ARTIFACT #1 INDIVIDUAL

CULTURAL PROJECT

By: Marylin Diaz

CULTURAL BACKGROUND
❖ Born in Mexico but have lived in Nevada since I was
6-7 years old.
❖ All of my family is also from Mexico and Spanish is
their primary language of communication.
❖ I took about 3 months to learn English when first
coming here. Needless to say it was both a mental
and emotional battle.
❖ I was raised Catholic up until about 7 years old and
my family stopped practicing religion. It wasn't until I
was a teenager that I baptized as Christian but
currently I do not associate myself with a specific
religion.
❖ I've traveled once outside of the United States since
being here and that was to Mexico, no other
countries.
❖ I can say that the American Culture definitely grew as
part of me throughout the years and now I celebrate
it more.
❖ Our family isn't the biggest in celebrating our Mexican
Culture or major holidays, I think that comes due to
us not having any of my mom's side of the family here
 LIFE EXPERIENCES
❖ One of the biggest challenges I have faced was being brought to the Unites States without knowing a single word in
English. I recall perfectly that I would cry myself to the nurses office every single day and say bad stuff about my parents in
order for us to go back to Mexico. I hold on to that experience as I continue to learn and grow because it has really
shaped my into who I am today.
❖ After my 3rd year in elementary everything got better in school and my life. I grew into the American Culture and tried
my very best to be great in school to show my parents their efforts were not in vain.
❖ I don't have many pictures of my childhood here in Las Vegas but I do remember a lot of what I did. One memory that I
hold on to very often is a time my parents took my sister and I to the arcade in Circus Circus, I just remember having
such a blast losing all my quarters and not winning games. I think it was the memory I hold dear not necessarily the
monitary or material value. A completely different time when being outside was so much fun and common and
electronics were not very common in a lot of houses, at least not where I lived at,
❖ I grew up watching my mom and dad work endlessly in order to provide for me and my sister and I hold that value very
dear to my heart. Family is such an important aspect in my life. Although I am not very close with either side my parents
family, I am very close to my parents and sister.
❖ While living in Nevada the past 5 years I have gained this amazing hobby and what I like to consider a tradition which is to
go camping to Panguitch, Utah every single summer at least once. Being out in nature is such a blessing in disguise and
needed quite often to balance out the lifestyle Las Vegas has.
❖ I've accomplish two goals which now seem small, which were graduating from HS and as a Medical Assistant, which is a
career I no longer focus on.
 MY WORLDVIEW
I previously mentioned that I was raised Catholic until about 6-y years old but stopped practicing that religion ever since
coming to Nevada. Around the age of 13 I started going to this Christian church with my family. First it was just my mom
and me then my sister and finally my dad followed along. I did get baptized as Christian but I no longer go to church or
really practice the religion and I think it was due to a bad experience from the Pastors of the church I went to that led me
to stop.
Even without a religion I still manage to deal with my faith and value things differently and on my terms. I have always been
a firm believer of "do not do to others what you would not like done to yourself".
I stood by this very strongly throughout high school which I think is the place I had a lot of learning to do and many of my
life values come from.
I don't necessarily live by a specific code but what I feel is right for myself. I don't try to purposely put negativity on people,
I think there is enough of that going on but I also know I am human and I try to do my best by everyone. Negative opinions
are something I keep to myself if it is not constructive criticism, not that I have very negative opinions. I also try to be very
fair to everyone I am meeting. I try not to let the opinion of others bring bad judgement or treatment upon people who
have not hurt me personally. If the harm was not purposely done to me, I do not want the baggage.
I think my most important principle is to be equal to everyone. I've had days where someones kindness just stopped me
and had me recap how I was going on about my day. A little sprinkle of kindness goes such a long way.
I used to be afraid of goals, whether they were short or not, I've never been a very disciplined person with my goals.
I know now they are very important and currently my one goal is to get my teaching license.
Although life has thrown it's curve balls at me, I continue to stand on my two feet and move forward one step at a time.
 CULTURAL ARTIFACTS

While there is no huge award or project I have done, I like to think that showing my love for
nature and the outside is a huge part of me. There is no family heirloom going from generation
to generation but I can only hope my small tradition of camping sticks to my kids. Other than
being a HS graduate and finishing Medical Assistant school I hope that finally obraining my
teaching lisence is my next goal to conquer.