Cultural Assessment of a Mexican American Woman: Andrews & Boyle Framework

Background and Cultural Affiliations

The subject is a 26-year-old female whose initials will be used throughout this paper to protect her anonymity and privacy. The Andrews & Boyle (2012) cultural assessment framework guides the interview questions and the analysis of her responses. Her responses are also compared with those obtained in an interview with a relative from her family's country of origin, Mexico. The subject was the first in her generation to be born in the United States; both her parents were born in Oaxaca, Mexico. Comparing the subject's interview results with those of her aunt, who still lives in Oaxaca, enhances a healthcare worker's ability to provide culturally competent care.

The subject identifies as Mexican American and uses terms such as "Hispanic" and "Latina" to describe herself. She was born in Baltimore, but her parents relocated when she was eight years old. Both parents were born in Oaxaca, Mexico and both speak English fluently. The subject reports that her parents are "proud" of their heritage and, like her, identify as Mexican American. However, living in an area with a "negligible" Mexican community has affected their connections to their heritage and culture. Interestingly, their level of enculturation may serve as a protective variable, as research indicates that "enculturation was associated with increasing life satisfaction" (Ojeda, Edwards, Hardin, et al., 2013, p. 63). The subject and her parents visit family members in Oaxaca and Puebla at most once per year, though they remain close with their relatives in Mexico.

The cultural affiliations of a Mexican American are naturally different from those of a Mexican individual who continues to reside in Mexico. Comparing the subject's responses with those of her aunt in Oaxaca reveals that the dual-identity tensions present in the subject are absent in the aunt. The subject "goes between" her different identities and adapts to the situation — something she says she learned from infancy and experiences without identity conflict. For example, when in Mexico, she is in "full Mexico mode," speaking only Spanish. She describes herself as having one foot in each culture, whereas her aunt has both feet planted firmly in the root cultures of Oaxaca and Puebla, where she originally came from.

The interviews reveal that possessing a double identity as an immigrant or daughter of immigrants can produce a unique cultural affiliation distinct from the affiliations of those who identify with only one culture and nationality. At the same time, an analysis of the aunt's responses shows that being from Oaxaca is itself a distinct cultural affiliation, given the diversity of Mexico's own cultural landscape. A Mexican person from Oaxaca is perceived — and perceives herself — differently than someone from, say, Sinaloa, reflecting the regional diversity within Mexican identity.

Values Orientation and Communication

When asked about health values, beliefs, and attitudes, the subject laughs because her father is a physician who holds "strong attitudes" about health and has instilled in his family a deep respect for the medical profession. The subject acknowledges that she is more interested in holistic and complementary medicine than her father, who is dismissive of anything not firmly grounded in the scientific literature. Ultimately, she admits that she trusts the medical model even though it cannot "fix everything," as she puts it.

Because both her parents hold advanced degrees, the subject's attitudes toward educational attainment are goal-oriented. She is currently pursuing a degree in public policy and political science. Her parents received their bachelor's degrees in the United States, after which they obtained work permits and eventually full United States citizenship. They regarded their educational attainment not as something to take for granted but as a means of fulfilling higher needs — knowledge, independence, and self-fulfillment — values they passed on to their children. The subject states that she is strongly oriented toward using her power and privilege to help others, which is what drew her to public policy.

When asked about relating to people from other cultures, the subject seems almost surprised by the question. She explains that although her area may not have the "strongest Mexican community in the country," she nevertheless feels comfortable as a minority. Her perception of local demographics is consistent with United States Census (2016) data showing the area as less than 7% Latino or Hispanic. She is accustomed to "passing as white" and notes that most people do not realize she is Mexican or Latina until they become close friends, learn her last name, or ask directly. She attributes her comfort with diverse social settings to attending a school that drew students from "all over."

At home, the family moves fluidly between English and Spanish, using whichever language best expresses the situation or emotion. They also adjust to the language that makes their guests most comfortable — for instance, when hosting relatives who are less proficient in English. The subject's mother was a professor of literature for ten years before working at the Library of Congress, and the family's library contains books in both languages. Her father, a surgeon who worked for years at the main Johns Hopkins medical center, was recently transferred to lead the surgical team at a suburban hospital. Given these health-seeking behaviors, it is evident that there are "substantial differences between English-speaking versus Spanish-speaking Hispanics" in terms of acquiring health-related screenings — disparities only "partially explained by SES and access to care" (Liss & Baker, 2014, p. 228).

Regarding nonverbal communication, the subject laughingly attributes her family's "massive hugging" and emotional expressiveness to their heritage. No one in the family, regardless of gender or age, has difficulty with emotionality; they freely express their feelings, even if this sometimes leads to miscommunication with people from more reserved cultures. Living primarily around white peers has led the subject and her parents to adapt somewhat to what she calls "mainstream" cultural communication norms. She also notes that gender plays a role in her own family: her father is considerably more reserved than her mother. Interestingly, the aunt's interview provides a contrasting perspective — she reports that both men and women in Oaxaca tend to be emotionally expressive, both verbally and nonverbally.

References

Andrews, M. M., & Boyle, J. S. (2012). Transcultural concepts in nursing care (6th ed.). Appendix A.

Leatherman, T. L., Hoke, M. K., & Goodman, A. H. (2016). Local nutrition in global contexts. In New Directions in Biocultural Anthropology. John Wiley.

Lindberg, L., Ek, A., Nyman, J., et al. (2015). Low grandparental social support combined with low parental socioeconomic status is closely associated with obesity in preschool-aged children: A pilot study. Pediatric Obesity, 11(4), 313–316.

Liss, D. T., & Baker, D. W. (2014). Understanding current racial/ethnic disparities in colorectal cancer screening in the United States: The contribution of socioeconomic status and access to care. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 46(3), 228–236.

Ojeda, L., Edwards, L. M., Hardin, E. E., et al. (2013). The role of behavioral and cognitive cultural orientation on Mexican American college students' life satisfaction. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 13(1), 63–74.

Potter, C. M., & Ulijaszek, S. J. (2013). Predicting adult obesity from measures in earlier life. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 67(12), 1032–1037.

Telzer, E. H., Tsai, K. M., Gonzales, N., et al. (2015). Mexican American adolescents' family obligation values and behaviors: Links to internalizing symptoms across time and context. Developmental Psychology, 51(1), 75–86.

United States Census. (2016). Quick facts: Bethesda. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/bethesdacdpmaryland/PST045216