Alejandro Garcia
Professor Cuellar
LTNS 280
May 12, 2014
Culture Shock
I. Models and Methods
My name is Alejandro Garcia Moreno. I identify myself as Mexican-American,
but when I visit my family in Mexico, they call me “gringo”. Here, people look at me
and would never mistake me as an Anglo male. My “American” name is Alex because
most people abbreviated Alejandro and preferred calling me Alex. Alex stuck, and
even my family began calling me Alex. I never was ashamed of being called Alejandro
because if my parents called me Alex, I assumed it was acceptable. My mother is
from Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico and my father is from Zacualtipan, Hidalgo Mexico.
When we visit our family, our first stop is Hidalgo because it’s closest to the airport
in Mexico City. I was born in Stanford, California in 1993. My mother was 23 and my
father was 19. My father had left his home with my mother and traveled here while
she was 7 months pregnant. My parents came here with nothing. They lived in a
closet for two months and then rented a studio. My dad washed cars at Autobahn
Motors and five years later my younger sister was born. He later decided to work in
construction and started off as an apprentice and quickly moved up the ranks and
became a foreman. Today he runs job sites in different locations and has different
companies offering him higher positions as part owner of the company. I do not
consider myself from the lower class, middle class or higher class. I would place our
family in the hardworking class that strives to succeed. Because of their struggles,
they wanted the best for us to not have to go through that. I am majoring in
Mathematics and I plan to work at a tech company right next to computer science
majors and I also plan to become a secondary Math Teacher. I am taking this course
because I was interested in understanding what transculturation meant in a Latino
Studies course. Transculturation was a word I never understood and when I found
out there was a course that would teach me more about my backgrounds and
explain transculturation.
What was my first deculturation experience? Have I ever had an
acculturation experience that I was ashamed of? Why do I not want to accept
transculturation? I would like to research each of these questions because I feel like I
know the answers, but I never wanted to face the truth as to why I consider myself
the person I am. I know I’m Mexican-American, but answering these questions will
give me a reason as to why I am Mexican-American and not just Mexican.
II. Research Findings
I am using Professor Cuellar’s Paradigm as a critical of the dominant in my
Analysis and Assessment section by looking at the information I have been given and
use it to match the information Professor Cuellar has given us. My first enculturation
experience was from my parents. They only knew how to speak Spanish and
everything they had to offer was given in Spanish to me. According to Roberto
Gonzalez Echevarria, “Spanglish is primarily the language of poor Hispanics in
mainstream America.” Spanglish is in our everyday vocabulary if we speak Spanish
and English whether we like it or not. My family never taught me the Spanish
vocabulary like the way their teachers taught them in school. We learned what we
heard. I believe I am not “poor” like the way Echavarria believes those that speak
Spanglish are. I believe if I take the initiative to better my vocabulary in English and
in Spanish I must be “rich”. In high school I had one teacher, Mr. Pineda, who believed
native speaking Spanish students were less educated than the students that were
learning a new language. Because of him, I prepared myself to the best of my
