The Importance Of A Hispanic Family

Growing up in a Hispanic family can be quite hectic. It may sound overwhelming, but it is difficult to keep up with American and Mexican

I believe the term, hispanic, itself does not define who I am. I define who I am and who I want to become. However, I do come from a Mexican heritage. Coming from a Mexican heritage has influenced and deeply impacted my life. My heritage has taught me a lot.

One of my biggest supporters are my parents. Their support and conviction about the worth of acquiring an education has shaped my beliefs, values and ambition to continue higher education and use my career in a progressive way to give back to my community. Unfortunately, not everyone had the same support system like I did. Many of my peers struggled whether to continue their education or financially support their family. This is a very dangerous reality within the Latino community that needs to be addressed and resolved immediately.

The Latino culture places high value on family and relationships as the most important units of support, which contradicts the U.S. cultural value of individualism and self-sufficiency (Garcia et al., 2005). Familism, which refers to the feelings of loyalty, reciprocity, and solidarity towards members of the family, especially elders, serves as a protective factor for immigrant families as it is associated with prosocial behavior, lack of child abuse, and psychological well-being (Altschul and Lee, 2011; Arbona et al., 2010; Caplan, 2007; Ferrari, 2002; Sabina et al., 2015). Ferrari (2002) administered a demographic questionnaire and seven scales and checklists to 150 Latino, African American, and Caucasian parents. Findings showed that fathers who held familism in low regard were more likely to use physical punishment to discipline their children than fathers who valued familism more highly.

What does being Hispanic mean to you, and how do your life experiences shape your answer? While others may categorize us as a minority. It’s more than just a label or a title of who we are. Hispanic means Hispano/a en español. Español, the language that is universal to us Hispanics.

When we think of illegal immigrants, usually the first to pop into someone’s mind is Mexicans since the emphasis is always placed on them by news networks compared to our Northern ally, Canada or any other country outside of the U.S’ borders. Along with this problem of illegal immigration being placed onto my people, they to are often associated with criminal activities such as drug trafficking in relation to the drug cartel. This then creates a negative connotation being associated to any person of Mexican descent which can really hurt their perception of society or of themselves. As a child, I would often think I was disgraced with being Mexican due to all these horrible things they are associated with, but as I was growing up I discovered many groups and people that supported the Mexican youth to overcome these challenges such as MEChA and Chicanos Por La Causa. These groups filled me with hope that I could become something that was not connected with such stereotype.

To me, being hispanic and born and raised makes me want to break all negative stereotypes of how must are not educated and do not have any way of succeeding. I want to make my family proud. I have had many experiences were being hispanic has made me work harder than I would have. The main place were I had to exceed was in school. I came into kindergarten with not knowing any english.

Throughout my life, I have always considered my grandparents to be the foundations that allowed me to establish a sense of who I am and what is important to me; thus, my grandparents (on my mother’s side in particular) are my key ancestors. As my parents were often occupied by work when I was younger, I spent much of my childhood with my grandparents at their house in Madera, CA. Indeed, the fondest childhood memories I have are simply the moments I spent interacting with my grandparents. Past the fond sentiment my grandparents hold in my heart, I can objectively conclude that they are the sole connections I had to my Mexican heritage- without them, I would have had nowhere else to learn how to connect to my heritage. Everything from the family

I grew up in a two-parent household with my parents being married before they had children. My father has always been the one that provides finically, while my mother was the one who took care of my siblings and I throughout my childhood. Being that both of my parents were born in Mexico, I consider myself Mexican American. I am proud to be Mexican American. Culture plays a huge role in shaping your identity.

Inclusivity is an important part about being Hispanic. If I notice a fellow Hispanic on the street, it takes just one shared glance for us to understand each other for us to understand each other. I cherish that just by being Hispanic I am able to have a special bond with those in my school and my community. Being Hispanic has its trials and tribulations but at the end of the day, I can always count on being part of a loving family. The feeling of being included leads to happiness and a sense of home.

I am very proud of my Hispanic heritage. Even though, I am an United States citizen, I am always going to belong to my Hispanic backgrounds. There are so many reasons that I am proud to be Guatemalan and American that I could write a whole book about it. However, I regularly participate in my Hispanic culture and community through my family, traditions, and by being bilingual.

Being Hispanic is really a blessing. We have very good food and our culture is very unique and fun to be a part of. Being from Mexican descent, we have a lot of rituals and traditions that are very important to us like Dia de los Muertos and Los Posadas. But, being Mexican, for me, means so much more than that. It means to be a hardworking person and to be able to do anything you put your heart, mind, and soul into.

Being Hispanic makes me feel proud. It is something that makes me what I am, remembering my Mexican roots reminds me as my ancestors fought to get what they intended. Being Hispanic is not easy for all the prejudices that has this society. We havebeing judget as thieves, rapists, and much more. As in all societies there are people who make mistakes during his life and choose wrong paths but that is no reason to generalize to all those who belong to that social group.

I’m the first generation of my family to be Mexican -American, but I have been introduced to the Mexican culture since I was born. I appreciate the difficulties my parents have faced to make me the person that I am today even though I wasn’t born in Mexico my parents have taught me the language and the culture which I’m so proud of being part of. For others being Hispanic is actually being born in any Latin American countries which is not true at all. Being Hispanic is much more than my cultural background it actually describes how much I appreciate my culture and how I get to experience things other people don’t. I fit into the Hispanic community through the experiencing the culture first hand ,participating in traditions and planning to include my culture in my future.

In America, Hispanics can face many struggles such as immigration issues, education problems unemployment and stereotypes. How on earth have they dealt with these issues you might wonder? Life for Hispanics has been hard, and they deserved to be recognized for enduring so much pain and difficulty. The immigration issue starts around the 1890’s when new industries in the U.S. Southwest (like mining and agriculture) attracted Mexicans laborers