Culture

Culture

Culture is defined as “a civilization of a given time; costumes, arts, conveniences, etc.” (Thorndike-Barnhart Student Dictionary; p. 270). As individuals we are infected by different cultures because we live in a place where cultures are mixed. We are all influenced by our family culture, our generational culture, our racial culture, our religious culture and our national/regional culture and our personal culture.

A family is “a fundamental social group in society typically consisting of parents and their off springs” (The American Heritage High School Dictionary; p.493). My family culture is a Standard Nuclear Family. It consists of my mother, father and me (siblings). In my family we are eight people. We live as a whole and participate in the same activities. In my family culture we celebrate an event called quinceanera (sweet fifteen). A sweet fifteen is a celebration of girls leaving their childhood and becoming a woman. Our entire family gathers in one place and we have a lot of food and drinks. We dance all night to different kinds of music. Each quinceanera performs a dance for all of our family and friends to see. After the dance we give a toast, say some words and cut the cake.

Because I was born in the 1980’s, my generational culture is the 90’s Hip-Hop Generation. I spend the entire decade in school so I was aware of what was happening in the world. Because of gang violence and kidnappings, people were scared. In this time people were very careful on what they would do and where they would go. Schools where very dangerous at some point. It was very exiting to live in the 90’s Hip-Hop Generation. There are also many exiting places where we can go and have fun.

My racial culture is Hispanic/Latino, (Although I prefer to be called “Mexican-American”). Both my parents are Mexican and as far as I can trace my “ancestors” were Mexicans. Although there were some verified traces of Indian Blood from both of my parents sides. I am Mexican-American. Because I am Mexican-American, I go on vacations to Mexico and visit new places that my parents enjoyed going to in their childhood. I also enjoyed visiting new places and hearing stories from my parents childhood.

From childhood to my teenage years, I attended Catholic Church, so my religious culture is Catholic. In my religious culture there are certain events that we have to go through. Some of the events are Baptism, first Communion, and Confirmation. We also have to go to Church every Sunday, listen to the priest and say some prayers. In my religion we also have groups for teenagers called youth groups. In these groups we go on field trips, raise money for dances, read the bible, sing, and make plays for events like Christmas.

Because I was born, raised and have lived in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, I am part of the Southern California West Coast Regional Culture. Living in the Southern part of California means to deal with a lot of traffic, freeways, gang violence, and beaches. We can also enjoy amusement parks, such as Six Flags, Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, and Knotts. We can also have the opportunity to go surfing and spend the day in the beach.

My personal culture