Ethnocentrism In Spanglish

America is recognized for its diverse nation, with multiple ethnicities coming together in one common geographical boundary. While this sentence sounds like Americans come together as one, Spanglish describes the life of a woman that has lived in America, and has never endured American culture in the slightest until a new job opportunity arises. It is noted that many principles that are studied in cross-cultural psychology are outlined in this film. Throughout this, the principles of ethnocentrism, individualism, power distance, and integrated acculturation will be looked thoroughly into pertaining to Spanglish Ethnocentrism is defined as the process of ignoring other cultures, and specifically focusing on the culture one is accustomed to.

One of the best scenes in the film outlines the idea the principle of integrated acculturation when Flor works with her daughter in order to learn the words, “just try it on” in English, as opposed to her own language that she was originally comfortable with. While this seems like a meaningless gesture, the courage Flor had to build up in order to attempt to connect with Bernice on a multicultural level. This scene gives us the ability to watch the integration occur, that shows a powerful message that anyone is capable of learning things outside their comfort zone. While Spanglish primarily focuses on the integration of Flor, the audience sees many cultural ideas in the Catsky family that are far different than what Flor is used

In comparison, America is seen as an extremely individualistic society; which, can be defined as the idea that people care for their immediate family members and themselves, and lack a care or worry for the well-being of others that are outside themselves and their family. While there is a majority of scenes that focus on individualistic ideas, Deborah Clasky correctly symbolizes what it means to be an individualistic human. Most scenes that are shown, Deborah lacks empathy for Flor, and becomes aggravated that she does not understand her and her requests some of the time. This empathizes the fact that individualistic lack the knowledge that some people need to be acclimated into a culture, and not thrown into it so quickly. Another scene that shows how her individualistic self cares more for herself than others is when Deborah buys Bernice clothes that are clearly too small for her in order to push Bernice to attempt to lose weight. Instead of showing love and care for her daughter, Deborah focuses on having an aesthetically pleasing family that is based off looks and weight; rather than love and emotional attachment. While Deborah does not understand that what she is doing is hurtful to the people around her, Flor takes note of that and attempts to help emotionally. This is seen as a collectivist idea, where concern for others well-being and