Identity Essay: The Aspects Of My Cultural Identity

Cultural Identity Paper I definitely identify most with modern American culture. Although I am half Hispanic and half white, I was raised more “white” than Hispanic (e.g. food, language, holidays, music, etc.). On the surface you can see a white American, English speaking, femininely dressed young lady, but I am much more than what is on the outside. Like I stated earlier I was raised more “white”, but I still identify a little with my Hispanic culture. In this paper I will be addressing 10 surface and 10 deep aspects of my cultural identity. Starting with one of the surface aspects of my cultural identity is my language. I speak English, like most people who were born in America I learned English and only English right from the start. I

I dress extremely girly on most days, and that’s really because I am a girl. But also where I live has an effect on my outfits. For example, in my hometown girls dressed like girls and boys dressed like boys, and if you didn’t follow along with that you were teased about being gay or a lesbian (which I don’t understand how those words are an insult). I never had an issue about dressing femininely, I love dresses, skirts, jewelry, high heels, etc. My fashion choices are heavily influenced by my age. As I grew up, I wasn’t allowed to wear scandalous clothes or wear makeup until I was of proper age. Now that I’m an adult, I can wear whatever I

All of them have other influences such as my ethnicity or my age. For instance, how I view roles in relationships I think is influenced by my ethnicity and my gender. I was brought up with the idea that there is a man and a woman in a household, the man is in charge and for the most part what he says goes. Whereas the woman had an opinion, but that opinion was not very meaningful or completely ignored. I feel like this type of relationship didn’t influence me to follow it as a model, but it showed what I don’t want in a relationship. As an adult I believe that a relationship is a partnership, not a monarchy. I know that my opinion matters just as much as my future husband’s, and that we will be making decisions together. Speaking of relationships, my gender and ethnicity persuaded my beliefs in how I think courtship practices should be. Anytime I wanted to go on a date, my potential date needed to come get me at the door, not wait in the car, and they also had to come meet my parents and talk with them first. I still firmly believe that’s how it should be. I think it shows respect to the parents and that you really care about the girl you’re taking out. I think that a man should always do this, and I will be teaching my children to do the