Personal Culture (Part 2)

From an early age I became interested in various cultures, but never Mexico or Spain. I became addicted to the Japanese and Chinese cultures. Even today I know more Japanese than Spanish. I know several forms of martial arts, but couldn’t dance a cumbia to save my life. I listen to JPop (Japanese pop music) from time to time, but can’t stand what is best known as Tejano music.

I worked in retail for three years. During that I time dealt with customers that were known around the store as “the ones from across the border”. This was never put in a kind way either, despite the fact that the majority of employees could be referred to, in census terms, as Mexican-American. I found the majority of these customers as pushy, always making a mess of the store, letting their kids run wild, and holding babies that screamed all the time. I only knew a few words of Spanish when I worked there. I had been required to take two years of high school Spanish. I got teachers that, well, didn’t teach us anything. I would get angry when Mexicans customers got mad that I didn’t know Spanish. I felt that they had no right coming into America and expecting the employees to know Spanish.

With all of the things I had come to associate with Mexicans I have never felt myself to be a Mexican or felt any wanting to learn any of my heritage as a Mexican. So I feel it is two different things in describing the culture of my ethnic group and my own culture. As I have discussed before, I feel that I was not raised in the typical Mexican fashion. There are elements of Mexican heritage in my life though. As with many Mexican families there is a deep belief in religion that is started from a young age. We attend Catholic church every Sunday. The majority of my mother’s cooking is Mexican food. I enjoy Mexican pastries every so often. I have played violin for almost twelve years; along the way I have picked up a few mariachi songs. But I feel that these are not totally Mexican elements, but El Paso elements. I have white friends that have shared many of the same culture elements I have just described. I have always had a curious nature for other cultures ways and beliefs. I studied and became very interested in Japanese and Chinese culture. I have incorporated many parts of their cultures into my own. I enjoy Japanese and Chinese food almost as much and as often as Mexican food. I believe in many of the teachings and beliefs of Taoism, in addition to my beliefs in the Catholic religion. I listen to Jpop from time to time as well as American music. I watch what is most commonly referred to as anime, which is Japanese animation. I practice martial arts that hail from Japan and China. I find that as a person, my cultural identity is still changing and growing. I cannot easily define it. I feel that my upbringing was not typical for most third generation children. My own feelings toward Mexicans and the Mexican culture are not typical for my generation either. I feel that my own ethnic identity is best described as American. The U.S. is a melting pot of different races, beliefs, and cultures. In many places, especially those along borders to other countries, the cultures become intertwined. My identity is partly from the Mexican heritage that I know so little of, the white culture that I have learned much about from various friends, and the Asian culture that I became so interested in from a very young age. In time I feel that my identity will become less as something to be defined and more as something that just is.

Damien