Class and Culture

 A family is surrounded by a culture that has been created from many generations ago. This culture includes traditions and customs. These traditions and customs are practices that family members participate in or do in a certain moment of their lives. It could be something done weekly, yearly, or any time. A family can start a new culture, and they can also end a culture. This means that they can start new traditions, or they can end the traditions and activities that they were practicing in the past. Families perpetuate traditions or a part of a culture because they don’t necessarily agree with it anymore, but sometimes families don’t want to stop doing those traditions in their culture because they were passed down from generation to generation. 

This week we also talked about the families who move to the United States for a better life opportunity and the effects it has on those families. We talked about a short study about Mexican families moving to the states. The studied families were mostly conformed by the parents and teenagers. The study showed how they didn’t move together since the dad traveled to the United States to look for a job. They thought this process would take months, but in reality it took 3 years. Familial relationships changed and the kids’ relationship with their fathers weakened, while the bond they had with their mother strengthened. This was not all the cases in the study, but it was the majority. 

When the mothers and their children moved to the United States, their relationship changed even more. In Mexico, the father was the provider and the mother was the one who looked after the kids and the house. Now that the family is living in the States, both parents need to work and they spend less time with their children which means they are unsupervised. Parents are most likely to get jobs that are demanding and tiring. This also is a factor that limits quality time as a family. 

Moving to the United States made the parents more strict because they don’t know “what is out there.” They also develop a fear of being caught by the law. Since they can’t supervise their children because they are busy with demanding jobs, they become more strict. Parents don’t allow their children to go out with friends and want them to stay at home because they think they are preventing them from getting in trouble. Since the teenagers can’t go out, they become isolated and feel lonely. 

The study showed that while parents decided to move to the United States for a better future, their children were focused on the life they left behind - their families and friends. These Mexican parents decided to move to the United States so their kids have a better life opportunity. Moving to the States and getting them an education would make the kids learn english which elevates your chance of getting a job. They moved because they wanted their kids to have a better education. 

In conclusion, the families that move to the United States develop a change in their relationship. Not only do parents and kids have to adjust to a new culture, they need to work demanding jobs to maintain their family. The study shows the different effects it can have on parents and teenagers. Parents are focused on the future of their kids and their education, while the teenagers are focused on their past and their families in Mexico. Parents change and teenagers change. The parents become more strict and the teenagers become isolated. Families that moved to the United States have to pay a price for a life-long benefit like good education and job opportunities.