In my cultural interview, I identified a 28-year old friend, a woman of Hispanic origin. Having conducted a comprehensive research about this group of people, I found the best possible opportunity to understand that the current Hispanic population has increased from 22.4 million to 40 million in 1990 and 2010, respectively. According to a recent report by the U.S. Bureaus of Census (BC), approximately one-quarter of the U.S. population will comprise Hispanic. At the same time, Hispanic-owned businesses across the U.S. grew from by more than half a million between 1997 and 2002, meaning that remains one of the fastest growing business segments in the country. Given the upward trend in almost every aspect of Hispanic life, I developed a great deal of interest to gain a deeper understanding of what constitutes their culture, experiences in the U.S., as well as challenges. In response, I intend to utilize this paper to present the various lessons from the interview in addition to providing a change-driven plan and culturally-adaptive interventions aimed alleviating the many problems facing Hispanics.
Lessons
During the interview I noted with a great deal of concern that we are not only diverse but also have differences, especially when it comes to the widely held values and the whole process of acculturation. For example, one of the commonalities involved our religious affiliation, with the interviewee and me practising Christianity or Catholicism. Additionally, she presented me with the opportunity to understand our history, which revolves around slavery and segregation. At the same time, I realized that Hispanics, like African Americans, tend to use slang within their interactions and culture.
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Despite the established cultural similarities, the interviewee enabled me to understand that Hispanics are slow to acculturation when compared to blacks. Being an African American myself, I can attest to the fact that we blend more closely or become acculturated into the dominant American culture (Lloyed, Few, & Alien, 2009). In other words, Hispanics tend to remain conservative, as they take considerably long time to integrate into others’ cultures. Throughout the interview, for instance, she insisted that I call her Latino as opposed to Mexican or American. Compared to individual African Americans, who have since criminalized the use of “N-word” in almost every context of social setting, Hispanics take the much-needed pride in their history and origin. During our conversation, the interviewee briefly described what compelled Hispanics to come to the U.S.: improving their economic conditions in addition to bettering educational, as well as business opportunities. Concisely, this partly explains why they place great emphasis on preserving and perpetuating their culture.
During the interview, I also learned that Hispanics hold distinct core values. When compared with the African American culture, which remains characterized by individualism, Hispanics value collectivism or allocentricism. In other words, they have the tendency of prioritizing group welfare at the expense of personal affairs. Other core values include familialism, power distance, and the principle of simpatia (Soto et al., 2011). According to the interviewee, an individual Hispanic is expected by society to develop and maintain attachment to both their nuclear family members and extended families. Moreover, they should also inculcate strong feelings of solidarity, loyalty, and reciprocity. In this way, Hispanics not only accept but also provide the much-needed emotional and material help and support to any of the affected or needy family members.
In addition, the principle of simpatia requires individual Hispanics to identify with the desired behaviours, especially those that play a central role in engendering social harmony. Although she appeared less social when we started the interview, she briefed me about the importance of acquiring traits that enhance pleasant, productive, and smooth social relationships. I shared in her experience; given I am human, but my previous encounters with fellow African Americans have proved the opposite: most blacks tend to remain violent, especially when provoked. On the same note, I appreciated the interviewee’s personal respect for me. I learnt from her that Hispanics typically respect and admire individuals that they perceive to have authority, influence, or power. In as much as I do not hold a crucial position in society, I firmly believe that the high level of respect resulted from her perception that my interview would have significant influence in her and other Hispanics’ personalities.
Apart from the core values identified while undertaking the interview, I noted that Hispanics possess common traits, including language, gender roles, family size, residence, personal space, and religious affiliation. Although some Hispanic immigrants become acculturated into the American fast, most Hispanics are assimilated slowly because they continue to communicate in Spanish, which they take pride in as the first language. The client opened up and informed me that in Hispanic neighbourhoods their newspapers, signage, and televisions, and other news sources are in Spanish. In contrast, we, African Americans, do not have a different language apart from American English. According to the interviewee, they place much emphasis on speaking Spanish in their households with the sole purpose of furthering their traditions and associated cultural aspects to the next generations.
The interview allowed me to identify and appreciate the unique approach taken by Hispanics when it comes to shaping and promoting their lifestyle and other elements of socio-economic life. For example, the client explained how they have conceived and continues to view gender roles, asserting that men serve as the leading financial providers but this has not deterred women from playing fundamental roles when it comes to home economics. She added that the present-day Hispanic woman helps the family in planning how to spend income. Besides gender roles, the family size among Hispanics remains determined by the number of children. For instance, on average, they prefer having three children because their culture focuses on the establishment and maintenance of strong associations between the extended family, friends, nuclear family, and associates. Speaking in Spanish, “Mi casa es su casa,” the interviewee argued that they firmly believe in my-home-is-your-home principle. Undoubtedly, this plays a pivotal role in explaining close physical contact among Hispanics.
Biases and Challenges
Before the ethnographic interview, I held broad range of explicit, as well as implicit racist attitudes, and prejudices towards Latinos. The America’s popular culture has developed and continues to perpetuate negative views about Hispanics. For instance, I have grown up in society that associates people of Hispanic origin with technological and economic backwardness, individuals in shantytowns and rural environment, drug trafficking, laziness, violence, corruption, and other evil acts . At a personal level, I have always rated Hispanics negatively to the extent of disassociating myself from Hispanic friends. For instance, almost every case of drug smuggling is often traced back to Mexican-Americans and other Latinos, who the American society sees as aliens or illegal immigrants. For this reason, I have since developed the fear of associating with this group of people since I might land in jail for crimes committed by a Latino colleague.
