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Jaasai Cardenas
Professor Ditch
English 113B
18February 2015
Different Races
Cultural identity can help a person to identify his or her cultural space because everyone
has their own culture but some people dont really pay attention to it. By looking at this our
identity we may discover things that we didnt really realize. In My Hips, My Caderas, Alisa
Valdez-Rodriguez shows her different cultures. She discusses her Cuban body which represents
her Latina side and then she mentions her intelligence which represents her American side (pg.
75). Shes explaining that she has two different cultural spaces in which she divides herself into
two cultures instead of being one single culture. Also, theres another article we read called
Self-Identity and Culture, by Ronald L. Jackson II, Cerise L. Glenn, and Kesha Morant
Williams. The authors explain how we can identify ourselves in the different cultural spaces we
live in. My cultural spaces are Mexican and Salvadorian. In my experience of being Mexican and
Salvadorian is that it enriches my identity because I learn how to become a more open minded
person, respectful, and knowledgeable.
There have been times where I visit my fathers family, in Mexico, Michoacn. When I
arrive, they immediately welcome me with an informal greeting. There type of greeting is not
nice, you could say they are intrusive when greeting family members or people. For example,
when you arrive to their house, they are not going to tell you good morning, good afternoon, or
good evening. Theyll just run into you and hug you and tell you something like hola como
estas primo! If youre not related theyll say hola que tal su dia! and give you a hard slap in

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your back. Thats how my father side greets and when Im around them I adjust my performance
but the cultural space. When I go with my mother side of the family, there greeting is much nicer
than my fathers family. For example, when they see you they extend their arm and tell you
Buenos Dias como estas. They have a much kinder greeting than my fathers family. Seeing
this makes me notice that each culture has its own way of greeting makes me more open minded
of different cultures.
When Im with my mothers side of the family I act with more sweetness. My mothers
sisters are catholic, her brothers are Christians and my family is also Christian. My fathers
sisters and brothers are also Catholic and they very delicate with their religion. We being
Christian are not allowed to say bad words and when Im with my fathers side theyre use to
saying bad words in every sentence. I just pretend to not hear them because it is a habit they have
so I understand them. I grew up in a home were I did not hear these bad words. So, this has
helped me to respect other peoples belief, be nonjudgmental and comprehensive because I
understand that my family and my parents family were raise different than I was, different
belief, manners, and habits and by looking at that make me respect them.
The Salvadorian and Mexican cultural spaces Ive been living in can connect to
Rodriguezs experience. The reason I say I make a connection is because since I have two
different race, I have to deal with two different cultures. Like she mentions in her article when
she said in the beginning of here article saying that her father is a Cuban and her mother is an
American (pg. 74). In addition, she mention that in the two different cultural spaces she acts
different she doesnt blend the both cultures. I like to blend with my Mexican family which is my
fathers side by acting like them by acting tuff but also being careful with my language because
Im a Christian and when I want to be consider Salvi I act like my Salvadorian family which is

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my mothers side, where I feel more comfortable, where I can be more expressive of who I really
am. There are times where I am talking with my Salvadorian family and my Salvadorian accent
and slang comes out and the same thing happens with my fathers family. There are times were I
feel more free with my mothers family because I talk with them without pretending to be
someone that I am not. Also, I feel with more liberty to talk because with my fathers family in
every sentence they have to say a bad word.
While identifying my cultural spaces I was shocked because I noticed that my way of
acting in front of my family is with manners and respect. I made a connection with the
documentary Happy. It told us about things that made us happy and even though my family
has different habits, styles of living, beliefs, and expressions theyre the reason why I respect
them and have an open mind. The same day I watched this documentary about happy I saw
that in my Instagram one of my friends posted a picture that said Do not educate your children
to be rich. Educate them to be happy. So when they grow up, theyll know the value of things,
not the price. When I saw this I was surprise and said to myself thats crazy and ironic because I
can relate to it because my fathers side and mothers side of the family arent wealthy but they
sure are happy with the necessary things. In my cultures we make it traditional to teach our
children to value happiness over richness and that is something that enriches our lives because
we may not have everything in the whole wide world but we sure have a family and thats what
makes me happy and respect them at all times.
In addition, The Cultural Intelligence Fluency (CQ) mention something that its very true
and I total agree with it. The CQ fluency mention In todays connected world, the need to
communicate effectively with people from diverse cultures, races, faiths and nationalities has
increased exponentially. Its telling us that different cultural spaces can makes us better in our

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community, our country and our entire world if we wanted to. Is just be able to connect with
other people, being able to adapt within each cultural space that surrounds you. Not because they
are forcing you to be someone you dont want to be but doing it because you have a passion for
it.
Additionally, in Adapting to a Multicultural Future by Richard J. Crisp and Rose
Meleady. They mention the following Proponents of the multiculturalism hypothesis assert
that societies valuing a constellation of distinct cultural, ethnic, and religious identities inspire
intergroup harmonyan assertion well founded on empirical research. They are telling us that
even though society have multicultural they value other peoples religious beliefs. That inspires
them to create different kind of groups. In other words this helps them to improve with research
and how it helps each and one of us to be multicultural.
For me, treating each culture space differently is good because you get to be the person
you want to be in each cultural space. You dont have to be pretending to be someone you dont
want to be. There are people that I hear them say I hate acting like this I when Im around with
my friends, or I dont like to be Mexican. I say I love to be able to adapt in each of my
cultural spaces because it builds up my knowledge and my way of thinking.

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Work Cited
Valdez-Rodriguez, Alisa My Hips, My Caderas
Ronald, Cerise, and Kesha. Self-Identity and Culture
http://www.cqfluency.com/cultural-adaptation/

Richard J. Crisp, Rose Meleady. Adapting to a Multicultural Future Science 18 May

2012 (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6083/853.full)