Summary
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the culture and beliefs of four Hispanic groups. The groups I have chosen to cover are: Puerto Rican, Mexican, Dominican and Cuban. Included in the paper will be each group’s linguistic, social, economical, political, familial and religious ties or beliefs.
Hispanic American Diversity
Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico’s linguistic background is strongly defined by Spanish and English. Most Puerto Ricans speak both languages fluently and use both in everyday life such as; work, travel and communication.
Puerto Rico’s major political division is the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), which supports commonwealth rank for the island; has been the leading political party since 1940. The PPD was accountable for helping Puerto Rico achieve commonwealth rank, and was the main political party of Puerto Rico until the late 1960s. Most of the PPD’s support comes from the rural areas of the island, backed land improvement in support of the island’s social class. Over the years, and urbanization of the island, there has been a decline in the popularity of the PPD. Even with the decline of popularity of the PPD; it still remains the island’s main political party.
The social behaviors of Puerto Ricans are not much different than the social behaviors of non Puerto Rican individuals. Every day greetings are used, of course Spanish is more commonly used, one may hear “Buenos Dias!“ instead of, “Good morning!” When conversing with individuals in formal situations, titles of respect are used such as Senor (Mr.), Senora (Mrs. or Ms) or Senorita (Miss). They shake hands to say hello or hug close friends, women greet one another with a tap on the shoulder and kiss on the cheek. Closeness is common whe...
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...minican Americans. There is a minuscule amount of Dominicans that follow the Protestant community, and a small number of them follow African religious ideas.
Dominican American family is a unlike family in the Dominican Republic. Even though relationships are still important to immigrants in the United States, most families have become smaller and a lot more nuclear, the longer they stay in the U.S. The Dominican family has male dominate heads of the household. They have control over budgets and make the decisions for all the other family members. Dominican women in the home are mostly relied on for domestic tasks and daily home maintenance; though over the past few years women of Dominican background have become more equal to the man in the family. Women become half the bread winners, to keep the family afloat and slowly have gained some dominance from their “men”.
Latin American society places a great deal of importance on the family as a support network; it is not uncommon for several generations to reside in the same house. This emphasis is called familismo, and the mother in the family is usually the most important figure. She “is seen as the primary nurturer and caregiver in the family…[and] plays a critical role in preservation of the family as a unit, as well as in...
The Hispanic community represents many nationalities and ethnicities, including Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, 15 Central and South American countries, Spain, and the Dominican Republic (Cattan, 1993). Hispanic group are well known in the workforce, politics, education, social economic and religion. The Spanish culture influences a variety of areas such as music, food, language. Most languages are rooted in Latin. It is always good to learn about other cultures if we expect the same consideration when we visit other countries. Differences are what make life interesting. Majority of the United States is built on immigration, which has made this country the most diverse. And the Hispanic group contributes to that diversity.
The features of the formation of the Puerto Rican people under Spanish rule are therefore critical in addressing questions on Puerto Rican identity. The migration of thousands of Spaniards both from the mainland and its islands to Puerto Rico, the development of subsequent Creole populations, the formation of the agricultural sectors and their labor needs are some of the contributing features that will hopefully lead toward a better understanding of the complexities that surround the concept of Puertoricaness.
As you can see in the graph above, family characteristics of US and Puerto Rico families differ in many ways. Families in Puerto Rico can be very large with many generations living in the same home for a great period of time. In the United States, this would seem very strange because we put such an importance on being independent and going out into the world and making something of ourselves. Our families tend to be smaller and family outings are not very common but once a few times a year. In the Puerto Rico, your family is your support system, your friends and whatever you do is for the betterment of the family. The United States puts more emphasis on our friends as our support group and what we do is to further our own personal achievement and status instead of our family. At their core, Puerto Rican families are about support and togetherness, while United States families are about stability until we have a chance to make a name for ourselves. The Puerto Rican family aspect and togetherness is something extremely lacking in the United States and something I personally believe we ...
This means their government is the same as ours: Democratic Republic and they use the same currency as us as well. Its capital is San Juan, and its population is about 3.667 million (Rivera). Since Puerto Rico has been a U.S territory since 1898, they have embraced some U.S. customs, language being one of them. Citizens have learned to combine their national language, Spanish with the United States’ national language, English, “this is known as Spanglish” (Universia).
