Overcoming Stereotypes

For this written project I decided to interview a friend of my wife's that I had met a few times but never really had too many conversations with. The reason I decided that she would be a good person to interview for this project was because when I had met her before she was always really loud and outspoken person were I am a really quiet and reserved person most of the time. I also chose this person because she was born and raised in Mexico and lived there for most of her life and I have lived my whole life here in the United States. I have visited Mexico a few times so I thought it might be a good learning experience for me to learn more about that culture and the differences between here and there.

I talked with my wife and asked her if she would invite her friend over so I could interview her here in our home. I decided I would feel a lot more comfortable at home and she could feel more comfortable as well with my wife being there as well. At the beginning of the conversation it felt as if both of us were a little nervous but after we got to talking more we both became a lot more comfortable.

We began by talking a little bit about the differences in the culture here and the culture where she is from. I asked her to tell me about how she grew up and with what kinds of rules her family had growing up. She said she grew up in a home with very conservative and strict rules. She was expected to take care of and attend to her 3 brothers. She was the only girl growing up which she said was very difficult. She said that her parents never really supported her with her studies in school and that she only finished through Junior High School. Her parents told her that she needed to find a husband to work and take care of her.

Another big cultural difference she told me about when it came to marriage was that the boyfriend had to go to the house and ask permission from her parents to get married and if the approved they could get married and if they disapproved they couldn't get married. Were a lot of times here in the United States if the parents disapprove the kids will just run away and get married anyway. She also told me how both families all gather at the church and have a really big ceremony for the wedding and then they spend the next 3 day celebrating the wedding. Were here when somebody gets married the wedding usually last a couple hours and the party is only a couple hours and it's over.

She also talked about being taught to show and have respect for the older people in the family and the older people around town and that a lot of the younger kids have not been taught that and they have lost that respect for their elders.

Next we talked about our differences in religion. I told her that when I was younger I would go to church but as I grew older I lost interest and stopped going. She told me that as a kid growing up that religion was a very big part of her life and the decisions she had