I remained convinced before the interview that the client belonged to the low socioeconomic status; given I have been taught to associate them with poverty. At the same time, I knew she is less educated or uneducated because the Hispanic culture remains characterized by patriarchy. In my neighborbood, for instance, Hispanic men are considered violent and authoritative, exercising a great deal of control over their families, including children and women. The widely held belief among most Americans is that decision-making in Hispanic homes remains the role and responsibility of fathers and older sons. By being the inferior figure in their households, I had a formed opinion that the interviewee would tell how she lacks the much-needed ability to make decisions in the absence of her husband.
Changes . The interview presented me with the best possible opportunity to establish the widely held misperceptions about Hispanics. First, I acknowledged and appreciated the fact that Latinos are not only hardworking but also intelligent in their own right. The perception that Latinos only occupy and perform extremely well in blue-collar jobs, including construction workers is misleading (Soto, 2011). The interviewee in question is qualified and certified nurse, doing one of the highly respected and admired white-collar jobs in the U.S. Sensibly, I can attest to the fact that her job challenged the position I previously held belief about Hispanics. Additionally, I learned that the client attended one of the best schools in the country, which, in turn, has reshaped my belief that Hispanic women are unintelligent and cannot access employment and other opportunities due to poor education. The interviewee explained that she remains motivated by the desire to achieve higher academic success, which will change the misconception that they lack the drive or motivation to learn. Undoubtedly, the interview allowed me to acknowledge and appreciate the fact that Hispanics continue to hold lower positions and do unprofessional jobs in the American society as a result of stereotypes and socially constructed inequalities.
Challenges . Having spent adequate time interviewing the client, I noticed that i would be quite challenging engaging her in a comprehensive counselling session. The potential challenges include language barrier and difficulty accessing the much-needed information to make the counselling process a success. During the interview, the interviewee could express herself in Spanish, the language which I do not understand. According to the client, Hispanic families place great emphasis on teaching their children Spanish with the sole purpose of perpetuating their culture, as well as heritage. Although she was quite fluent in English, the challenge of interpreting what she says could have far-reaching impact on the authenticity of the counselling process.
Another of the barriers to successful counselling with the client revolves around wary nature of Hispanics, especially when it comes to dealing or interacting with strangers or individuals outside their nuclear and extended families and community. According to the interviewee, the Hispanic culture requires an individual to remain secretive, especially tasked with the responsibility of releasing personal information (Chaves, 2013). For instance, she might conceal information about her immigration states and finances or income.
Plan for Supporting Hispanics
The findings from the interview revealed that individual Hispanics, men and women alike face a variety of challenges with far-reaching negative effects on their welfare. The stereotypes continue to undermine their success, while at the same time, damaging their physical and emotional well-being. In response to these limitations, I intend to advocate the rights of Hispanics and support their course through a clear and concise plan. First, I will identify and create result-oriented awareness programs. Most Latinos lack the much-needed information regarding their human rights under the American Constitution, which revolves around equality for all ( Lloyed, Few, & Alien, 2009 ). I will engage Hispanic youths and other responsible stakeholders in workshops and seminars with the sole purpose of invoking relevant provisions of the law, especially sections that govern equal opportunities and protect individuals from racial discrimination. In this way, Latinos will be well positioned to overcome existing and potential limitations through legal means.
Apart from education and awareness programs, I also plan to undertake more comprehensive ethnographic interviews with Hispanics of different age groups. I noticed with a great deal of concern that ethnographic interviewing has the potential to address culture shock, while at the same time, assisting stakeholders in reevaluating each of the prejudiced preconceptions. By interviewing older and younger Hispanics, I will in the best possible position to identify their needs, problems, and the root causes of their challenges in the present-day America. The interviews will serve as a change-driven survey; given they will give their genuine perspectives. The results of the interviews will guide decision-making in addition to helping in finding the right solutions.
Culturally-Adaptive Interventions
The wary nature of Hispanics, as well as language has denied different people, including healthcare service providers the opportunity to work effectively with this group of individuals. Recent research has shown that counsellors often have difficulty dealing with Latino clients because they have failed to identify and integrate appropriate culturally-adaptive strategies or interventions, which has the capacity to achieve the desired outcomes. The first intervention would involve positive representation in media and law enforcement. According to Chaves (2013), the Hispanic culture has consistently remained underrepresented and misinterpreted in news media and movies. For instance, the inaccurate representation of Latino men as gangsters and drug traffickers should be replaced with positive attributes, such as demonstrating the significant role played by Hispanic actors in the fight against drug and substance abuse and rehabilitation activities (Soto et al., 2011). By portraying individual Hispanics as hardworking, goal-driven, and intelligent people, the media and law enforcement agencies would ensure that they remain collaborative, friendly, and helpful to the country.
Besides making strategic changes in media, another culturally-adaptive intervention would involve positive identity information. The majority of Hispanic youth have failed to establish the much-needed positive school identify since the American education system tends to promote the various negative stereotypes of Latino students. Briefly speaking, some of these academic stereotypes have and continue to undermine their performance, as results often focus on the widely held belief that the students are lazy, lack curiosity, and associate with inability (Lloyed, Few, & Alien, 2009). The provision of positive identity information would involve identifying and addressing each of the emotional, as well as societal issues that affect Hispanics as a community, which, in turn, would go a long way in ensuring that they feel accommodated or welcomed in the country. In essence, this intervention will not only solve their educational needs but also enhance their abilities and access to a broad range of opportunities.
References
Chaves, L. (2013). The Latino threat: Constructing immigrants, citizens, and the nation . Palo Alto, California, United States: Stanford University Press.
Lloyed, S., Few, A., & Alien, K. M. (2009). Handbook of feminist family studies . Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE.
Soto, C., et al. (2011). Cultural values associated with substance use among Hispanic adolescents in southern California. Journal of Substance Use and Misuse, 46 (10): 1223-1233.
