Diversity and Culture

I spoke to 3 people that were all in different parts of their life. Each one had similiar ideas as to what culture is.

The first person I spoke too was a caucasin women in her late 50's and was a stay at home mom when her kids were young. Her thoughts were that culture is how you were raised and all about family and tradition.

The second person I spoke with was a spanish women in her early thirties in the early childhood field. She said that she never really thought about what culture was or how it influenced her. She felt that it was important to raise her children with a strong sense of their spanish culture and family and traditions were very important.

The third person I spoke with was a man in his fiftys, who is puetro rican. He is very proud of who he is and where he comes from. He was born in puerto rico and feels that family is everything. Although he feels that he has definalty been influenced by the dominant culutre, he trys to keep up with his culture.

What I found by speaking with these 3 different people is that they all had never really thought about their diversity or culture much. They practiced what they were taught and there traditons were very important to them. The dominant culture where they live has definalty changed  there culture and they do not always feel that there culture is accepted. Although they have strong beliefs in there way of life, they seem to keep it in their house, and not show so much of it in public. Family was the most important thing to them, and they all keep their culture alive with their family.

After speaking with them  I realized that if people don't really think about how their own culture influences their lives then how do we teach our children to be accepting of others if we don't feel accepted. The man that I spoke too had such a strong love for his culutre, but since it is frowned upon he choses to keep it home. When I asked how understanding they were towards other cutlures, they basically said that they had never really thought about it and they only focus on their way of life. They all agreed that they need to accept everyone and be proud of who they are.