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The consequences of cultural assimilation
Acculturation and assimilation
Acculturation and assimilation
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Growing up I used to believe that I had no cultural identity. Throughout, my whole life I have been either Mexican, American, or Mexican-American, depending on what I was feeling at the time. When I was younger I used to always feel like I never belonged. I was born here in the United States and have always attended predominantly white schools, but I couldn’t really call myself American either. Ethnically, I am Mexican being that both of my parents were born there, yet never in my seventeen years of life have I been out side of the country. Having lived in the United States my whole life, I know essentially nothing about the country that my family comes from, but I have never felt more of a connection with any other place. This cultural confusion
“Our own culture is often hidden from us, and we frequently describe it as “the way things are.”” People do not even realize their own cultural identity, so then how do people know what shapes it? A person’s identity is shaped by cultural experiences that make them into the person they are today. Some of these experiences include someone’s parents, the media, and where they grew up.
The problem that many Mexican Americans go through is that some of us do not know what nationality we belong to. For me, the problem with my sense of identity regarding nationality or group began in middle school particularly in the 8th grade. There is a saying among many Mexican Americans in the United States, no soy de aquí ni de alla, meaning I am not from here, or from there. This means that most Mexican Americans are stuck in the middle of both cultures. Per White Americans we are not American enough because we are able to speak another language and have different customs. Now, to some Mexican
My identity is different from many of yours or you can connect from it. Being Mexican-American is hard like Abraham Quintanilla said, “ We gotta prove to Mexicans how Mexican we are, and we gotta prove to Americans how American we are…”. Always trying to prove to others that we are Mexican and American is hard. People will always judge you no matter what you go as. This is why I am writing this essay because I want others to stop judging how I talk, my personality, and what my identity truly is. Curly hair, brown eyes, brown skin, tall but not too tall, is who I am. A latina with different backgrounds, the meaning of my name, and what my family represents me. The most important part is my identity because is what I want to be viewed as.
I was born in Mexico and raised in beautiful San Diego since the age of four. Coming to the United States at a very young age I had to face many challenges that have shaped me to the person that I am today. I consider myself a Chicana woman who has overcome the obstacles to get were I am know. Being raised in a Mexcian household has thought me to embrace my culture and its roots. The Spanish and native blood that is with in me remind me of many Americans today. The reason I consider my self Chicana is because of the similar background that I shared with many Americans today. Living in the U.S. I have learned to adapt and embraced the American culture so much so that it came a point of life were I struggled to find my own identity. Taking
I am a Japanese-American, growing up I never felt like I belonged in either one. I never felt that I was fully Japanese because I did not have all of the same beliefs and traditions as other Japanese people. Nor did I feel fully American because I fully do not believe in all of the American beliefs. I saw myself relating more to the Japanese culture because it taught me to be more respectful to my elders and other people in the community. Growing up I had to assimilate to the prevailing culture because people were bantering me because I had unusual views than they did. It was hard for me growing up; I was trying to identify myself as either a Japanese boy or an American boy while I was at school and at home. At school I had to be this normal American boy, while at home, I had to be a Japanese boy. I felt like two different people. This also tied into me having an awkward relationship with other kids my age especially the girls. I would ask my parents if it was okay for me to date, their response was “as long they are some sort of Asian, then it is okay.” Today my parents do not believe in that saying, they just want to see me in high spirits, but as I was growing up it was hard for me to find a girl that I liked that fit my family standards I always found myself fond of another race other than my own and my parents were not too thrilled with the choices I made when it came to girls when I was an adolescent.
Culture and identity are two very strange ideas. They are received at a very young age, yet they are very hard to give to someone else. They will affect you for the rest or your life, yet for the most part you are born into them. However, they soon become very important to us and we cannot, no matter what we do, live without them. They are a part of us, and a vital aspect of society. However, it took me a very long time to recognize that I had an identity and a little while after that before I knew what it was.
I live in this huge mix of culture. Culture is personal. People can have many cultures especially in America and because of globalization. Cultural identity is not one or the other, it is not Mexican or American. Cultural identity is an individual relevant thing.
