The Role Of Sex In The Dominican Family

Young women exploring their sexuality are often stigmatized by various factors in society. Latina girls are no exception and are, in fact, finding themselves placed in a negative spotlight more often that their peers. In Respect Yourself, Protect Yourself, Lorena Garcia looks into a group that has been labeled as “at risk” youth by interviewing a group of Latina girls between the ages of thirteen and eighteen who engage in safe sex. She also interviews some of their mothers. Her findings contradict the negative stereotypes that follow these young women because of their sexual activity. In doing so, she discovered that the statistics do not tell their entire story, making it difficult to understand why and how they go about their sexual activity.

It’s no doubt that culture and family values play a significant role in the self-discovery process. Often times, these social constructs can influence goals, beliefs and values. Life as a Dominican is one that is built on strong family value, religion, morality and work ethic. Growing up in a Dominican family, I can remember my parents instilling strong moral values such as being honest and respecting one another while emphasizing the need for hard work and education. Much of my outlook on life can be attributed to the Dominican values of family, discipline and values taught to me throughout my childhood and adolescence.

“Marianismo is traditional feminine values, including the overall passivity of women in matters of sexuality”. Sexuality is a taboo subject in Hispanic culture and there is hardly any parental communication regarding this topic. This is one of the reasons why Latina/Hispanic teenage girls are hesitant to discuss issues like birth control and seek health care advice (Issues in Latina Health, 2007)

of Latin American immigrants in Madrid, briefly approaching three different questions: do they believe that there are differences about sexual and reproductive health issues between what they lived in their countries and Spain?; are they having different behaviors in Spain than in their origin countries and, if so, which ones?; and finally, what do they perceived about sexual health services and access in Spain?

The lack of knowledge that these young women have is a leading factor. There are many reasons as to why some of these young girls are lacking knowledge in this field and it is because in the traditional Mexican culture, sex is like this forbidden thing that parents do not want to get into with their daughter. There are several reasons why a parent or parent would not want to have “the talk” with their daughter really boils down to that they are not comfortable talking about that subject matter. It is safe to say that a lot of traditional families did not have the talk with their children, causing this cycle that is rarely broken. Since this topic is not discussed it becomes this foreign idea that most teenage women know nothing about. Some parents can also misinterpret or get upset with their daughter asking them questions about sex. To some parents this can mean that their daughter is thinking of starting to experiment or parents can also take it as their daughter is already engaging intercourse. Tamika Odum states, “Teenage childbearing is essentially accidental and a result of planning, lack of information, and inability to negotiate sexual encounters” (Odum) For the most part in todays society sex is not taken as seriously as it should be and because of that comes carelessness and the results of one’s choices. This is most transparent for the

On this particular day, a group of girls had clambered in, giggling and talking about boys and whispering about "Suzy's new haircut." Growing tired of teasing those poor souls, they targeted another person: my brother. When I raced to the children's corner to show Bo the latest issue of Sesame Street magazine, I witnessed the laughing sneers the girls directed at Bo.

Just like in the US there are 3 meals a day. But the most important meal of the day is el almuerzo (lunch) unlike the US.To start off the day they have a huge breakfast, which includes 2 eggs and a smaller steak with beans and a cup of coffee. For

The dominican Republic is known as the breadbasket of the Caribbean because it grows, farms, and catches almost everything that’s served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The Dominican Republic was the first colony founded by Christopher Columbus. It used to go by “La Hispaniola” in colonial times. Also the flag of the Dominican Republic is the only national flag in the world to feature the image of a bible. My country is the Dominican Republic. I learned about the culture, food, religion, imports and exports, geography, sports, and family. All of it was very eye opening.

            One of the biggest factors affecting teen Latinas is lack of sex education. Latinas have a difficult time communicating with their parents about sex and schools do not offer the education they need since they are marginalize. In the book Latinos in American Society, the co-author Zambrana mentions that “Two family factors have been found important in early family formation are romantic socialization and a lack of communication with parent and knowledge of sexuality and sexual behavior” (2292). What Zambrana is referring is the difficulty Latinas feel when talking bout their sexuality especially with their family members. The biggest problem with

Premarital sex did not exist in America, and young girls were likely to still be virginal upon marriage and faithful afterwards, sadly that is just a traditional American myth. The reality is that sexual activity before and outside marriage was a common practice, among the Puritans, in the seventeenth century. Throughout the eighteenth-century in America, 30 to 40 percent of brides walked down the aisle pregnant. Premarital pregnancy was not just limited to the twentieth and twenty-first century. Today, families are not quite the same as what they use to be. They include a more diverse environment than in the past and are more probable to be formed away from marriage. Beginning with the family life in colonial America, we examine the household structure between the families and colonial communities, compared to the emergence of the modern family. We apply our attention to the shift from agriculture based to industrial economy and the consequences for family life that follow.

mumble to the girls and why did they act the way that they did? This question creates a lot of

It just so happened that after 30 minutes of the three girls being inside they went outside to ask their moms'

I think the behavior of the boys should be blamed on biology. With no parental figure there the minds of the boys developed differently. And they were also all very young so many of them made some bad decisions.

The reason parents are fearful of the sex talk is because they cannot or do not want to picture their child having sex, even though it is a possibility, and the child will feel embarrassed to have their parents talk to them about sex. Because of these feelings, the talk repeatedly becomes delayed, and it either does not happen at all or it happens too late after their child has already had sex. “In the latest study on parent-child talks about sex and sexuality, researchers found that more than forty percent of adolescents had had intercourse before talking to their parents about safe sex, birth control or sexually transmitted diseases” (Park).

In the old days, regarding sex education, parents had different reasons as to why they wanted to avoid talking to their children about sex education. Reasons being, some parents did not want to corrupt the minds of their children. They did not want their child to be open-minded into the varieties of sexual intercourse of experiencing this act with their friends or random people at school or any other places. They think it 's just not the right time, their kids are not ready, or they are too young to learn about sex. They tend to hide the term “sex” in front of their kids because of that particular reason and some parents may