Culture

Culture is something that has been on my mind recently. In sociology, we always discuss how culture plays a major role in our society. I guess I never really thought about how the family can have its’ own culture. This is really interesting to me because in class, we talked about how families from Mexico cross the border to come to the United States and how that influences their family dynamic/culture.

 I am half Mexican and in my family, we have created our own culture. My grandpa is from Mexico and he traveled to America many years ago. As he grew up, he wanted a better life for himself and wanted to find more opportunities to be able to support himself and his future family. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for him to leave his family behind and embark on a new culture in the United States. From his example, my family has learned how sacrifice and service is vital in helping the family cope with the changes in the family culture. I have come to understand my families’ culture in being Mexican-American. It has changed my perspective on families’ who come to America for reasons to better their lives.

A factor to culture that I thought was interesting is how families may have to face language barriers as they come to the United States. English is a language families will have to learn as they come to work and communicate with those who do not speak Spanish. I can’t imagine how hard it is to learn English as they come to the United States. That is a huge change for families’ to be accustom to.

Sacrifice is another factor that influences a families’ culture. Parents sacrifice money and time to provide for their family. As they travel to the United States, they literally sacrifice everything for their family to have a better life. They also sacrifice time away from their family. This influences the culture within the family because relationships may become strained as they are far away from each other and are always gone. As they become reunited, it may be difficult to reestablish a relationship what was once there. These sacrifices are hard for families’ to experience. It just goes to show how much love parents and children have for each other to sacrifice their time and money for better opportunities.

I am honestly so grateful for families’ and the culture that they can display. We can learn so much from each other and from other cultures as well. I think it is important that we keep an open mind to those who may have these challenges in their lives. I also think it is important that we are also aware of our own culture in our family. Once we understand our own culture within the family, I feel that we can understand others better. Culture has always been so important to me and I think that’s why I love studying it so much. I think that’s part of why I am a sociology major is because I can come to understand other people’s background. I hope that we can all keep an open mind of culture and culture within the family because like I said it will help us to understand others better.