Monica Soto
EDP 301
3/2/07
My Culture Story
My name is Monica Soto I’m 27 years old, and I was born in Tucson Arizona, but raised in Nogales Sonora Mexico. I consider my self more Mexican than American because all my values and customs are from Mexico. For example during my childhood I remember that all children in my family were raised in an old fashion way, every time that we refer to our parents, grand parents, or some one older than us, we had to refer to them in a really polite way. But I don’t see this as something bad; I believe that what my grandparents and my parents were trying to do is just letting us know that there has to be some kind of respect towards our elders. Also in our family every time that we refer to our grand parents, we had to refer to them as Dad or Mom, for example we had to say Papá Toño (Dad Toño) and Mamá Pina (Mom Pina), we were not allow to refer to them as grandma or grandpa.
In my family including aunts, cousins, etc. most of the time during the weekend all the family gathers, and we have a big family reunion, every family brings a special type of food, for example one family brings the drinks, another family bring the desserts, and so on, and since most of the time every body gathers at my moms house, my mom always cooks something special for all of us to eat. It looks like a real party even tough it is not. On Christmas is the same but in a more exaggerated way, because every one drinks beer or wine, some of us stay up late playing cards, dancing, singing and the children are also allow to stay up late to play with their toys and there is plenty of food to eat during the entire night.
I remember that when I turned fifteen years old, my mom and dad gave me a “Quinceañera” which is something similar to a sweet sixteen party, but there are more rituals involved, for example all girls that are having a quiceañera have to go through a religious program, once they’ve done this the church prepares a special mass for them, and the quinceañera has to wear a special dress that most of the time is pink or white and these two colors mean purity. Also a special party is prepared which also comes with some traditions like throwing a doll which means that you stop being a little girl, to turn into a lady, your shoes are changed into slippers which means that you are now a young adult lady, the quinceañera dances a special waltz with her father and this means that the father is presenting his daughter to the society as a lady.
Another very important tradition in my family happens during Christmas. My mom always decorates with Christmas lights and flowers an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, she always does this before the 12th of December, this is the day when the entire country of Mexico celebrates, because it’s the day of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the saint Juan Diego, in the hill of “El Tepeyac”. So every one celebrates this day by giving her a special mass, where every one even very important celebrities from Mexico sing to her and adore her. So many people in Mexico have an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe decorated around Christmas. Also around Christmas my mom makes, tamales, menudo and pozole, this type of food is very traditional in Mexico during the holidays. These are all the traditions that are most important to me and my family.
I became aware of other cultures when I started college, but to be honest I have never looked at them more deeply, to talk about their traditions or rituals, but I believe that it would be a wonderful experience for me to get to see other cultures and learn about their traditions. I think that this would help me a lot since I want to be a bilingual teacher, this would help me to teach my students about other cultures more deeply and teach them to be respectful about other cultures.