Yoga and tamale-making as intercultural learning experiences

Near Eastern Culture

For my first intercultural experience, I decided to attend a yoga class. Although yoga has become increasingly popular amongst Westerners, it is still an ancient Eastern practice rather than something that can be characterized as part of mainstream American culture. It is a noncompetitive activity that is devoted to preparing the body for meditation rather than improving the body's physical appearance or to improve an athlete's performance. It is much a mental practice as it is a physical one.

During the beginning of class, everyone laid down their mats and assumed an 'easy sitting posture.' The teacher gave a short 'dharma' talk about the focus of the class, which was about setting aside the ego. Then, we said 'om' to indicate that the practice was starting. We performed some chanting in Sanskrit, doing a call-and-response after the teacher's prompting. Then, we begin to practice. First we began with sun salutations, followed by various balancing postures, forward folding and back-bending, and doing inversions (like headstand and shoulder stand).

All the while the teacher stressed that we should 'listen to our bodies' and not push ourselves beyond which we were capable of doing comfortably in a manner very different from a conventional fitness class. At the end of the class, we meditated again, this time a Buddhist meditation in which we would repeat, "may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be at ease" five times, first focusing upon ourselves, then upon someone we liked, then upon someone we did not know, then upon someone we disliked, then upon the whole world. This was to underline the principles of non-differentiation between all living beings.

I enjoyed the yoga class very much. One of the difficulties I have when sitting through any type of religious service is that I find it challenging to sit still for long periods of time. The yoga class combines spiritualty with an intense physical workout. The intention is to unite mind and body. I feel that after taking a yoga class, I understand some of the cultural attitudes expressed in Eastern religions far better than I ever did before.

Intercultural experience 2: Making tamales

A friend of mine is Mexican-American and invited me over to her house on a night when her mother would be making tamales for dinner. Although the family is very much 'assimilated,' this is a tradition that has been passed down for generations. You will never see this family purchasing taco shells from a supermarket or going to Taco Bell!

First, my friend's mother lays out everything from the corn husks, to the cooked meat (which she prepares beforehand because the process is so labor-intensive), and the masa dough which she has prepared earlier. Tamales are very labor-intensive and require a great deal of planning beforehand. No one makes only a few tamales at a time: the family cooks as many as possible and then freezes what they cannot eat, or invites other people over to consume them in one fell swoop. My friend's mother is an artist in the way she opens the husk, smears the dough, and fills the meat. It is like watching a very skilled factory worker, although she does not need to measure and merely eyes everything by sight. There were so many to be made, we tried to lend a hand, but barely made a dent in the pile compared to my friend's mother. She explained the process as she worked, but it was clear that she had been doing this so many times, she was on autopilot.

Certain foods have great symbolic significance within various cultures, and in Mexican-American culture, tamales are one of them. I think this is partially because of the communal nature of the food. Regardless of one's level of experience, because they are made en masse, there is something about the preparation that makes it a multigenerational, collective experience, versus making a standard American meal at home. The experience reminded me of baking Christmas cookies with my grandmother, only tamales are made year 'round, not simply as a type of 'event' cooking. Home cooking for my friend's mother is a way of nurturing the family.

However, there is always a dark side to food traditions. I know that my friend's father struggles with his weight and the high-fat pork used in tamales are not good for him. While striving to connect with the past with traditional foods, it can be difficult to pursue a healthy diet.

Intercultural experience 4: Being gay

For my fourth intercultural experience, I visited a support group for gay teens. Before attending, I called the facilitator to explain that I wanted to attend the meeting as an observer for a class, and wondered if there were any sessions that were 'open for the public.' After clearing it with the other members of the group, I was allowed to attend the meeting.

Some of the stories I heard in the group were sad and horrifying. Many of the teens had been rejected by their families because of their sexuality. One or two had to live elsewhere while things 'calmed down' at home. Other teens, although they had basically good relationships with their parents, said that there was still tension because of their parent's religious beliefs.

Many things I took for granted, like being to date openly in high school, were a struggle for these teens. Some teens still concealed their sexuality and dated outside of the school environment. A few were 'out' but could not be as demonstrative as their peers, for fear of being accused of 'rubbing people's faces' in their sexuality. Almost all of the teens had experienced some form of bullying, either in school or on the street.

However, other than the experience of being gay, I was struck by how much in common I had with the majority of the group participants. Most of the teens came from my cultural and economic background. We listened to the same bands, had the same sense of humor, and had the same goals in life. This underlined to me the fact that being gay is a unique intercultural experience. Instead of having family solidarity or easy access to a community of like-minded persons, the gay teen must struggle for recognition and acceptance amongst the people with whom he or she ideally should be closest. The gay teen appears 'the same' to outsiders but never feels fully part of the 'in group' into which he or she is born.