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
Living in between cultures is something that I have had to struggle with, for much of my life. As a second generation immigrant, I have found myself negotiating between two cultural identities. On one end I identify as an American, and on the other as a Latina who is Nicaraguan and Dominican. Throughout my life my identity has come under attack from both sides. I have been called too American by my immigrant family while also being called too Latina by peers and academia. As a first generation college student and second generation immigrant, I have faced the stressors of living in between cultures. I have received both acceptance and rejection, as well as experienced stress relating to my mother’s status in this country and my responsibility to help her navigate daily activities.
I am a young Mexican American male growing up in the United States. I identify with both American and Mexican culture. Culture to me is what made you the person that you are today and will also have a major impact in your future. Culture can also be seen as an “Identity” because it is a state of mind in which someone recognizes their traits/beliefs that leads to finding out who you are and what you do. In other words, it 's basically who you are and what you define yourself as being. Identity and culture are what makes this world an interesting place, there is a distinct relationship between identity and culture and one without the other they could not exist I consider myself a composite of both American and Mexican cultures.
One’s cultural identity consists of their race, gender, socioeconomic status, age, religion, and so on. Being aware of your own cultural identity is just as important as being aware of other’s. People’s cultural identity defines who they are, the privilege (or lack of privilege) they receive, and how society views them. It is important to understand that White individuals have more privileges than individuals of color. White individuals do not experience detriment and difficulties due specifically to their skin color and instead receive advantages. White privilege is defined as benefits that white individuals have that people of color do not (Kendall, 2012). The following walks through my personal cultural background, how it was shaped, defined, and developed, and limitations to my personal competencies.
My personal cultural identity is a lot different compared to the society I am surrounded by. I am considered an outsider in my society. I am an outsider living in a constantly changing environment where there are many different kinds of people and many different cultural identities. In my culture we know how to respect people and their belongings, know how to work hard, use what we have while being thankful for it at the same time, and last we know how to stay true to ourselves in this very fast pace world of ours. I am a cowboy.
Identity-“Ones personal qualities.”Identiy is something only he or she can fully define. My uncle says I am affectionate,cheerful, and calm. My grandmother sees me as slim, pretty and sweet. My dad described me as perky, cheerful and happy, my mom says beautiful, gentle, and self-conscious. These adjectives describe me accurately, yet they are only abstract versions of me. Adjectives cannot begin to describe me and I aknowlege these descriptions for what they are, a condensed translation from my outward self to the world. It is impossible for anyone to understand me completely because nobody has experienced the things I have. My mother has never cherished a raggedy doll named Katie and my father never spent hours upon hours making collages and scrap books for his future children. My uncle never hid in the back of a pick-up-truck and traveled four hours to New York and my grandmother has never walked hours in the rain looking for the Queen of England. My identity is something only I can define.
“ You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” (Tan, Amy) Like Tan in her narrative “Fish Cheeks”, everyone has had a time in their lives when they wanted to fit in at school or home. Sometimes it is hard to try to blend into the surroundings. Moving from Boston to Tallahassee has taught me a lot about such things like honor, pride, and self-reliance. Such is related to us in Wilfred Owens’s “Dulce et Decorum est” which is about his experience in World War I. Sometimes experiences such as moving can teach more about life than any long lecture from any adult. As the old saying goes: “Actions speak louder than words.”
Times are changing and I feel like I am forced to conform to the everyday social norms of America, which makes me feel impuissance. Racial identity, which refers to identifying with a social group with similar phenotypes and racial category, is the only experience that I have with life (Organista, 2010). Racial ethnicity was used to build my self-esteem and to keep me in the dark when it came to how society treats individuals of darker complexion. However, once I left the confines of my family and neighborhood, I was forced to befriend and interact with individuals that had different cultural values and beliefs than me. This experience caused me to learn how to appreciate other racial and ethnic groups and their cultural values and belief. This is an accurate definition, of acculturation because I was able to understand and fit in with individuals different from me, while maintaining my own culture and ethnic identity. Therefore, knowing the importance of my ancestry, while acculturating and developing my own identity was all used