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Erin Lomeli
Professor Beadle
English 113B
9 May 2016

What has Shaped My Identity?

Being part of a culture makes people feel like they are a part of something. In the article
Self-Identity and Culture they explain, Cultural identities are made up of connections with
and acceptance into a group that has shared symbols, meanings and, norms of conduct. Cultural
identities encompass all types of identities (e.g., gender identity, sexual identity, age identity, and
race and ethnicity identities) associated with social and cultural groups (Jackson II, Glenn, and
Williams 127). Being part of a culture lets people become closer to one another because they
share something similar. When people are part of a culture they feel as though they can be
themselves and connect with people who share their same culture rather than people who do not.
The culture that has shaped my identity is my Mexican culture. The Mexican culture gives me
my cultural identity because my whole life I have been surrounded by people who share the same
culture and taught me what I know today about my culture and its beliefs. An example of what
people have taught me about my culture is that there are many holidays that bring the family
together and the main key of my culture is that the family is always together. This affects my
space because the first things I remember are a soccer field and my family members houses,
which both show me what my culture has taught my family members and now they have
continued the tradition in my life. An example of my family teaching me of what I am apart of
today is to always part family first because if family is put first then the family will always be
united and have a stronger bond. It is important to have a special bond with my family because
they will be there to pick me up when I fall down. I can depend on my family because when

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someone or I have a problem it is everyones problem to fix. Family sticks together and will
always stick together. Cultures are what shape people to be who they are today and help them
continue to grow. My Mexican culture shaped me to be the person I am today by surrounding me
with people who share the same culture, what traditions it brought me, and made me feel proud
of who am I rather than being embarrassed because it has taught me to be strong and embrace my
personality.
Throughout my days I have noticed certain things that my culture has taught me, but I do
not recognize them right away because I am use to doing or seeing them my whole life. As I
grew older I knew what my culture identity was and continued to want to learn more about it.
The first and in my opinion my favorite thing about my culture is the food. I have enjoyed the
food ever since I have been born. Every morning when I was younger I remember my grandpa
going to a Mexican bakery around 6 oclock in the morning just to get my brother and I Mexican
sweet bread called, Pan dulce. It is amazing when I would bite into the warm bread and have
the sweetness hit my taste buds. Now whenever I think of Pan dulce now I remember my
grandpa waking up early in the morning just to put a smile on my face while I stuff it with bread
and rinse it down with milk. Another food that gives me the same feeling is rice pudding, but in
Spanish it is called, Arroz con Leche. This is an even bigger impact to my identity because this
was and still is the best thing I can have for breakfast and my grandpa did not buy it like the
bread, but he would wake up early to make it so the smell will run all around the house and into
our noses so we could wake up and put spoonfuls into our mouth. Food has made an impact on
my identity because when cooking with my family members it allows me to grow a stronger
bond with them and it also taught me to continue the traditional foods that have be pasted down

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for generations. So many different foods from my culture has given me different spaces and
memories, but if I told them all to you we would be here all day.
I did not only have food to define my culture identity, but also some of the music I grew
up listening too. One of the Mexican artists I would listen to is a young Mexican woman named
Selena Quintanilla. Selena impacted my life by just her up beat music and making me want to
dance in the past and now in the future nothing has changed. Selena showed me that I should
always be close to my family and enjoy the time I have with them. In fact she was in a band with
all her siblings and her father was their manager that is how Selena started off in the first place.
Selena and her family of course would fight like any other family, but this showed me that
familys fight but in the end they still loved each other and would not replace them for anything.
This helped me create a space that I should always put my family first no matter what because
they would do the same for me.
It is a tradition for Mexican families to see each other a lot throughout the year. But
Mexicans love to find an excuse to see each other and have a family gathering. One thing that
brings the family together is the sport, soccer. Soccer has brought my family together because
most of my family members, including myself, play soccer and watch it as well. My family
makes sure that all the young children learn the sport right when they are born because once the
children are about two to three they are ready to put the children in a soccer park league
including myself. When I started to play soccer I was not that great at the sport, but throughout
the years I learned to improve my skills. I loved playing soccer because it not only taught me
never to give up on myself when I am not the best, but it also taught me that family is like a team
you have to be there when some gets juked out and falls on their backs. I am glad that my family
does this because I love being able to see my family as much as possible and being able to bond

