Delightful Differences

I was really nervous about this project at first. I had no idea I was going to do. At the last minute, I decided to interview a Hispanic girl that grew up in Mexico and had moved here to the United States when she got older. I met her at school, in my math class, and asked if I could interview her. She was very excited, because she had never been interviewed. I thought it would be interesting to know some things that were totally different in Mexico versus the United States.

One of the first questions I asked her was about her religion. I knew before asking that most Hispanics were Catholic, but wanted to know if she was anything different and how everything worked. Just like I predicted, she’s Catholic. She said in the Catholic Church you have a confirmation service, a baptismal service, and a communion service. The one thing that she said afterwards kind of shocked me. She said before getting married in the Catholic Church, you had to have done all of these three. It is almost like known “to-do” list before a ceremony can commence. 

Another question I was interested in asking her and learning about was education for Hispanics and the differences that were in Mexico versus here in the United States. She told me education is important, but many children must dropout to start working for their families. Once they dropout they don’t have the opportunity to return to their education. She went on to say, in Mexico what was considered public school isn’t really what it is like here. Here in the U.S. if you attend a public school, you don’t have to pay, but in Mexico you did and not many could afford it. They barely had enough money to eat. However, the Hispanic culture here in the United States achieving a higher education is super important because it is affordable. She also mentioned that post-secondary education is encouraged.

A third question that I asked was how Hispanics celebrate special occasions such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, graduations, weddings, birthdays, etc. She told me there wasn’t any Thanksgiving celebration in Mexico. Which was really sad for me because I told her it was my favorite holiday, which she laughed at. For Christmas celebration lots of people gather in one household where tamales are usually the main course accompanied by a punch drink. A nativity scene is set up with all characters such as, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the stable, animals, three wise men, etc. She mentioned that weddings were HUGE. Just like in America, a reception is followed after the ceremony, but lasts a very long time, like two o’clock in the morning or so. She said she hates them because she is an early bird who always wants to leave to go back home to bed. Birthdays are usually just a meal, gifts, and a piñata, as well as graduations, minus the piñata. New Years is like it is here. It’s all fun of staying up all night, eating food, and listening/dancing to music.

The last question I decided to ask her was about the culture shock when she moved from Mexico to the United States. She told me it was a total shock at how little groceries were bought at a time from the grocery stores for people’s families, and the amount of fast food consumed. She went on to tell me wonderful stories about the fun times she would spend the kitchen with her mother and grandmother. “It really brought us together. I think that’s why I such a great relationship with my family.” she explained.  She was also surprised how little time parents spent with their kids because of both parents having to work, and the high divorce rate here in the U.S. than in Mexico.

We often get caught up in the Hispanic stereotypes shown on tv or displayed in movies, now that I have more knowledge about Hispanics and how their culture works, I feel like I could better understand if I have a Hispanic student in my future career. I’m really excited to be going on this journey of becoming a teacher and learning more about other interesting cultures.

I thought this project was interesting and important for all of us to do. It took us out of our comfort zones to get to know a person from a different culture and ask them questions about it, which was really great for us to do. Some of these situations like this may be awkward at first, but we’re going to have to get used to it if we’re going to be teachers.