Mexican-American Eating Norms

788 Words4 Pages
Can you think of eating and drinking norms that are specific to your family's national, religious or racial/ethnic traditions? What about those of your friends or acquaintances? Do these norms contribute to your identity and social interacting patterns? (pg. 75) Norms are defined as “established rules of behavior or standards of conduct” (Kendall, 2014). In regards to my Haitian culture one the eating norms are that on Sundays our meals consist of spicy chicken, rice with dried mushrooms and we share that meal with our family. Also in our culture on New Year’s Day we celebrate our nations Independence Day by eating pumpkin soup and black-eyed pea patties which also represents luck for the upcoming year. In Haiti the drinking age is 16 so when…show more content…
In our culture it is very common to receive large portions in every meal of the day with large amount of carbohydrates and sodium in them and young kids especially are often encouraged to eat as much as they can. They do so by adding supplements to children’s food to encourage growth. The norms of some of my friend are those of the Mexican culture. In Mexican culture, they are known for eating pozoles and tamales, a corn and meat dish, on Christmas and other national holidays. Just like in Haitian culture, Mexican-American families allow their teenagers to drink alcoholic beverages at special occasions and parties. On the Day of the Dead they eat the “bread of the dead” sweet bread that contains eggs and sugar in it. On their independence day in September they only eat dishes that represent the colors of their Mexican flag such as chile poblano that has a white sauce, red pomegranates and green parsley. These norms do contribute to my identity and social interaction patterns, for one, I have a strong sense of family and I have always viewed Sundays as the day you spend time with your family and nothing else. I have a very strong bond with my mother and extended family and because of that I always put my family into consideration over friends because that has all I’ve become to…show more content…
When we have a better understanding of each other’s backgrounds we, therefore, have a better understanding of each other as people. I see that a child should never disrespect their parents because as a child growing up if I wasn’t done as told I would face the consequences. It allows me to have a certain respect to not only my parents but my elders as well. Also in the Haitian culture it is often encouraged to have chores and responsibilities at a young age like washing the dishes for the whole household so that you are ready for life later on, so having chores and responsibilities at a young age has gave me a greater sense of maturity and that I approach real life situations with real life experiences. Because the Haitian economy is so poor and often time’s families struggle to find food they bring those values when they come to America. So as I grew up I was always told to never waste food and that nothing should be left on my plates, and they would often remind us that there are people all around the world that would love to have food but, unfortunately cannot. This has played a big role in my identity because it allows me to stay humble and always be thankful for what I have been
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