Hoy fue nuestro primer día de clases y dedicamos mucho tiempo a llenar las planillas requeridas para los estudiantes que viajan al extranjero. Luego la Dr. Cortez, profesora que impartirá nuestras clases durante el tiempo que estemos en San Antonio, nos presentó el programa de estudios. Escribimos los conocimientos e información que tenemos en la actualidad sobre la ciudad de Monterrey y nuestras expectativas de aprendizaje durante el viaje. Al final del curso haremos una descripción de lo aprendido para comparar nuestro aprovechamiento.
La cadencia del curso será bastante rápida, ya que tenemos programado un calendario lleno de actividades. Me deleité haciendo una tarea para entregar mañana en clase que se llama “Conocimiento” y es un cuestionario que nos ayuda a reflexionar sobre nuestra conceptualización cultural. Aquí se los muestro:
Adapted from Josie Mendez-Negrete “Conocimiento”
Cultural Conocimiento
Name: Eduardo Valenzuela I like to be called: Ed or Eddy (My father was also called Eddy).
I was born in Havana, Cuba.
On my father’s side, I trace my ancestry to Canary Islands, Spain (both grandparents).
On my mother’s side, I trace my ancestry to Spain (grandfather) and Africa (great-grandmother).
The region(s) I associate with my ancestry is/are: The Caribbean, and Africa.
What is your ethnicity? Which box would you check on the census form? Hispanic.
Identify three attributes, characteristics, or behavior that tells someone about your culture:
When I speak Spanish, I mispronounce the letters “R” and “S” which is a characteristic of Cubans and Puertoricans.I use body language, make gestures with my hands during a conversation, and my voice is loud.If I heard the rhythm of a “conga” I start moving, and if it is a sacred African song... I dance!Culture is: What I have found through my life in different social surroundings that I had chosen to be part of, or to identify as mine. I don’t believe in a “cultural destiny” or in a preconceived set of standards that I’m condemned to accept. I see culture as a personal choice from a collective sociological experience to an individual psychological assumption.
In my family, culture means: To do the same that everybody else does; to think like everybody thinks; to perpetuate a generational idiosyncrasy that leave very little room for individuality.
Cultural Identity means: According to the latest definition given in 1997 by Encyclopedia Britannica it means "assigning to things and events certain meanings that cannot be grasped with the senses alone." That definition is also known by the term “symboling”. My definition of cultural identity is the self-acceptance of determined characteristics (at will) which provides a correlation between individuality and a group.
Surface culture can be expressed by: What some people believe is supposed to be a specific cultural identity. When surface culture is perceived as a dominant social factor of psychological repression, it may lead to stereotypes. It is very common for some individuals of an ethnic group to follow certain concatenated behaviors based solely on references from broad cultural information.
Deep culture implies that: A person consciously or unconsciously exteriorizes fixed behaviors as representation of learned experiences. Deep culture is equivalent to iconolatry in the sense that a person belonging to a certain group worships his cultural inheritance.
Sociocultural identities I accept: (There’s no right or wrong answer, please write those that apply to you)
Racial______________________ Ethnic______________________
Gender_____________________ Cultural____________X________
Social______________________ Political_____________________
Professional_______ X _______ Religious____________________
Other_________________________________________________________________________
