Litsy Torres

09/22/22

Professor Scaife

Mexico

There are a lot of priorities in my family, one of those being our culture. Almost anything

that is important to my family becomes important to me. My parents, aunts, uncles, and

grandparents on both sides of my family were all born in Mexico. I have never really cared about

our culture as much as I do today until about 3 years ago and I honestly just think this is

because I was young and didn’t really care about anything in general. But as my grandpa

started telling me the story of how we all became in the U.S. it all started to come together and

make sense to me.

The first time I visited Mexico was in 2015 and I went to Cancun. For those who don’t

know, Cancun is a big tourist spot. So my first impression of Mexico was how beautiful it was

and how I would love to live there. Although I had based all of Mexico off Cancun, I had already

wanted to start imagining a life there. I loved the luxury life and didn’t think there was another

side to Mexico. I loved all the beach art on the sand, all the free drinks the hotel provided, the

free cooking classes, free breakfast, free endless meals, and the beautiful scenery that was

given from our view. I had never put into consideration how the rest of Mexico would look or be

like, which I later realized.

The second time I had visited Mexico was in 2019 on a missionary trip and this trip is

where my whole perspective changed on Mexico. This trip is what made me change how I see

the world. We went to many different states in Mexico during this trip, but still had not visited the

state my family was from. During this trip we went to a very small town that I had never heard of

before and the one thing that really made an impact on my life was when they told us that each

family in this town only got about 5 gallons of water a week. And when you really think about it
that is so little, because most families have kids and you need water every day to brush your

teeth, shower, drink and much more. This made me so sad because I thought about my life

back at home and how blessed we really are to basically have unlimited water. I couldn’t begin

to imagine a life like these families and I was mad at myself for even thinking all of Mexico would

look and be like Cancun. I cried a lot during this trip and I honestly didn’t want to leave because

I felt like I couldn’t just leave them like this. I never really told anyone my true emotions I guess

mostly because I'm not one to talk about my feelings like that. I don’t like people seeing me

vulnerable. Our church ended up helping a lot. We brought a lot of water and other supplies we

knew they would use. So this specific trip was the beginning of me really caring about Mexico.

The next time I went to Mexico after that trip was March 2022. And during this visit was

the first time I had visited and stayed in the town my parents were from. I loved everything about

it. I loved just being able to walk everywhere without being scared (besides at night), but I loved

everything, especially the food. My favorite food that I ate while being there was a torta, which is

basically like a sandwich, but 10x better. A torta includes your choice of meat, (I prefer ham)

lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapenos, mayo, cheese, and sometimes beans. I would take off the

tomato, onion, and jalapenos, which honestly probably isn’t the same, but I still enjoyed it. I

would try to eat one every day, but my parents just kept telling me that I needed to try everything

else. I would make sure to drink a chocomil every day because those are hard to come by back

at home which I honestly don’t know why they are and these are like a chocolate milkshake but

with a certain Mexican chocolate brand. They also come in different flavors such as strawberry,

and banana, but personally I prefer chocolate. This is the trip that made me realize I was really

in love with Mexico and everything about our culture. For me, I had stepped into a whole new

world with people I had so much in common with. And I loved the feeling of everyone being so

nice to me because we all share the same culture. There was nothing more in life that I wanted

other than to just live in that moment. I didn’t even want to begin thinking about leaving because
I loved it so much and I honestly think I almost cried when we left even though I knew we would

be back.

There were so many things I enjoyed seeing that I wasn’t used to and it made me love

being there even more, because I loved the change. The way everyone talked and dressed was

so different and I just loved it. I enjoyed hearing all the Spanish slang that I wasn’t used to and I

just loved to see people wearing traditional Mexican clothing. As much as I loved the feeling of

familiarity I also loved the feeling of change from my normal everyday life. Being there I really

started to understand my culture more. And I think during each trip I had a lot of different

realizations about Mexico.

Each of these trips and experiences I've come across when I've gone to visit Mexico has

really changed the way I see and perceive the world and how I live back home. I love that I have

something in common I can share with a few people when I’m home back in the states. I’ve

always dreamed of having a big family because of my grandparents. My grandparents on my

mom's side have a total of 8 kids and with that being said you can already imagine how fun our

family get togethers for Christmas and Thanksgiving are. They have made me realize that I want

a big family as well to be able to share all the culture, heritage, and food they have taught me

especially with the people one day my future kids might marry, because there is always a

chance of them ending up with someone who won’t be of our same culture. I wish I could share

my life experiences with everyone else. I like being able to have my own culture because there's

just so much more to it. I love being able to embrace it as well and I wish I could’ve realized a lot

of these things when I was younger. I’m fluent in Spanish, but my Spanish might not always

sound the best and language is a big part of my culture and it is something I definitely want my

kids to know and learn. My grandparents came from almost nothing and I really look up to them

because although they went through so much they still made sure most of their kids got a

college education, and have always been so encouraging to the grandchildren to receive higher

education. My grandparents actually bought me my laptop for college and I just think how it's so
crazy how they came from nothing and now they have their own Mexican business where they

sell Mexican groceries and have a restaurant as well back in Russellville.

But to come to a conclusion, Mexico has really changed my perspective on the world

and how different life could be for everyone. It has given me something to write about in this

instance and something to always remember and relate to whenever I do something. I love

everything about my culture and roots, and it is something that I will always carry with me

anywhere I go. I will always carry these experiences with me whenever I start to judge

something or someone too quickly just like I did whenever I went to visit for the first time. My

culture has a big part in who I am today and I wouldn’t change it for the world.