Journal #2:
What were your impressions of culture and ethnicity growing up?

Growing up in a Hispanic home; Culture and the appreciation for where my family came from was very strong. Both sides of my family came from different perspectives of Hispanic culture as my father is from Puerto-Rico and my mother is from Peru. Both grew up in their respective homelands. Coming to America was hard for both of my parents to do as immigrating is for anyone who does it. But, to this day I see that American culture has not made my family conform to its traditions. We celebrate the same holidays as everyone else but do not allow for our traditions and culture to conflict. Everything from food and language to movies and music is different in my family. We eat traditional Spanish food like cow-cow and listen to music incorporating salsa and meringue. Having to grow up in these conditions I built a deep appreciation for my culture and would look forward to holidays where my whole family would gather together for parties; bringing home-cooked meals and homemade moonshine. This is my favorite tradition from my family. In Puerto-Rico me and my uncles would go out and find whole assortments of fruits come back and cut all the fruits up. We would stuff the fruits into the bottom of empty wine bottles and fill the bottles with homemade rum. My uncles would ferment it for as long as needed until it stunk up the back shed. When it was done we would take out one bottle pass a shot to everyone who helped make it and start to drink. They call it Pituro( Puerto-Rican Moonshine). Now that I am more of an adult I see now that all of ethnic-specific traditions weren’t just based out of where my parents came from but were showing me and my brother that this is also where we came from. I believe that you can’t know where you’re going unless you know where you came from, and my family literally force feeds it to anyone in their vicinity. I will have to take all of the lessons and recipes that I was taught growing up and have to pass it on to my children; this will not just keep my culture alive but the memories of my family alive.