Culture and Diversity

Culture and Diversity

Claudia Jasmine Villalobos-Crosse

Comm. 175, Section 700N

Professor Maureen Keane

November 5, 2016
Culture and Diversity 2

Culture and Diversity

Culture and diversity play a very crucial part in communication, being part of different

ethnicities, possessing different nationalities, and having different religious beliefs are some

examples of co-cultures a person might be a part of that can impact the way one might

communicate and perceive communication from others. For the purpose of writing this paper, I

interviewed a man that is a member of many different co-cultures that are different to the ones I

belong, and I learned how societies differences and similarities that arise from belonging to

different co-cultures can affect the way we see ourselves, how we are perceived by others, and

more specifically how we communicate to other individuals.

Culture is defined as the language, values, beliefs, traditions, and customs people share and

learn (Adler, 77), Ive come to the realization that many people have different definitions to

what the word culture means to them, culture for me, is a way of thinking, how you behave,

and what you believe in. As I continue this paper, I believe it is important for me to give a little

feedback on my background, how I was raised and the circumstances that led me be become the

person I am today. I was born and raised in a large city is Mexico, I moved to the United States,

more specifically to El Paso, Texas a town that has a large Hispanic population when I was 16

years old, I am part of the millennial generation, and I am married to a white male. The man I

interviewed is my father-in-law, he was born and raised in a small suburb outside the city of

Chicago where he has lived all of his life, he is part of the baby boomer generation, his roots are

mostly Irish but he doesnt identify himself with his heritage as much as he would like, he is a

hardworking man, and he didnt graduate from college, he is an all American white male. His

definition of culture is as follows Values, experiences, and beliefs you acquire depending on

how you were raised.

From my interview with this man, I learned that for the most part the values that we believe to be

important are some we shared, we both agree that hard work is important, and that success isnt

necessarily connected to income, but instead is measured in level of happiness. One thing I found

particularly intriguing is the way he thinks about religion, my father-in-law was raised in a

Christian household, his mother dragged him and his siblings to church, and church functions on

a regular basis, the only reason he attended to church was because his mother did not give him a

choice, that as soon as he was old enough to decide not to go, he stopped going. Him and his

wife had similar experiences about religion growing up, that when they had children they

decided that It wasnt as important to be part of a religion, instead they gave their kids the

freedom to decide for themselves what they wanted to believe when they were old enough,

which led into a family of non-believers. My experience with religion was completely different, I

was raised catholic and I continued attending to church well past the age when I could decide not

to, not because I felt obligated, but because those are my beliefs and I consider them to be

important. Understanding the reason why my in-laws decided to raise their children without any

religious guidance gave me an understanding as to why they found it difficult to understand that

it was important for my family and I that when my husband and I got married that we did it

through the catholic church, making a connection with people with different religious beliefs can

be a difficult task.

Another one of our extremely apparent differences is how we express affection within our

families. In the Mexican community it is accustomed to greet a family member with a hug and a

kiss on the cheek, that is just the way I remember greeting my family as far as I can remember,

and not only my immediate family, but also my cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. Showing affection

through physical contact is considered a normal thing, and a hug is always encouraged. My
Culture and Diversity 4

father-in-law has a very different opinion in the matter of how physical contact is viewed in his

culture, to give you an idea one of his quotes was public displays of affection sometimes make

me uncomfortable, his family usually just say hello to one another, with the occasional hand

shake, if he feels that someone deserves to be shown affection for example if it is one of his

sons birthdays, he does not hug or anything similar, instead he will politely hand you a check. I

believe that the last time he hugged his son was when my he was being deployed to Afghanistan

and there was a possibility that he wouldnt come back. This was a concept that I wasnt familiar

with, that when I first met him I thought it was completely strange that he wouldnt hug his son

that he hadnt seen in over a year.

Regardless to the extremely different lives that my father-in-law and I have lived, and the

differences of the backgrounds of where we come from, we do not have a hard time

communicating, in fact we both agree that we like conversing with one another and learning as

much from each others lives as we can. This is due to the fact that even though we might not

agree on religion, and show affection a certain way, we both keep an open mind free of

judgement. As I have learned without an open-minded attitude a communicator will have

trouble interacting competently with people from different backgrounds (Adler, 96)
Culture and Diversity 5

References

ADLER, R. B., Rodman, G., & Du Pre, A. (2016). UNDERSTANDING HUMAN

COMMUNICATION (12th ed.) S.l.: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Appendix

1. What is your definition of culture?

Values, experiences, and beliefs you acquire depending on how you were raised.

