Culture of Ecuador and the Glapagos Islands

The Quinceanera tradition, is an initiation and recognition for a young girls’ journey from childhood to womanhood. This tradition has been around for years, and it is celebrated in the Latin America culture. It really does not matter if the family is poor or rich to celebrate this ritual initiation. Some of the most important factors for a Quinceanera are, the Mass or blessing at the church, the sophisticated dress, and the unique party and waltz.

The Hispanic culture has different values, beliefs, and traditions. Family is highly value. Family is a close-knit group and the most important social group to gather in any events or special days. The Hispanic “family unit” includes not only parents and children but also grandparents and extended family. Individuals within the family have moral responsibilities to help other members of the family experiencing financial problems, unemployment, health conditions and any other life issues. They show the importance placed upon relationship within their family extending a hand in good times and bad. Respeto y dignidad (respect and dignity) are other important values of the Hispanic culture. Children’s are taught to avoid confrontations with parents and older persons, and to be obedient and respectful. The Hispanics believe that the father is head of the family and the mother is to take care of home. Naming children after grandparents and parents is fairly common. A well-known tradition is the celebration of a fifteen year old girl called Quincenera. Hispanics culture and traditions are based around celebrating and spending time with love ones.

Culture makes up who we are, what we believe and how we behave. About four years ago, I had the opportunity to live in Ecuador. I found the relationships and communication perspective to be very interesting and after spending two years there, I was able to notice several distinct intercultural differences between the American and Ecuadorian cultures. Since my analysis of Ecuador is only based off of my personal experience, I’ve also invited my friend Luis Salas from Quito, Ecuador who is currently attending Brigham Young University to give his own insights. By gaining his perspective of what it’s like to live in America as an

In Latin American countries, they have a very unique culture. With their holidays, music, celebrations, and art, the countries in Latin America never cease to bring joy in people’s lives. Latin American culture is vastly different than other cultures in many ways. In Latin America, the languages of Spanish and Portuguese are dominant and most people speak them. However there are people who speak other languages as well. Latin America includes nineteen countries and several territories. There are a variety of different ethnicities in Latin America including Mexicans, Europeans, and Asians. Education inside the Latin American culture still struggles. Only a little more than half of kids ages 13-17 advance into secondary school. Because of this, the crime and violence rates in Latin America are at an all time high. These countries have been rated as one of the most dangerous regions in the world because of how high the rates of crime and violence are.

It can be argued that Mexican and Peruvian heritage have been influenced by African traditions and genealogy. During the 17th and 18th century, slaves were transported to Latin America. Within Latin America, slaves were expensive and viewed as a luxury, rather than a commodity. As a result of the high price of slaves; slaves would be treated with slight dignity within Mexican culture.

The Colombian culture is formed from the inheritance of the indigenous peoples present in the territory since ancient times, the Spanish traditions adopted during the colonial period and the African Customs incorporated by the slaves that led the conquistadors. This mixture of cultures constitutes a society with traits common to the rest of Latin American countries but, at the same time, very different also. Indeed, even within Colombia's own territory there are many differences between regions and others. Geographic diversity-can be found from tropical beaches to mountains of more than 5,000 meters in height with perpetual snows-and the natural isolation of some areas has led to this diversity. Some of the most important cultural groups according to their location are the so-called cops, located in the Altiplano Cundiboyacense; the countries, settled in Antioquia; The foresters, Settlers of the eastern plains; the Vallunos, settled in the area of Valle del Cauca; the coastal, inhabitants of the Caribbean coast, and the Santander, residents of the departments of Santander and Norte de Santander. All these groups are characterized by showing great cultural differences among themselves, which makes Colombia a fascinating country to know and enter into the day to day of its inhabitants.

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.

     Ecuador is one of the smallest countries of South America. It lies on the West Coast of the continent between Colombia and Peru. The equator crosses Ecuador and gives the country its name. Ecuador is the Spanish word for equator.

They enjoy making others feel welcomed which will serve them well in many aspects of life (“Being a Kid in Ecuador”). If the school sports team has a game, match, or competition, children will load the buses to go and support their fellow peers enjoying the entertainment and community aspects (“Being a Kid in Ecuador”). When it comes to gender roles within the family Ecuadorians are very traditional in that men are considered the providers and the protectors while the women tend to be more “sacrificial and dedicated to the well-being of their family” (Qiu, 2013). This affects children’s play through how they take on the roles of imitating their parents or elders while playing. While children in America go to school from 8:00am – 2:55pm, children in Ecuador attend school from 6:50am – 1:00pm leaving more daylight for them to play outside. Ecuadorian children enjoy playing many outdoor games such as soccer, stickball, bowling, and card games. Play time in school is very much so encouraged and used as a “break” from their studies (“Around the World”). In America, the length of time provided for recess tends to decrease every year and now it is down to 15 minutes a day; however, in Ecuador their children are outside for recess for 40 minutes a day (“Around the

With the proliferation of cross cultural contact, it is imperative to be well acclimated with the geopolitical climate of a nation. Additionally, one must also be more generally habituated in regards to the current circumstances within that nation/Geo-political region. One such geopolitical climate that merits consideration is the Hispaniola region, more specifically the nation of Haiti. With both a rich social and geographical topography, Haiti presents an individual with an interesting case study in pertinence to military considerations. Under military considerations, it is essential to frame ones’ understanding through elements of cultural expertise, understanding and awareness. Thus, one must undertake the meaning of culture, in addition

A coming of age ceremony that an American girl has is called a sweet 16. A Latin American or Mexican girl has a Quinceanera. A sweet 16 is a party for a young girl turning 16. A Quinceanera is given to a girl on there 15th birthday .The two are very different but at the same time they are very alike. The two ceremonies have some similarities. First of all they both mark the transition of childhood to womanhood. They both are a form of a party or birthday celebration. These two are traditions for different cultures.

La Quinceañera is a tradition birthday celebration for girls who turned 15 in Spanish speaking world. In Latino culture, most people make a big of deal for this celebration because of their religion. According to La Tradición de la Quinceañera, mothers celebrated their daughters turning 15th birthday in tradition ritual ways because this is when girls hit their maturity and their parents believed them to have good behaviors afterward. In this tradition, a lot of expensive clothing involved such as matching jewelries with their dresses. Also, their bouquet of flower represented being virgin like Virgin Mary.

People from Haiti, Colombia, Peru, Dominican Republic and Ecuador are part of the same territory and despite of that each country has different cultures and lifestyles that enriches and form part of the Latin America history in which Chilean people are involved too.

Culture is the aquired knowledge that people use to interpret, experience, and generate social behavior.

Throughout the ensuing paper we will dive into a country of rich heritage, beautiful landscape, and an extraordinary people with a very promising future. Chile is the longest country in the world geographically speaking with a majority of the population residing in the central region, specifically Santiago, the capital, and Viña del Mar. The official language is Spanish, although in some regions a couple of other languages are still prevalent.