Uriel Ortega
I will discuss five topics that relate to my culture, perspectives, and how it has affected my life. The topics I will cover are Immigration, Acculturation, Argo, Sexual Community, and Speech Community.
Immigration:
Immigrating to United States has been one of the greatest challenges, but has given me the greatest opportunity. As an immigrant I understand why other cultures continue to do the same. This is defiantly the land of the free and having traveled to many other countries, this is by far one of the best places in the world. But the US is not the only country that people immigrate to. I have seen that the demographics around the world are changing, and it is not as segregated as before. I believe this will helps understand other cultures and gives us opportunity to expanded our perspective views, especially if we are unable to travel and see it for our selves.
Acculturation:
Acculturation or cultural adaptation has been a big factor for cultures in this country psychologically. Having grown up in the in the United State and being of Mexican decent, I have had the to adjust and adapt to various customs, not just the Anglo way. Of the four dimensions of cultural identify, marginalization, separation, assimilation, and integration. I relate to assimilation and integration the most. Growing up being a minority most of my school life I found it tough to fit in. So in order to make friends and to fit in, I felt the need to leave my customs behind, so I would not be discriminated by the others. Over the year I learned that it did not matter where I can from, but instead who I was. I later became proud of my heritage and acknowledge both the American and Mexican ways. So integration is where I find my place as cultural identity is concerned.
Argo:
Growing up as a teenager Slang is definitely a language of its own. Words like "what's up Fool!, "Hey Dog", and "OMG", can cause some confusion if you are not in with the lingo. Unfortunately I also lived in areas that were not in the best neighborhoods and learned slang related to gangs or drugs. I learned certain slang words that referenced to police, drugs, weapons, and women. Example, five 0, 420, Peace, and Hina. Other Argo that I associate with is Jargon. Working as an EMT the language is professional and mostly medical terminology. So everything that I said to the paramedics, nurses, and doctors was foreign to the average person.
Sexual Identity
I have not thought about this for a while until I started to read the chapter in Fong and Chuangs book. Lesbians from my experience have been much less exposed then gay men. Even though homosexuality has been discriminated and hated historically, gay men take more heat then lesbians. I grew up with two females that were very tom-boyish and who later revealed their true identity. The fact is that they are no different then anyone else, other than who they are attracted to sexually. The book and society refers to them as lesbian, but as a couple they refer to each other as partners. Over the years I believe that the gay community has been accepted more, but they will always someone to discriminate them.
Speech Community
When it comes to speech communities I can relate to this in many ways. In high school I drove trucks for my older brother for work and worked a CB radio. I quickly learned that there was a different lingo and tone to speaking on the radio. People that I first spoke to knew I was knew to the community and quickly hated or made fun of me. But this was not hard to pick up on and shortly after I sounded like a southern red neck. The other is Spanglish, which can be a communication problem at times depending to who you are talking to. Spanglish is basically saying something in English or Spanish which you can't translate to the other. This has basically evolved into a community and Argo of it's own.