2. How do you define family?

collection of people that you are related to you, either through marriage or blood. Although

sometimes I consider really close friends part of my family.

3. Who holds the most status in your family? Why?

The old fashion version of this used to be Me because I am the person in the household that

makes the most money and it was that way for a very long period of time, but know the status is

shared between both of the parents. (Similar income)

4. How do you define success?

When you achieve a happy life, not necessary related to how much money you have or how big

your home is, as long as you are happy you are successful

5. Do you consider your parents to be successful?

Yes, they made the best they possible could with very little and lived happy.

6. How important is education in your family?

It isnt the key to success but it widens your horizons, thats why we pushed our kids to finish

collage even though we (the parents) didnt, because we know that their lives would be much

easier if they have a degree

7. Is punctuality important to you? Why or why not?

It depends of where I am going but usually it isnt as important, there are more important things

to worry about.

8. What is the most important meal of the day?

Although doctor say its breakfast, to me it is Dinner.

9. Do you eat foods that are indigenous to your culture? Why or why not? If you answered yes,

name some of the foods that you eat. If you answered no, what types of foods do you eat?

Not necessarily, because I am not a cook so I mostly eat easy to cook meals, and because of

diabetes I tend to go for heathier choices.

10. Did you ever live with your grandparents or extended family?

Yes, even after getting married, my wife and I lived with my mother until our kids were almost

adults.

11. Do you actively participate in an organized religion?

I was raised going to Church every Sunday, but that ended as soon as I turned 18

12. How important is religion in your family? Why?

I think it is important to believe in something, but as a family religion is not our main focus.

13. If religion is important in your family, do you plan to pass this on to your children? Why or

why not?

We didnt pass any religion beliefs to our children, we decided it would be best if they made up

their minds once they were old enough to understand religion. Although they did attend catholic

schools growing up.

14. Are the roles of men and women specifically defined in your family? If so, what are they?

No we live in a household were everybody does things for themselves

15. Do you have any eating habits/rituals that are specific to your culture?

As an Irish man, the only cultural eating habit St. Patricks day dinner.

16. Define and describe the most important (or most celebrated) holiday of your culture.

St. Patricks day.

17. If you are from a culture that speaks English as a second language, do you speak your native

language? If not, why? If so, will you teach your native language to any children you have?

N/A

18. How is physical contact viewed in your culture?

My family is very reserved. We dont hug a lot or show our affection with physical contact often,

in fact public displays of affection sometimes make me uncomfortable. And I believe it is only

appropriate to hug your children when they are kids, once they are older than 12 it becomes

awkward.

19. What is considered most disrespectful in your culture?

Not listening or not paying attention when someone is talking to you.

20. What is considered most respectful in your culture?

Keeping an open mind, and not judging others.

21. What would you say is, from your perspective, the most commonly held misconception about

people of your culture?

As an Irish man, people often think we all have issues with alcoholism. As a white man, people

tend to think we dont have enough struggles and our lives are just much easier.

22. Have you ever experienced racism? In what form?

It is hard to believe that as a white male Ive experienced racism, but I attended a very diverse

High School where whites werent the majority, so yes, in situations Ive experienced forms of

racism.

23. What can be done about racism and prejudice, in your opinion?

The only thing I can think of is to have an open mind, and keep hateful thoughts and comments

to yourself.
Culture and Diversity 9

24. Do young people today have a sense of culture?

Yes, I do.

25. What is the best thing about living in the USA?

The diversity of people that live here, and the freedom we have.

26. What is the worst thing about living in the USA?

With diversity comes racism

27. Have you ever felt excluded based on your gender or culture?

Not for a very long time, but yes.

28. Do you remember excluding others based on Culture, Age or Gender?

Also yes.

Is there anything you would like others to know that we have not included here about you or

your culture.

I believe that is important to remember to always have an open mind, and to not judge a book by

its cover.