My Cultural Identity: Who I Am

Culture identity has a lot to do with mental health and how you are raised up. So, having the ability to be able to identify with culture benefits and makes the knowledge of humans stronger and able to relate to more people and interact and form groups with those in the same culture as them. It’s helped by boosting their self-esteems when they are in culture groups, from being the same religion to the same social views, you don’t feel the pressure of trying to fit into one group when you are already a part of a culture group. It makes you feel a part of something, a community and through this you form friendships, relationships and social groups.

Defining My Identity

I come from a hard-working family both my mother and father have raised me to be like them. My dad’s life in El Salvador is different from what we live in today because there are more opportunities in the U.S like jobs & education. Being raised in the Generation Z has taught me to be a hard-working lady because of what my parents taught me for example having job and getting money to buy my own things. Also, by being hard working I feel like a role model to my younger siblings because they say, “I want to be like my older sister that works hard and buys her things”.

Cultural Patterns

Cultural patterns “provide a basic set of standards that guide thoughts and action”. The cultural practice that I practice is my religion which is being catholic, my family and I go to church on Sundays. Some of my norms that I have been taught is honesty is the best policy. My mom always says that being honest is how everything should be because she says what’s the point of lying? if someone might find out. Another norm that I was taught would be what’s right from wrong. One of the most important norms that my family finds important is using manners such as “thank you” and “please”, my parents say that manners are the most important things that they have learned while growing up that’s why they taught it to me.

A cultural tradition that we celebrate from my parent’s culture is having a quince, which is a celebration that us girls celebrate which means coming of age, it’s a tradition of what Hispanics do. Also growing up as a kid I played soccer because both my parents played that back in El Salvador and Honduras, while playing soccer in the U.S my parents said it was different from how they would play in Central America they said that one difference that soccer had here in the U.S to central America was that they played with teams mixed of boys and girls and here in America we play with the gender that we are if we are in a team.

American

The right to have freedom and having the right to express yourself, the land of many opportunities, hopes and dreams. The place that you’ve consider home and the place where you feel safe and comfortable in with what shapes you as a person and makes you able to have many different culture groups and thoughts of your own. In America we also have independence “one the main values in the United States is independence.” “Independence is sometimes referred to individualism”.

Dimensions of Culture

I would consider myself an Individualist because I like to be independent and not rely on others because things might pop up for them and your thinking you can still rely on them. For example, I was supposed to pick up my sister from afterschool, but my cousin usually picks her up so, I relied on her and she didn’t end up picking her up. I prefer to be a person that does everything on their own.

Indulgence defines me as a person because I like to make myself happy. I reward myself for passing test, not giving up, and also for staying awake at night doing homework. Giving myself happiness, I feel like is the most important thing that a person could have and rewarding themselves for doing something like an achievement.

In-group collectivism means that you are loyal to a group. I feel like I am a person that is always loyal to the group no matter what. For example, when we do group projects in school I always like to be on task and getting things done because I know how it feels to be that one person to do all the work while others are just lazy and not wanting to do anything and want to get to get credit for not doing anything. Loyalty is one of the most important things that way people can rely on you to be loyal and know that you’ll do what’s asked.

Cultural Bias

My mom says that people that are born here in the United States don’t take advantage of what they have for example going to school. She says that people that come from Central America take advantage of what they have around them, but I disagree because some of them don’t they are lazy I’ve seen it before when I was in high school people that came from Central America supposedly come for better opportunities for example the education but some don’t take advantage when they have it.

Another cultural bias is that my parents think that all black people are bad and that they steal but they only say that according to what they see on social media and on the news. I disagree because not all colored people are the same everyone is different in the actions, they take to do things.

Conclusion

Throughout writing this paper and researching about Cultural identity, I’ve learned a lot about myself as a person and the type of cultures identified with and relate too. It has opened my view on how the world revolves around culture and the groups that are involved as well as the influences and impacts they have in an everyday basis. Everyone belongs to some type of culture identity even if they don’t quite know it yet. So to conclude the essay, it’s up to us to empower the groups we are a part of and learn more about ideas and cultures that could interest us today.

References

1. What do Americans value? | Information for refugees and immigrants. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://therefugeecenter.org/resources/american-values/