Puerto Rico is a small island in the Caribbean that holds a vast, and rich culture. Due to its accessible geographical location, it is often called the key to the Caribbean. Puerto Rico enriched its people with one of the most innate and unique culture different from the rest of the world. The colonization of Spaniards left us not only with myriad architectural heritage, but also with language and cultural traditions that beholds Hispanic imagery and representations. Our music, our love of dancing and festivities, as well as our practice of Catholic beliefs represents
In both cultures, grandparents and elders are highly respected, the father holds most of the power and is the decision maker of the household, the mother is the caretaker of the household, and the children’s only responsibility is to go to school and receive an education. This is the case in almost every Hispanic family because they tend to keep traditional values. This hierarchy also occurs in traditional American families. It was always thought that the “absence of a father is destructive to children, particularly boys, because it means that children will lack the economic resources, role model, discipline, structure, and guidance that a father provides.” (Biblarz & Raftery, 1999) However, this is no longer the case. The differences between American family structures can be most clearly seen when separated by socioeconomic class. Now, studies have shown that “children from single-mother families do approximately as well as children from two-biological-parent families.” (Biblarz & Raftery, 1999) This encourages mothers to believe that a single-mother household is still successful. Therefore, the mother becomes the decision maker and caretaker. This concept also applies for opposite genders. In single-father households, the father is not only the decision maker but the caretaker as well. These family structural differences make way for another similarity in Hispanic and American cultures. Faith
Clutter, Ann W., and Ruben D. Nieto. "Understanding the Hispanic Culture." Osu.edu. Ohio State University. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. .
Puerto Rican is an island located in the Northeastern Caribbean Sea in the East of the Dominican Republic and the West of the Virgin Islands. The country is home to 3.6 Million people while the capital Citi of San Juan is home to almost 400,00 people. Puerto Rico is one of few in the world that is officially bilingual. The Primary languages are both Spanish and English; they do not have an official religion. The currency in Puerto Rico is United States dollar, often referred as the peso.
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.
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,
The migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States occurred in two major waves. The first wave was in the 1910s-1940s and the second wave was from the 1960s to the 1990s. Each wave of migrants brought new generations of Puerto Ricans to the United States. Both waves of migrants believed that they were going to live a better life in America and migrated to major cities such as New York City, Chicago, Hartford, etc. The early migrants looked for industrial jobs such as in cigar factories while the later migrants found agricultural work such as in tobacco fields. The communities in which they lived grew larger and larger due to chain migration and because of this, the need for politics evolved. However, the type of politics that evolved as a result were different for each wave, yet had many similarities as well. If you would like to learn a little more about Puerto Rican migration itself, read Jamie Hellman's paper and Shakira Ramos' which goes into more depth.
Language is an important value for the nationalistic identity of a nation. Hispanic culture is the way of life of people from Latin America and Spain, and their main identifying factor is the fact that they speak Spanish as their main language. Therefore, Hispanics are not necessarily Spaniards but other groups like Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans who speak Spanish are also part of this group (Shaw and Dennison 207). American culture on the other hand is mainly comprised of the people who speak English as their main dialect. Therefore, the Spaniards have Spanish as their native language while the Americans use Englis...
As a republic, Puerto Rico has a government that exercises political control over its citizens. As with any republic, a social contract exists between government and citizens in which citizens give up certain freedoms in order to enjoy the protection and comforts that a functioning government can provide. As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico shares our three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial. Focusing on the judicial branch, one must look at the criminal justice system, which consists of policing, courts and corrections.
Addressing the issues of women’s hardships and further hardships regarding Latina women, this discussion will address cultural barriers set by the Latino race not to state Latino/as bring each other down, but simply stating what may be seen as a side effect of this cultural standard. To address the cultural barrier, it must first be understood what this cultural barrier is, this has to deal with Latina women being caretaker of families. It may seem as a stereotypical ideal, but in reality Latina are responsible for family affairs that regard the household environment. “Latinas with family responsibilities, the salience of ...