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My Culture
My mother's family immigrated to the United States from Uruguay in the 1970's.
Her parents and two brothers got on a plane in the hopes of coming to America would bring prosperity and success for their future, which they would not be able to reach in Uruguay. -
Language Barriers
My mother's parents never mastered the English language. Both tried their best, but for the type of work they were doing in New York City, they did not need to speak English.
My Lala (what we called our Grandma) would hold me as an infant and sing to me in Spanish. As I grew, I was able to understand much of the Spanish language but not able to speak it. Since we never spoke it at home, I eventually lost the majority of what I knew. -
What is Ethnicity?
When my parents taught us kids what ethnicity was, it was more based around European and not European. Even though my mom is Hispanic, Uruguay is mainly European. -
Respect your Elders
I believe respecting your elders is taught through parenting and not necessarily culture. Although, when I reflect over my childhood, there was a different respect for my Hispanic grandparents. We as children would never talk back to any of our grandparents and would always do as told, but the level of attention we payed when they spoke was different than my other grandparents. -
Trick or What?
Being that Uruguay is majorly Roman Catholic, we did not celebrate Halloween. Growing up, I never went Trick or Treating. Although we are not Catholic, our Christianity religion that we practice does not celebrate the festive holiday. The Hispanic culture looks at this holiday of celebrating the dead. Growing up, we always interpreted this day as imitating the dead. Now society has shifted and my parents support my nieces in this holiday, therefore they have assimilated to america's culture. -
Affection - Mas Besitos
Every time we visited my Grandparents in New York City, we knew our trip would be filled with hugs and kisses. Even though my Dad was their son-in-law, they showed the same if not more affection to him than to their biological children. With my Dad's mother, who is German, she showed her affection in different ways. The Hispanic culture is known to be extremely affectionate, which proved to be true with my family. -
Noticable Cultural Differences - Sports Related
Sports are viewed very differently from the US to Uruguay. Soccer also known as their "football", is their passion. In the United States, the National Football League and Collegiate Football are noticeably fan favorites. -
Untold Stories Gone Forever
Due to the language barrier, many stories about my ancestors will go unknown. Of course my mother knows a lot and so do my uncles, but things like specific life events that my Lala and Lalo experienced will go for ever untold -
Culture Realted to Love Language
Gifts are absolutely a form of affection. Since I was a little child, my mother would always give gifts to show her love for us. When we would see our grandparents, it was the same. Now as an adult, I use gifts as a form of showing my affection. -
Where are we now?
Although my family has divided into our own individual families, we are all within 30 minutes of each other. When I reflect over this, my family is abnormally close, and I attribute this to a cultural affect. We may not see each other every day, but I talk to my brothers at least twice daily and speak to my parents every morning and evening. At first it can seem like we are "checking in" with each other, but we ultimately just want to be included with each other.
