Cultural Identity and Personal Perspective

Cultural Identity and Personal Perspective

The Nature of Culture and Cultural Markers

Culture refers to the full range of behaviors, shared beliefs, values, attitudes, and social expectations within defined societies (Macionis, 2003). All known human societies share elements of what constitutes culture, and that is also the case for many higher forms of animals such as elephants, primates, whale, dolphin, and other mammalian species.

Typical examples of animal culture would be tool-using and hot spring-soaking primates whose unique behaviors and environmental behavioral adaptations are handed down through successive generations in much the same way that cultural traditions are reinforced within human societies. Similarly, specific pods of Orcas or "Killer Whales" have been observed to develop hunting techniques that are completely unique to their family pods and perpetuated by successive generations in the wild (Macionis, 2003).

Naturally, the individual elements that constitute a given culture differ tremendously between human societies and animals societies, primarily because of the intellectual and communications abilities of humans in comparison to even the most intelligent non-human animal species. Generally, any society-specific forms of shared behaviors and learned responses that are not products of biological processes but of social learning are considered cultural markers. In human societies, typical cultural markers include cuisine, language, architecture, art, philosophy, historical beliefs, religion, social rituals, beliefs, common practices, expectations, and social mores.

Hispanic Family Values and Cultural Identity

As a first-generation Hispanic-American female, I have become acutely aware from personal experience how significant cultural differences can be in contemporary society, especially for individuals raised in one cultural tradition and expected to succeed in another very different environment of different cultural values. In some respects, many Hispanic families maintain strong allegiances to some of the predominant social and cultural values and mores of their culture of origin even while assimilating successfully into mainstream foreign societies in many other respects (Schaefer, 2002). They may learn or absorb various American social behaviors and expectations while in public but still defer strongly to traditional Hispanic cultural perspectives, especially with respect to those that pertain to private matters and to those involving the family (Schaefer, 2002).

For example, many contemporary Hispanic females have taken advantage of the opportunities available in the United States to pursue higher education and advanced professional training to become doctors or lawyers or business executives. In some Hispanic families, even highly successful adult female family members may still be regarded as deserving a lower level of interpersonal respect from their male family members, merely because of traditional cultural attitudes about the relative status of men and women (Schaefer, 2002).

Within Hispanic-American Societies in the U.S., the Catholic religious tradition is common to even otherwise varied Hispanic cultures (Healey, 2003). While some U.S. Hispanic cultures maintain very similar Catholic religious beliefs and practices to those of non-Hispanic-American Catholics, other Hispanic-American cultures have continued extreme Hispanic variations of Catholicism such as Santeria, which actually originated in Africa but is practiced by large numbers of uneducated Cuban immigrants in particular. Just as in the case of mainstream American cultures, Hispanic cultures also reflect a wide range of religious practices in relation to the general adherence to Catholicism.

Personal Perspective

So-called "assimilated" Hispanic families often exhibit a very focused interest in becoming successful by contemporary American standards even as they maintain many aspects of their Hispanic cultures simultaneously. I am a first-generation American-born Hispanic woman who learned Spanish and English simultaneously as an infant. That has been a tremendous advantage for me socially, educationally, and professionally, as I am acutely aware how much more difficult life was for some of my older relatives who emigrated to the U.S. without fluent English language skills.

I have always felt that my upbringing allowed me the maximum possible benefit of American society without detracting from my ability to appreciate my culture of origin. In that regard, I have always felt very confident in public and in my interpersonal relationships; I have never felt like an immigrant or a foreign national and part of my personal identity definitely includes "American" components that are less often shared by those who were not born in this country. On the other hand, I have also always maintained strong ties to my culture of origin, particularly within my extended family relations and in our respective homes. Especially during Hispanic holidays and other social occasions, the events taking place in my parents' home could easily be envisioned as occurring in another country.

While all of us sometimes converse amongst one another in English, particularly important (or difficult or excited) conversations often revert naturally back to Spanish in our family. My mother has always considered it important for us to learn how to prepare all of the traditional cuisine of our culture of origin. Both of my parents have always been especially concerned with our performance in school and they both have always expected all of us to take full advantage of the opportunities available to us in the U.S. And to appreciate how much easier our lives are today than either the previous generations of Hispanic immigrants or our ancestors, many of whom never traveled more than a few miles from where they were born, much less had the chance to emigrate to another nation of economic opportunity.

My father may have certain conflicting expectations in relation to the clash of modern American social norms and traditional Hispanic values. For one example, it was very difficult for my father to become comfortable with the knowledge that his daughter has lived alone without being married and that she maintains a private social life, or more particularly, an adult dating life. On one hand, he has fully embraced Americanized values, such as in terms of women in the workplace or female engineers and physicians; on the other hand, my father admits to still adhering (at least to some degree) to traditional expectations within Hispanic social cultures such as those pertaining to the "proper" conduct of unmarried females.