Final Cultural Reporter Blog

Martin and Nakayama have defined culture as “Learned patterns of behavior and attitudes shared by a group of people” (2013).  I have found this definition to be useful in the research of my cultural group for this project.  The culture group I have been researching is Mexican Americans who live in Nebraska.  I have researched this group through interviews and observational data through connections here in Lincoln.

The concept or theory I have been exploring through my research is code switching. Martin and Nakayama explain that code switching is “A technical term in communication that refers to the phenomenon of changing languages, dialects, or even accents” (2012).  How I have understood code switching is to be a way in which cultures either incorporate or separate into another culture or group of people.   

Using code switching as a basis for obtaining my data, I have interpreted my interviews and observations with a conclusion of two findings and numerous examples within these findings.  The first observation I concluded is how well kept together Mexican families are. By this I mean from grandparents to grandchildren, Mexican Americans in Lincoln are a close-knit group of individuals.  The second finding from the interpretive data I collected included that fact that there is a generation gap in Mexican American families living here in Lincoln.  The generation gap that I have observed is between the grandparent generation, those people over 60 approximately, and the more interesting gap of those individuals in their twenties versus kids younger than 10. 

Through my observations and two of my interviews, I concluded that the Mexican families in Lincoln were close-knit due to a few examples that I came across.  In two of my interviews I asked the question of how well connected my interviewee’s family was.  One responded, “My family does everything together, we even make it a point to eat our meals together every night, and my grandparents come over every Sunday so the entire family enjoys each other’s company” (L. Rodriguez, personal communication, April 1, 2013). How I observed this finding is that the families are trying to keep their customs without being incorporated into changing.  One observation that I also recognized throughout my 150 minute observation at La Mexicana and a local Mexican grocery store was that the families were always congregating and conversing together.  Marsiglia et al. describe that “Results draw attention to the importance of family among Mexican and Mexican-American families” (2009). Through this interview and observations I concluded that many Mexican American families still have not code switched into the community fully and still support their family ties rather strongly.  

The other observational finding I recognized was the generation gap between two distinct age groups. The two age groups were grandparents and their grandchildren, and young adults and children.  These gaps were incredibly interesting to observe and talk about in my interviews because although the families are culturally well kept together, there are differences in principles and beliefs within the families.  One interviewee described her family gap as “My grandparents are incredibly conservative with anything they do whereas me, I don’t care as much, yet I still get pressured from them to be similar to them” (C. Santana, personal communication, April 1, 2013). The gap was also present between Claudia and her younger siblings when she said, “They get everything they want now days, but when I was their age, I had to work for anything. I think that’s true with many families now, they just give their youngest children anything they want” (C. Santana, personal communication, April 1, 2013). Buriel describes, “The generational status of parents and children contributes to socio-cultural variations in Mexican American families that have implications for childrearing” (1993). I believe that while these findings are interesting and I did in fact observe them, we have to keep in mind that the generation gap can be contextual. In terms of communication competence, we have to look at the context and environment of the individuals we are studying.

In conclusion, I believe that the findings I observed were interesting and related to my cultural group.  They interviews as well as the observations I collected all sufficiently helped me apply code switching to the data I accumulated.  From this project I have learned about intercultural communication within the Mexican American community and I am eager to show this in the upcoming video for our next assignment; stay tuned!    

 

 

References

Marsigla, F., Parsai, M., Kulis, S. (2009). Effects of Familism and Family Cohesion on      Problem Behaviors Among Adolescents in Mexican Immigrant Families in the United States. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 18, 203. Retrieved from:       http://0-web.ebscohost.com.library.unl.edu/ehost/detail?vid=4&sid=d330db88-6ddd- 4438-8877-      ff8af0b51495%40sessionmgr4&hid=19&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#            db=aph&AN=4403317    

 

Buriel, R. (1993) Childrearing Orientations in Mexican American Families: The Influence of         Generation and Sociocultural Factors. Journal of Marriage and Family, 55, 987.      Retrieved from: http://0-            web.ebscohost.com.library.unl.edu/ehost/detail?vid=5&sid=d330db88-6ddd-4438-8877-  ff8af0b51495%40sessionmgr4&hid=19&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#            db=aph&AN=9411174295 

 

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2012). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed).

            Boston, MA: Mcgraw Hill

 

TravelSecretsMexico. (2012) Mexican Family Values. USA. Retrieved from:          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDhem1PYR0w