Family Cultural

Since I was born I have tried too much about my family even though yet I have not been able to gather all the information. This is because I have not been able to meet most of my grandparents and my parent had little time to give more information. My grandfather on my mother side is called Andrew while my mother is called Yvette and my father is called Donald.

My grandmother on mothers side died before I knew her. On the other hand, I did not know my grandparent on my fathers side I have never seen them and my father was not that close to me. All the same, I tried to seek information concerning my family from various sources including my grandfather on my mothers side. The little information I knew is that all my grandparents and my parent were born in South America while we currently live in North America. Most of the time I had any question in my mind that I needed them answered. Therefore, I could make inquiries even to the closest relatives and neighbors in order to get my questions answered. The distanced relationship between my father and I scared me until could not gather the courage to ask him any of the questions.

My mother, on the other hand, could have time give those tails but due to my determination, I managed to get the relevant information concerning my family history and culture. This gave me the reason as to why my parent was not willing to disclose much of the information concerning the family history (Agnew, Matthews, Bucher, Welcher, & Keyes, 2008. “181) Culture is influenced by a number of factors that cannot be defined within the boundaries of race and ethnicity. For example we have social class, religion, racial, ethnic discrimination, the degree of assimilation and gender politics.

This is because each of those factors has implications on the culture and behaviors. According to the information I gathered, my mother was born in a family that believed much in God while my father was born in a middle-class family. The two families were close friends to each other through my fathers family was a bit of class than my mothers class but both were very good in religion believes and very serious on matters pertaining to education.

In the society, my grandfather from my fathers side was one of the trusted people in the community because he used to give credits to the people within their residential are without asking for the time of payment. On the hand, he could not accept unnecessary due from any member of the society (Ball, Armistead & Austin 2003.“446) My grandmother from my fathers side also was much respected due to her composition in the society. They were all used to help the community where there is a need. The relationship between my both grandparents was linked by an association created by both of my grandfathers on their business.

My grandfather from my fathers side had a hotel his home while my grandfather from mothers side used to supply cereal to the hotels and also to his potential customers. My mother and my father schooled together and therefore they used to visit each other for discussion, exchange of the books and to tackle assignment given over the weekend (Casper & Bryson, 1999. P. 10) According to the Americans, there are cultural believes that act as a construct to the influence of the families. These constructs were built on the bases of family, religion and spiritual beliefs.

These targeted the four cultural group in the United States of America African Americans, Native American, Latinos, and Asians establishing the similarities and differences that exist between them. Most of the differences that exist in those cultural groups involve the definition of the term family who is the members of that family. According to the Europeans American perception, family to them refers to the traditional nuclear unit while African American refers family as a wider net consisting of a broad network of kin and community. Asians consider family as the chain of the individuals born following a certain ancestral origin since the beginning of creation (Cavanagh, 2008. Pg. 944“980). This difference determined how individuals were treated in the region. The treatment received in the hospitals, how their opinions were valued, who can be the spokesman of the family, the ones who can be selected and consulted on matters pertaining to members treatment. Most of the African Americans and Asians Americans included even the extended family.

Cultural believes at that time was the determinant of the services an individual could receive in the society (Fomby &Cherlin, 2007. “204) In South America, most of Americans natives believe that the half-caste is the source of all crimes evidenced in the region and most probably Italian American and Asian American. My fathers ancestors were from Asia. Therefore, they always victimised in case of any crime committed in the region. One day, it happened to have an attack to one of the senior government officials in the region. Due to the believes held by the community, many Asian American and Italian Americans were killed including my fathers parents. My father and his sister were left in desperation only to seek help from the closest friend who was my mothers parents (Heard, 2007.“354). My grandparents from my mothers side decided to migrate from the region and secure a better place that is secure for their family as well as to my father and his sister (Heard, 2007. “354).

The friendship built by my grandparent from both sides and region believes held by my grandparent from the side of my mother made them feel important of keeping them to a better place away from the malicious Americans who vowed to terminate the life of many Asian Americans and Italians Americans (Heard, 2007. Pg. “354). The demise of my fathers parent discouraged him so much to the extent of lowering his self-esteem and confidence. Despite the incidence, they did not stop schooling. My father put more effort in his studies though he lacked enough confidence of how far he could reach with his studies. My mother on the other side did not despair. During their studies nobody who new ambitioning of the other even though they were a close friend but my father was aiming to be one of the top government officials in order to campaign for the end of racism within the societies and ensures all communities are treated well despite their origin. My mother, on the other hand, was aiming at reducing the existing disparity between the social classes within the societies since she hated the way people were being treated by the teachers in school (Fomby &Cherlin, 2007.“204).

Both of them managed to join public universities and that is the time now they opened their heart to each other. Their spiritual beliefs helped them to deal with the adversity of the institution, gain enough experience of controlling pain and suffering, gather emotional support and also to provide comfort to each other. Since all my parents were saved, they relied on the church guidance to sharpen their behavior and also to make decisions. Family practices depend mostly on the attention given by the parents in regards to different cultural differences (Cavanagh, 2008. “980).

Interaction of my parent with different cultural groups in the institution of higher learning has our family behavior as compared to the practices I witness from other families. Many families assign family responsibilities randomly or emphasize on collective responsibility while others emphasize on individual accountability. From the information I got from my mother is that when they were in school or when they were young like us they used to be assigned family responsibilities collectively although I have never seen her doing so us (Agnew et.al 2008. “181). I decided to inquire what happened that the act is not practiced now.

From the explanation I got from her is that all those changes were brought about by the western system of education. In the past, teachers did not like giving an assignment to an individual student as the felt the act was tiresome and cumbersome to them instead they used to give that assignment to a group of student. Later they realized that the action of giving student assignments collectively is making them lazy because some of them do not participate in the discussion or go through the assignment, but they leave the work to only a few individuals. Therefore, they decided to change the method of giving assignments. This is by giving assignments to each and every student. The same case applied to the family responsibilities (Casper & Bryson, 1999. P. 10). The issue of education has also affected our family history so much, when my parents were young, their mothers were not involved in any case of taking their responsibilities instead it was only their fathers who could ensure they have, clothes, food, and school fees is paid while their mothers could only ensure the food is prepared for them. Contrary, due to the system of education and need to have gender equality currently all my parents are responsible for my wellbeing and any of them and play any role to ensure I am comfortable in all grounds (Ball et.at 2003. “446).

To sum up, it has been noted due to the emergence of very many factors in the societies, our family way of living has greatly changed the way our parent used to live. Much of this changes have been contributed by factors such as education, the need to have gender balance, political issues such as racial discriminations. This implies that family history will keep on deviating from what was there before to give different historical events.

Works cited

• Agnew R, Matthews SK, Bucher J, Welcher AN, Keyes C. Socioeconomic status, economic problems, and delinquency. Youth and Society. 2008.181.
• Ball J, Armistead L, Austin B-J. The relationship between religiosity and adjustment among African-American, female, urban adolescents. Journal of Adolescence. 2003 .446.
• Casper LM, Bryson K. Coresident grandparents, and grandchildren. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau 1999. p. 10.
• Cavanagh SE. Family structure history and adolescent adjustment. Journal of Family Issues. 2008 .980.
• Fomby P, Cherlin AJ. Family instability and child well-being. American Sociological Review. 2007“204.
• Heard HE. The family structure trajectory and adolescent school performance. Journal of Family Issues. 2007 “354.

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