Understanding cultural identity through Puerto Rican heritage and family

¶ … culture from a social science perspective. The second purpose is for the author to describe her own cultural identity from a personal and academic perspective. Combined, these two functions will help demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses in the author's concept of cultural identity, suggesting areas for future study, and also areas of current mastery.

Defining Genogram

A genogram is similar to a family tree, but has much greater detail. In a pure science approach, these genograms can show how diseases or other biological traits are transmitted across generations, or, in the case of disorders that are not heritable, it can highlight that a family may have been exposed to certain risk factors. In the social sciences, a genogram might contain psychological traits or conditions that are passed from family member to following generations, but might also contain information about the relationships between family members. It can help highlight areas of dysfunction, but also point out how the successful strategies that the family members use when facing adversity.

How My Culture Influences My Work with Other Groups

Although I spent my early childhood in Puerto Rico, I moved to the mainland United States when I was ten years old, in 1973. We lived in Queens, New York until 1978, and then we moved to Connecticut, which is where I lived most of my life. While I had a solid Puerto Rican cultural background, I did not grow up solely immersed in that culture, but, instead, spent time in the metropolitan Queens culture and the more suburban Connecticut culture. I think that immersive experience helped me develop the skills I would need to relate to different groups of people.

Specifically, I feel like my Puerto Rican background has given me a surprising amount of tolerance. People outside of Hispanic communities and non-Catholics often think that the traditional gender roles and hyper-religiosity associated with Hispanic communities translates into a lack of tolerance. However, in my own experience, our religious and cultural practices were very expansive, at least in a community setting. There was room to embrace different beliefs and practices and include them inside of the culture, instead of rejecting them as different or other. I think this is especially clear when you see how Puerto Ricans have really blended with the art, music, and dance communities around the world. I like to take a similar approach in my personal life and look at similarities instead of differences, focusing on how to blend seemingly disparate experiences and people together into a cohesive whole.

The Cultural-Ecological Model of Migration and Development

While my background is Puerto Rican, of course I have to acknowledge the pivotal role that immigrating to the mainland United States played in my personal cultural development during my childhood. That is why the Cultural-Ecological Model of Migration and Development is the best model for my cultural background. It begins with a rejection of the presumption that "normative development for children in white middle-class families should be the basis for development in non-white ethnic minority families" (Perreira & Smith, 2007). Instead, it focuses on how five different constructs help shape the development of youth in immigrant Latino families. These five major constructs are: "(1) Child Characteristics, (2) Family Context, (3) Context of Migration, (4) Context of Settlement, and (5) Ethnic Identification" (Perreira & Smith, 2007).

Many developmental models fail to focus on the important role that the child plays in his or her own development. However, the Cultural-Ecological Model of Migration and Development examines how the child influences socio-cultural relationships. While the child plays this important role, it is important to keep in mind that much of the child's influence and interaction is outside of the child's direct control. For example, gender, ethnicity, and appearance all influence development and how the child is treated by people within the culture, and, in an immigrant context, outside of the culture, as well.

The family context is important as well, particularly in Latino immigrants. Many Latino immigrants to the United States are undocumented, which carries with it an atmosphere of fear and increases vulnerability to predation. Furthermore, the likelihood of documentation depends heavily on a family's socioeconomic background. "Less-educated immigrant parents often enter a shadow economy of undocumented workers with no formal support for their presence in the U.S. In contrast, highly-educated immigrant parents may enter the U.S. with travel or employment-based visas and experience little hardship during their journeys, settle in wealthier suburban neighborhoods, speak English fluently, and easily access health and educational resources in their communities. Immigrant and ethnic minority families with fewer economic resources partially compensate for the lack of these resources by relying on support from extended family members and close friendship networks" (Perreira & Smith, 2007). However, these extended community ties can also become burdensome and prevent families from focusing resources on their offspring in the way that other immigrant groups might.

Furthermore, the context of migration can shape immigrant experience. While it would be easy to assume all immigrants now are voluntary immigrants for employment or financial opportunities, even if those opportunities may seem predatory, one must look at the broader context. The historical political relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico is extremely complex, with Puerto Rico being one of the few territories held by the United States in what is essentially a colonial arrangement. While this relationship is now a two-way relationship, it was certainly not always beneficial to those in Puerto Rico. Furthermore, many Puerto Ricans have ancestors who were slaves, whether African or Native American in ethnicity, which means that family migration patterns were not always voluntary. While this heritage many not impact current decisions to immigrate, it will have had an impact on past family decisions, and that impact can last multiple generations. Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind that almost all youth immigrants are, in many ways, involuntary immigrants. "For youth whose parents are voluntary immigrants, the decision to migrate to the United States is made primarily by parents. Their parents decide to move to the U.S. For work, to reconnect with family (including spouses) who are already living in the U.S., and to provide more opportunities, especially educational opportunities, for their children. As a result, parents typically view immigration with hope and optimism whereas children sometimes view immigration as an unwelcome stressor" (Perreira & Smith, 2007).

The context of settlement also plays a critical role in the cultural identify of youth immigrants. Previously, people assumed there were two primary contexts of settlement: assimilation and separation. The thought was the immigrant groups either wanted to lose connections to their root cultural heritage and traditions or that they desired to stay separate from the broader American culture. Today, there is a recognition that many immigrant families can be very open towards and want to embrace the broader American experience, while still wanting to retain connections to their cultural heritage. Furthermore, outside forces help shape how immigrants acculturate to a new surroundings. The four primary dimensions impacting acculturations are: the policies of the receiving government, pre-existing ethnic or race relations, the conditions in immigrant co-ethnic communities; and school and work environments (Perreira & Smith, 2007).

