Personal Narrative: My Family Traditions

I am a twenty three year old American citizen with a Latino racial background. I grew up in a Hispanic community all my life where my neighborhood lacked racial diversity. I attended church where the custom language spoken during service was in Spanish. Local Hispanic neighbors owned the stores we shopped at and the food courts we ate at. To say the least, I felt comfortable in my neighborhood. I was raised in an atmosphere were kids were the same color as I was. They were friendly to play with and seemed as if we all understood each other without actually saying so. But, the elementary school that I attended had many children from different ethnicity. My elementary school’s core foundation taught and spoke more in English rather than in Spanish.

My assumptions were that she does not know how to speak or read in Spanish, she most likely does not eat tortillas or frijoles for dinner, and the fact that she does not watch Spanish shows, was a realization of mine that all people do not do what my family does. In a way, it shattered my ethnocentric world and it made me look at it from a different perspective from then on. As we all know all ethnicities and families have their different viewpoints on what family traditions means to them. I am honored and happy to celebrate my family’s culture traditions, which include Quinceaneras, Dia De Los Reyes Magos, and Dia De Los Muertos. One family tradition that continues to be celebrated by our family and millions of Latinos is a Quinceaneras. Quinceaneras is a celebration when a young girl turns fifteen and transitions from being a young girl to a young woman. As the young girl walks down the church with a beautiful, elegant dress of her choice, her father is accompanying her, all her family and friends then view her as a young woman. This is a tradition most Latin American’s still use to celebrate the womanhood of their daughters. Some people may say this is the year where the young woman learns how to cook and