My Cultural Background

Melanie Morales
 I was born in Los Angeles, California to my Latin-American mother. My mother knows a

good amount of Spanish but has forgotten how to translate some words to Spanish. With that

being the case, she rarely spoke to me in Spanish. Therefore, my Spanish is not where I would

like it to be but I feel as if I could get by in a Spanish conversation. One thing my mother did

pass down from her mother was our food culture. Beans and rice are incorporated into every

home-cooked meal that I eat. Most of the time, I would add sour cream to my Spanish rice, and

even on rare occasions, a warmed-up tortilla would fulfill my meal. Tamales are eaten but are

saved for Christmas, it's a tradition that we have.

An

other tradition that we have is eating pozole and menudo on New Year's Eve, eating something

warm into the new year is comforting to our family. My mother likes to cook both soups because

some people in our family prefer menudo or pozole and vice versa. These soups can last up to

three days depending on how much is cooked. A new tradition that my family will now be doing

is celebrating Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) due to both my grandparents dying during

the covid pandemic. We come together and honor them by dressing up, going to their cemetery

to leave beautiful flowers, and sharing stories about my grandparents with each other. Day of the
Dead is to honor those who have passed away but are there with us spiritually. When thinking of

my grandparents, I always remember the times that I have spent at their house and overall living

in California.

An example of what Day of the Dead looks like in the Latin Community.

When living in Los Angeles, my family was poor. We lived in a one-bedroom and one

bathroom where my siblings and I would all sleep on the living floor together. We lived near a

neighborhood that was gang-influenced that kept us from playing outside because my mother

feared something bad would happen to her children. After the fifth grade, my mother decided to

move my family to the beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. Moving to Nevada into a two-bedroom and

two-bathroom apartment felt comforting because I was able to have a room where I was able to

sleep on an actual bed and a closet to hang my clothing. I made friends and often spent our time

playing soccer which I later decided to join my high school soccer team. In high school, I turned

15 which is a big thing to celebrate for girls in the Latino community which is called a

Quincenera. Start the day by attending a church ceremony, but because I am not religious we

skipped that and celebrated my coming of age. The day is filled with a big gown, tiara, waltz that
is choreographed, and delicious Mexican food. However, most Quinceneras are very expensive

so we had to celebrate mine on a budget with the beautiful pink dress being bought from Ross

(Photo attached in title page) and the waltz in my case was danced with my mother to the rhythm

of the song. Most would judge and say that it is not a real Quinceanera because I did not have the

fancy dress, father-daughter dance, etc but to me it was. I was able to celebrate my community

and my new age. Having a Quinceanera was important to me because it was a mark of an

important milestone in my life which was entering adulthood. A bonus of Quinceaneras was

being able to receive gifts. My favorite gift that I received that night was from my grandmother,

a handcrafted Mexican bag because I have always had a love for handcrafted things from all

cultures. The side-bag that my grandmother gave me is very important, not only because it is

something that she has given me now that I get to cherish but it comes from my culture. It allows

me to show the world what my culture is and I have no shame in that.

(An example of what my side-bag looks like).

Something that people should not be shamed for is being able to forgive frequently. It's a

principle that I live by because nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes. I like to think that
people are capable of change when informed of what they are doing wrong or how poorly they

treat someone. Treating someone the way you want to be treated is also a standard I live by

because it falls into my principle. People grow up and express emotions differently, therefore

when a friend is treating you poorly let them know how they make you feel. That will allow the

friend to reflect on their mistakes and become a better friend to you and others. Now if they

decide to ignore it, that is a different situation that can be handled appropriately. My experience

of treating others how I wanted to be treated has been a positive experience but I do

acknowledge that people have bad days. Therefore I let that person know how they are making

me feel and we make progress from there which allows me to forgive them. The important

message from the principle and standard I live by is everyone is different. Whether that be race,

religion, family problems, we share some common ground and should be treated equally. We are

humans that are bound to make mistakes but as long as we acknowledge our past and move

forward we can only move upward.