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with them with multiple things and enjoy our time and space together. This has created a great
memory for me because now when I think about the sport I see my family and remember how
they pushed me to become a better player and not only a better player, but a better person as
well.
Another big tradition in the Mexican culture is a Quinceanera, which is when a young girl
becomes a woman at the age of fifteen. At a Quinceanera the family comes together to go to
mass to celebrate a young girls womanhood and new relationship with God, after the mass is
finished everyone gathers together and goes to celebrate afterwards. According to the article
Latina Mothers and Daughters Expectations for Autonomy at Age 15 (La Quinceanera) they
explain, This milestone age offers a unique opportunity to examine changes in behavior
autonomy-granting for Mexican American adolescent girls (Romo, Mireles-Rios, and LopezTello, 272). This quote is explaining that their young daughter is now in the next stage of her life,
which allows her to have more freedom, but also more responsibilities. I was never able to get a
Quinceanera, but I did notice that once I turned fifteen my mother let me go out with my friends
and she would not come along anymore. I also noticed that she had more trust in me. This
freedom was great to have, but it came with a lot of responsibility such as making sure I knew
what time it throughout the day, so I know when to go outside so my mom can pick me up. This
made a big impact on my life because it taught me to be responsible and when I was not
responsible I would get grounded and learn my lesson. An example of this is when I went to the
movies with my friends and my mom gave me a curfew and I did not take it seriously and I went
past my curfew and when I got home my mom took away my phone and I was not allowed to go
out for two weeks. This is why we should listen to the rules in order to keep the freedom that is
given to us.

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The biggest tradition that most religious Mexican families love to do involves Christmas.
For Mexican we begin to celebrate Christmas on December 12th and it ends on January 6th. From
the middle of December to Christmas Eve Mexicans celebrate something called a Posada. This
is a religious celebration and it reminds people of when Mary and Joseph are looking for
somewhere to stay for the night. At posadas the family like to prepare a dinner for after the
religious ceremony so the family can enjoy each others company. The posada takes place
outside in the front lawn and the family prays the rosary, sing songs, and walk around the block
so they are reliving what Joseph and Mary were doing that night. James Cooper explains, The
song they sing is about Joseph and Mary asking for a room in the house. But the children are told
that there is no room in the house and that they must go awayWhen the children go into the
house they say prayers of thanks and then they have a party with food, games and fireworks
(Christmas in Mexico). Cooper explains specifically what song the family sings because of the
celebration. My family never celebrated a Posada, but I experienced a Posada with my
boyfriends family and I felt like I was part of their family because they treated me the same as
their family members. This gave me the space of knowing now that family is just not blood
relatives, but family can be anyone that treats me like family. Learning about the holidays of my
culture inspires me to learn more about my history so in the future years I am able to explain it
and pass it down to my children.
My family taught me that I should never be ashamed of who I am and what my culture
has taught me. They taught me not to be ashamed by being proud of my achievements such as
making my cultural food for my fellow classmates in high school to educate them with how I
grew up. Alisa Valdes-Rodriquez says in her article My Hips, My Caderas, In some ways I am
lucky to be able to move between two worlds. At least my hips get acknowledges as beautiful

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(75). Valdes-Rodriquez quote explains my life because I am mostly Mexican and a quarter
Italian, but I do not talk to my Italian part of family because of family problems. I do not really
know my Italian culture so I consider my Mexican culture to identify me the most. I am not
embarrassed by my Mexican culture because it has taught me great things in life such as
responsibility, to believe in myself, and it has made me a strong person overall. This has shaped
my identity to become an independent woman who works hard for success, supports family, and
is proud to say that my Mexican culture has shaped me.
My Mexican culture has taught me that family is my number one supporter at all times
and that I am never alone. Being Mexican is something I should be proud to be because it has
taught me to grow up and learn from my mistakes and will continue to keep teaching me. People
sometimes do not realize that cultures have a big impact on their identities until someone or
something brings it to their attention.

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Works Cited
Cooper, James. "Christmas in Mexico on Whychristmas?com." Christmas in Mexico. James
Cooper, Nov. 2002. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
Faigley, Lester. Writing: A Guide for College and Beyond. 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.
23 Feb. 2016.
Kurylo, Anastacia. Inter/Cultural Communication. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2013. Print.
23 Feb. 2016.
Romo, Laura, Rebeca Mireles-Rios, and Gisselle Lopez-Tello. "Latina Mothers and Daughters
Expectations for Autonomy at Age 15 (La Quinceaera)." Journal of Adolescent
Research, 29.2 (2014): 271-294. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.