feel it would be interesting to know more about a culture that is so relevant to my life. A few of the big things in Hispanic culture that I found interesting are language, traditions and food. Hispanic refers to a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture.

The assimilation of Cuban Americans has come rather slowly due to the discrimination that this group has faced. Like most other immigrating groups, Cubans have seen themselves rejected and discriminated by the dominant group, making them embrace their own culture and straying away from the dominant expectations for several years. In order to maintain their culture, and as an effort to reject discrimination, Cuban Americans have opened various organizations and enclaves that help promote their heritage. The stratification between Cubans and white Americans is quite high in places like Florida. In fact, affluent Anglos are usually placed in elite private schools that are populated by little to none Latinos. Due to the fact that many Cuban Americans consider themselves to be exiles, their assimilation has come rather slowly. According to Gordon’s assimilation theory, cultural and identification assimilation have come at a slow pace. To elaborate, Cuban American immigrants have faced much discrimination and stereotyping that has led them to stay away from assimilating to the dominant culture. In fact, their cultural patterns have been kept sturdy by promoting their heritage in organizations, clubs and enclaves. With new U.S. born generations, there can be a sense of cultural assimilation, but for the most part, Cuban Americans have not completely assimilated culturally. In the same sense, identification assimilation has not come hastily. As mentioned, Cuban

| The attitudes and customs of Hispanics have a major presence on music, food, holidays, dance, and arts here in the United States. The Hispanic families in the United States are traditionally close-knit groups, and Spanish speakers are quite formal toward each other when speaking.

When one thinks about Hispanics, all too often the image of a field full of migrant workers picking fruit or vegetables in the hot sun comes to mind. This has become the stereotypical picture of a people whose determination and character are as strong or stronger than that of the Polish, Jewish, Greek, or Italian who arrived in the United States in the early 1900's. Then, the center of the new beginning for each immigrant family was an education. An education was the "ladder by which the children of immigrants climbed out of poverty into the mainstream." (Calderon & Slavin, 2001, p. iv) That ideal has not changed, as the Hispanic population has grown in the United States to large numbers very quickly and with little fanfare. Now, the

Mrs. Garcia is a middle age Mexican American woman, first generation acculturation into the societal beliefs

My cultural immersion focus is on the religious war in Nigeria. One of the interesting things I found in my research was that, in Nigeria the Christian faith and the Muslim faith represents the greatest percentage of religions. I also learned that the Christians and Muslims pray every day several times a day. With that being said, I wondered if they believed in a higher entity prayed every day, who they are praying to? And what is their belief system based on? (question 1) Since their Christian faith seems to be divided into Catholic, Protestant or some other, I decided to attend a typical Catholic Church service and a Friday mid-day Muslim prayer service. Maybe I should not have used the

Latino immigrants have always had many obstacles when coming into the United States, the difference between the American and the Latin cultures is what has caused a huge hurdle that immigrants have found hard to overpass. This obstacle has caused many generations to go through cultural assimilation. Mize et al. (2012) explain that cultural assimilation is the adaptation of immigrants to unfamiliar cultural patterns, which include language and the value systems of other cultures. In order for immigrants to be successful in another country, which is not of their origin; they need to learn how to assimilate to their new homes. Immigrants have learned that they need to adapt in order to get to experience new opportunities and also to learn from new cultures that are not theirs (Mize et al., 2012). Immigrants have learned that they are not leaving behind their own believes and norms, but mixing their norms, this gives them the opportunity to create and mix their culture with the new. Cultural assimilation can be hard to achieve because in one hand it is important to change in order to live within a different culture, but on the other hand it is important for a person to maintain their identity regardless of where they live. At times immigrants find it difficult to achieve a balance and for many families it is a struggle over generations. There are different levels of assimilation, some immigrants come to the

When defining what it means to be Hispanic and how it has influenced my life, it means more than just having the family origins beginning from one the Spanish speaking countries. In my experience, Hispanic are usually people who are very conscientious about work, are traditionalist, passionate, and incredibly family oriented. Spending my summer and winter breaks traveling in Mexico, it a fulfilling opportunity to reunite with my family and about learn about my bygone family lineage.

The article does a nice job describing how this lack of cultural knowledge impacts the Hispanic culture.