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 were very obvious differences in their culture and the one that I belong. Mexican-American culture identifies with their family rather than individualized or spiritual identities and the culture has gone through significant changes because of discrimination and the changing demographics of the United States. There are three identities that all people have but depending on the culture, they chose one dimension to emphasize and downplay the other two. In the Mexican-American culture, they tend to value the family identity the most. Martin and Nakayama (2013) define familial identity as, “The sense of self as always connected to family and others” (p. 172). This was shown in the film Selena many times. The family was the most important aspect of their lives and that is the way they wanted it. Every decision that was made revolved around the family and how it would affect it. A specific example that illustrates this from the movie is when Selena married her guitarist, Chris. Her father had told her s... ... middle of paper ... ...an-American culture has differences from American. Mexican-Americans are very family-orientated so much that they identify themselves as familial instead of individualized or spiritual as other cultures do. The culture has changed over time and is receiving less opposition from Americans as they have in the past. Immigration demographics can be used to see how America is becoming more homogenous accepting Mexican-Americans and eliminating discrimination because of ethnicity. Selena gave great insight into her culture and created some understanding on the differences between Mexican-American and my culture. Knowing these differences will create a more successful interaction any potential person from a Mexican-American culture and myself. Works Cited Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Sandra Cisneros “Never Marry a Mexican” and Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are stories that reflect on the cultures in which the characters grew up in. In Never Marry, Clemencia, the narrator, reflects on her past sexual relations as well as her childhood. She speaks of her parents’ marriage and then transitions into her relationship with college professor and his son. In Oscar Wao, Yunior, the narrator, gives a second-hand retelling of Oscar’s experiences in New Jersey growing up as well as in the Dominican Republic. A person’s identity is largely influenced by their culture, this is especially the case in Hispanic cultures. The social constraints that these cultures place on social class, sexuality, and gender norms can be very detrimental to a person’s self-esteem.
SelenaBy: Aidan DoodyTopic 2 - Discrimination, Prejudice, and IdentityDiscuss the difficulties that Selena and her family faced after moving to the United States. What instances of discrimination or prejudice did Abraham, Selena, or the family face? How did this affect their identity as individuals and as a family? Did this cause their identity to change over time? If so, how? What challenges can you see for other immigrants in regards to maintaining the culture while adapting to a new one? Selena and her family had been discriminated against other people. One instance of this is when Selena and her family and Selena's friends started a club,
Family is the most important social unit of Hispanic life. It is a close-knit entity that includes immediate and extended family members. Typically, the father is the head of the family and the mother rules the house (Clutter, n.d.). Vacations are usually taken to relatives’ houses to promote togetherness in celebration of birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, and communions. In times of need, the family is the first line of aid, and Hispanics typically live with their parents until marriage. While this deviates from American ideals for individuals aged 18-35, it actually provides young adults the opportunity for future success because so much money is saved from greatly reduced housing costs (Williams, 2009).
Latinos who were raised in the United States of America have a dual identity. They were influenced by both their parents' ancestry and culture in addition to the American culture in which they live. Growing up in between two very different cultures creates a great problem, because they cannot identify completely with either culture and are also caught between the Spanish and English languages. Further more they struggle to connect with their roots. The duality in Latino identity and their search for their own personal identity is strongly represented in their writing. The following is a quote that expresses this idea in the words of Lucha Corpi, a Latina writer: "We Chicanos are like the abandoned children of divorced cultures. We are forever longing to be loved by an absent neglectful parent - Mexico - and also to be truly accepted by the other parent - the United States. We want bicultural harmony. We need it to survive. We struggle to achieve it. That struggle keeps us alive" ( Griwold ).
Ting-Toomey, Stella., & Chung, Leeva C. (2012). Understanding Intercultural Communication. Oxford University Press. 43, 159-160.
Camilla's point that Mexican Americans have had a long constant battle in America is very true. I agree with Camilla' that because Mexican Americans have had to endure so much they have been able to form a strong sense of culture. Growing up in Los Angeles I have always been around Mexican American culture. However, not until the readings did I realize the hardships Mexican Americans have had to face and how those hardships have been represented through their art. It is important for all Americans to be taught the hardships Mexican Americans have faced either through books, videos or art. Once Americans become aware they will realize the beauty of the Mexican American culture.
As a traditional, collectivistic cultural group, the Latino population is believed to adhere deeply to the value of familismo. (Arditti, 2006; Calzada, 2014). Familism is an emphasis on the importance of the family unit over values of autonomy and individualism”. (Santistaben, 2012). Family is considered to be the top priority in the Latino culture. Comparatively, at times, this isn’t true of our busy, work devoted western culture. In western culture we think of our family in a nuclear sense made up of a: mom, dad, and siblings. Conversely, Hispanic culture focuses on the whole extended family including aunts, uncles, grandparent, and cousins. Their culture believes having close connections with the entire extended family benefits the development of their children. The entire family helps the child by giving them differing levels of social and emotional support. (American Home Resolutions,
... to promote cultural understanding for Mexican immigrant, it is better to teach a society to understand the Mexican immigrants and their society. This could prove a useful tactic to overcome negative cultural prejudices that exist within the Caucasian community in California towards Mexican immigrants.
Crouch, Ned. Mexicans & Americans : Cracking The Cultural Code. NB Publishing, Inc., 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 21 Nov. 2011.
Kanellos, Nicolás, Felix M- Padilla, and Claudio Esteva Fabregat, eds. Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the United States: Sociology. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1994. Print.
Selena, “Le Reina de Tejano”, was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson. She was the youngest of three children of Abraham Quintanilla Jr. and Marcela, his wife. At a young age, Abraham had a strong passion for music that he still has. During the 1950s and 1960s, him and his friends made a group called “Los Dinos” and played at nightclubs and restaurants. Even though his passion for music, he gave it up when he got married and earned a job at Dow Chemical as a shipping clerk.
They were both born in the United states, Alvarez was born in New York City, and Selena Gomez in Texas, but they were raised extremely different. Alvarez was born here, but for only “three weeks before my parent’s returned ‘home’”(Alvarez). Because Alvarez was born here,but not raised here she grew up more traditionally latin. She wrote “An American Childhood in the Dominican Republic” describing her childhood, but it seemed as if “Her ‘American childhood’ is shaped by historical dependency on the United States” (Suarez). In her writing, she had to “invent (her)self to negotiate her double cultural affiliations”(Suarez), which can be easily noticeable because of what she chooses to write about. Selena Gomez on the other hand was raised as an American girl. She grew up learning that women can do anything in today’s world. Not that you cannot grow up like that in Latin countries, but it is a lot less common. Learning a little about both of their backgrounds teaches the readers possibly why they wrote what they
Martin, Judith N., and Thomas K. Nakayama. Intercultural Communication in Contexts. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2011). Experiencing Intercultural Communication: an Introduction (4. ed.). London: McGraw-Hill Education - Europe.
Humans have been communicating since four million years. On the other hand, the birth of culture is estimated to have taken place about 35,000 years ago. Today, both culture and communication have evolved considerably and have become interdependent of one another, to the point that communication is considered to be a product of culture. Thus, our own culture has a deep impact on our thoughts and behaviors. Since each culture has its distinct aspects, intercultural communication can be the cause of conflict and disorder. There are three main issues which are at the root of the problem of intercultural miscommunication : language as a barrier, cultural diversity and ethnocentrism. I will analyze these three notions in situations in which intercultural communication is frequent such as : the workplace, the classroom and vacation trips.