My Cultural Background

I have chosen to do my project on Argentina. Argentina seemed to be a very interesting country to do a project on because I am not familiar with their culture, but only a few known facts. Argentina does have an interesting history but I want to know much more detail about it. I wanted to pick a Latin American country that was different from my Mexican heritage. By doing the cultural portfolio of Argentina, I hope to learn a little more about their culture than the more dominant Latin American countries such as Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, or Brazil.

My definition of culture is a way a society lives and it is important because culture affects the ideas and actions of a society. The actual definition that I found in my sociology book is that culture is the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that characterize a group and are passed from one generation to the next (Henslin 38).

My personal culture is being an American with Mexican descent. My cultural standards are the same to other Americans, but also being Mexican has caused me to have a dual identity. Although I am an American, I still have Mexican influences in my family culture by the food I eat and by speaking English and Spanish at home, which are norms that are different in the broader American culture. I feel Mexican when I’m surrounded by the culture as speaking in Spanish or identifying with other Mexican-American people that have succeeded in the United States. I identify immediately as an American whenever I visit Mexico and feel like the other. Also I identify with my American identity when learning about American history or by celebrating the 4^th of July. Sometimes both of these cultural identity clash with each other and makes me feel almost alienated by both cultures, so by being Mexican-American it has created for me and many others a different subculture.

I also identify as being a Californian because I was born there. I think moving from California to Illinois when I was younger has made me identify more as a Californian. By living and being raised in California I appreciate diversity and made me a more open-minded person. I guess it is because California is very open-minded state. I identify as being Californian when I get homesick or whenever someone makes fun of California. I can also identify as being from Illinois by the way I do things such as speaking with a Chicagoan accent, which cousins from California has clearly pointed out, and also appreciating diversity. I guess Illinois is my new home state so I identify with it whenever I leave the state. So I guess I am part of four cultures: American, Mexican, Californian and Illinoisan.

I am aware that Argentina is a Hispanic country, so their culture will be somewhat like mine. Their culture would be based around the Spanish language and heavily influenced by Catholicism. The Argentinian culture would probably be very family-oriented. It might also be influenced by modern American culture and other Latin American cultures.