Ethnic identification is the final dimension element of the model that really differentiates it from the white middle-class model that has long been considered normative. Ethnic identification is a process, which, while shaped by the family of origin, also depends largely on the individual's own experience in the outside culture. For example, immigrant youth are in a school setting where they are usually getting exposure, not only to the dominant culture in that area, but also to other minority cultures. They are more likely to experience rapid acculturation than their parents, which can lead to exacerbated parent-child conflicts, particularly in the teen years.

Stage of Personality Development

As my MAKSS results reflect, I am an older person who has spent the vast majority of my lifetime as an immigrant living in the United States. Furthermore, I have lived in areas where there was a tremendous amount of cultural and ethnic diversity. As a result, every area of my life has reflected a very high degree of multi-cultural involvement, which has helped prepare me for a helping role in a multi-cultural world and has helped me embrace multiple perspectives when considering issues.

I do not think it is unusual that a greater exposure to different cultures is correlated, in my personal experience, with being at a higher stage of personal development. Not every person uses exposure to different cultures to their advantage as a learning opportunity, but every person who is exposed to different cultures is given the opportunity to learn from them. When people take those opportunities, the natural result is that the opportunities will help move people forwards in their own personal identity development. Although I am continuing to advance myself in my career and could always use more professional knowledge, I feel as if I am fully developed in terms of maturity and development.

However, it is difficult to assign myself to a developmental stage. I agree that a normative white Western approach to development is not adequate to describe the developmental stages experienced by people in other cultures. However, many other developmental models fail to break development down into stages. For example, in A Cultural-Ecological Model of Migration and Development, the authors describe the factors that shape development, but fail to break that development into stages or levels. It is can be difficult, if not impossible, for a person who does not identify with one of those other models to describe a developmental level, given the dearth of ethnic-focused models focusing on developmental levels.

While the model I chose does not focus on stages and lacks the rigidity of those models that suggest that people move from one stage to another, rather than recognizing the fluidity of movement between stages that actually characterizes many of us as adults, it does show some hallmarks of adult behavior. For example, the choice of an ethnic identity is considered an adult behavior, and I self-identify as Puerto-Rican. Likewise, educational and professional choices are listed as stages, and, though I may be delayed beyond the earliest opportunities for an education, in the context of immigrants, working to expand my education at this point in my life is developmentally appropriate, even if it is delayed. In fact, one way that I think immigrants are influenced by the United States and its emphasis on opportunity is the willingness to embrace change at later parts in life, rather than resigning oneself to a life dictated by choices or decisions made in early adulthood.

Influence of the Past

The Puerto Rican culture is male-dominated in a way that did restrict my awareness and alter my perception of educational opportunities when I was younger. I think it would be incorrect to say that I was kept from these opportunities because of my culture, because of Puerto Rican women who did seize these opportunities, but it is fair to say that I did not fully consider them as possibilities for myself. However, that perception was challenged by my experience with my immediate family. I have one sister who is 10 years younger than I am, which means that her entire life experience was within the United States. She received her bachelor and master degree while in her 20s, which really helped challenged my beliefs about educational and professional attainment for women in our culture.

I was also influenced by my working environment. I was laid off from Pratt and Whitney in 1992, which motivated me to attend college. However, I focused more on acquiring a trade, and became a massage therapist. However, that learning experience helped convince me that I could be a success in college, and helped motivate me to attend college. I began at community college, and then went for my bachelor's degree. Those successes helped convince me I could be a success and I am currently going for my master's degree. These successes were also reinforced by my work experiencing. Working at Yale Hospital, I was surrounded by many highly educated people, which served as a real motivating factor when I would feel discouraged about my education.

Moving to the Next Stage of Development

As previously described, my selected model does not focuses on the stages of development, but, instead, focuses on overall development. However, when looking at a traditional stage-based development model, what is critical to moving to the next stage of development is resolving conflicts that are linked to the current developmental stage. I believe that this approach is applicable even when one has deviated from the traditional stage-development approach. Any person who is mired in conflicts is going to find themselves hampered in development, as a backwards-looking approach is always going to hinder forward movement.

The first step in moving past a conflict is recognizing a conflict. It is easy to blame the failure to achieve goals on things that are external to you as a person. However, when there is a consistent pattern of failing to achieve goals, one needs to examine behavior and determine how or why a person's own behavior is contributing to that failure to achieve goals. At this point, I do not feel as if I am failing to meet any of my current goals. However, I recognize development as being cyclical and imagine that I will, at some point in the future, face challenges that I have not yet identified. When and if that happens, I know that the first step that I will need to do is engage in self-analysis to determine what conflict is keeping me from moving forward.

Moving to the Highest Levels of Identity Development and Integration

For me, the most important goal is moving forward and continued personal growth. Therefore, I feel as if I cannot really answer what I will do to move to the highest levels of identity development and integration, because I think it is somewhat presumptuous to assume that I would achieve the highest levels in the course of my lifetime. While I am very well educated about personal identity and the socio-cultural impact of society on personal identity, I am also extremely aware of how little of the world I have personally experienced. I think that I would almost have to experience all of the world in order to achieve the highest levels of identity development and integration, because only through experience could I truly attain that type of total development. Therefore, I do not think it is an attainable goal. That is very much in-line with my religious background. As a Catholic, the goal is to be Christ-like, with the understanding that no person can ever be exactly like Christ. I view my identity development and integration goals similarly to my religious goals; my hope is to always have continuous growth and to continuously allow what I learn to influence my personal development, while recognizing that I may never achieve the highest level. In fact, part of this perspective actually hinges on the idea that if I feel I have achieved the highest levels, then I am probably shutting myself off from the continued experiences that would help me continue in my personal growth. Therefore, I think that the most important thing for me in continued upward movement is that I continue to embrace experiences, continue to focus on growth and personal development, and never shut myself off from those experiences.