An African-American and Dominican Hybrid

My Cultural Identity

I come from a mixed culture. African-American and Dominican cultures have interacted to shape my values, viewpoints, beliefs, and conventions. I hold both the cultural norms and the values of my society in high regard. But my individual experiences and sentiments have influenced how I perceive my culture. My identity is a fusion of the two aforementioned cultural roots, which are clearly discernible in the diverse cuisines, literature, religions, languages, family, community, individual, and artifact structures, among other things.

Dominican Characteristics

The majority of my characteristics are dominated by my Dominican appearance. The Dominicans are generally average in height with an ethnic makeup of mixed races, white and black. My family adopted the dominant Roman Catholic that is almost in every part of the country. We speak English in our current residence. However, in Dominican, Spanish is the official language though English is also used especially by those in tourism and hotel industry. I love both English and Spanish and speak them both fluently. The family embraces the “Dominicans” of rustic accent with flavors from island especially my father and me, nevertheless most of the times we interact with the localities in English especially in the USA.

Social Connection and Networking

On a separate note, I count myself to be of greater advantage due to the African-American and Dominican social culture. The stability of my family is enabled by the strong norms that resemble both the two cultural lives. There is a stronger connection through social networking and assistance in terms of needs with the extended family make up. This culture resembles both the Dominican and the African aspects with a bit chain of generation. For instance, we live closely with our extended families. In addition, we embrace loyalty among the family members which include businesses. However, an aspect such as nepotism has been shunned due to the ever changing society and social interactions among different populations. Just like the African-American setup, the Dominican culture embraces that the eldest in the family have the ultimate decision on family matters. Such norms have been well articulated in my family with exceptions more freedom to share ideas at will. However, my father is still the custodian of such authority.

Obedience, Responsibility, and Hospitality

Regarding the same, I learned to be obedient and responsible from my family. I recall when my parents used to assign me light family chores, delegate tasks as well as protecting us besides providing the necessary needs. Such reflect of good relations and respect is upheld up to date which goes beyond the extended family. Constant demonstration of hospitality in our family is paramount. I have the responsibility to ensure that all our family guests are treated with uttermost respect and hospitality in the absence of my parents and they get treated royally. The respect is even revealed in the attires of our family. Personally, I take pride in my appearance in the public and I am fashion conscious. The virtue of descent dress code has also been largely influenced by our religion that promotes decency where people do not wear transparent attires, leave some of their body openings out or put tight clothes that show their body morphologies.

Religion and Schooling

Another aspect that has greatly impacted on my personal cultural is the religion and school environment. Aspects of religion such as prayers, and the songs and Sunday schools have strengthened my faith. In the Dominica country, there is a Sunday school for children. I learned a lot about religion, respect, Bible stories and relations that currently play an important role in modeling my behavior and association with others. This type of schooling was encouraged since children were viewed as the source point of developing new culture and attitude that would later be embraced in the whole locality. The society has a clear cut between the religion and politics and they do not allow religious leaders to take part in political matters. Besides, the government also provided the formal education system to the tertiary level where most disciplines taught included mathematics, sciences both technical and social are well as religion. At these public institutions, children and students are encouraged to engage in co-curriculum activities that enhanced socialization and communication apart from inter-school contests.

Peer Influence and Community Commitments

Peer influence has greatly contributed to my personal culture as a Dominican. However, such impacts are not such great compared to the family influences. Nevertheless, the culture of the Dominicans with regards to the peers is dictated by the closeness of the extended families. Youths from within the localities are cohesive and development bonding under the guidance of the society stakeholders. Most of the youth programs are run under the peer groups and are supported by the locals. Therefore, it is rare to find youths who do not engage in a particular activity. Virtues of loyalty, truthfulness, and respect that I possess currently were further nurtured at the youthful stage. The family and community commitments, as well as the whole society, ensure that all the youths engage in activities that enhance their maturity development and responsibilities. However, minimal incidence could be noted due to some people who would succumb to pressure. Conversely, such cases would be punishable based on the degree and type of the offense, for instance, minor mistakes such as indiscipline cases would be solved through a sincere apology to the offended as well as engaging the family members in intervening in such situations.

Technological Development and Personal Changes

Lastly, the issue of technological development such as the use of media has also taken a share in reshaping my personal culture. For example, initially, I used to be reserved and never carried away with socialization. However, at the moment, I see myself a changed person who have friends. Part of me being extrovert has been as a result of media though I attempt to be confined with my family’s norms regarding association and socialization.

In Conclusion

On reflecting my personal culture, it is true that I have changed tremendously from being a Dominican conservative to a hybrid cultured person owing to the different factors highlighted. However, the foundation of my audacity in socialization, being dynamic and embracing respect was cultivated at my childhood age by my parents. I owe them a lot of appreciation of not dominating one aspect of culture to embrace. Nevertheless, I love being the kind of a person with a hybrid personal culture who is dynamic and can conform to any environment I might find myself in.