1. I interviewed my mother, Alma Aguirre, a woman born in Chihuahua, Mexico in the 1950's. Her family was very low-income, almost reaching poverty level in the small town called Parral that she resided in. Because she was the oldest of ten siblings, she lived her life like a second mother to her nine brothers and sisters, helping her mother out in any way she could.
2. As the anthropologist, I did feel a bit awkward because some of the questions seemed to get a little personal for my mother, however, it was not as awkward as it would have been if I had interviewed another family member. It may have affected the thoroughness of my interview only because I tended to avoid subjects that I knew would have been uncomfortable for me to discuss with her. This most definitely would not have been an issue if I was interviewing someone other than a relative because a stranger or even a friend may not care to appear a certain way to me and would have answered more freely.
3. My family members are all close within immediate family members, however, most do not expand to uncles and cousins and so on. For example, in my immediate family, I am very close to my brother and sisters and especially my parents, but I only really speak to one of my cousins out of the sixty-seventy first cousins that I have. When it comes to physical traits, the majority of my family share the traits of average height, light skin (light skin in comparison to other hispanic people from Mexico), big eyes, and straight teeth. These traits are found most common in my mother's side of the family, but my father's family are also average height with light skin and big eyes. These traits are apparent in my siblings: all my sisters are about 5'4, light skinned with nice teeth and big eyes. The younger individuals in my family are treated a lot younger than they are usually because in our culture, the older you are, the more wise you are, meaning that the younger you are, the less you know. This is obviously not a factual perspective, but it's how we measure the amount of respect we give a family member. The smaller the family, the more happy the family seems to be. Most of my parents siblings that have more than three children ended in divorce or are going through a tough time with addictions, depression, etc. Some of my family members were born and raised in Mexico while some completely do not know how to speak Spanish; this sometimes is an issue because it is harder for us to communicate and relate to one another, but all in all, it doesn't affect how much we care for each other.
4. I don't know the relatives on both my mother and father's side really well, but I have met all of them and have spoken to most of them on a personal level. The only family members I don't socialize equally with are the much older family members because they most strongly believe in the idea of the younger you are, the more foolish you are. The fathers of each family have the most influence on decision making because a lot of my family members believe in the traditional view that the men are the head of the household and should decide on anything that may ultimately have a big effect on the family. Family members who marry into the family are usually treated a bit differently at first until they prove themselves. However, my family is very warm and welcoming and as long as the person proves to have good intentions, they will be treated as if they have always been in our family. Like I said, we are very traditional and many of the women strive to become a good cook and a good mother to their children 100% of the time and the men strive to gain a good career and always keep the family stable. Although I do not have a problem with any other type of way another family may divide responsibilities, with regard to gender roles, I do like the way my family tries to be as traditional as possible. I've learned my family may not all be as close as we wish we could be, but we still understand the importance of family and how we will always be the backbone in each other's lives.
I think I was most drawn to the idea that older individuals have the wisdom and the younger ones are foolish. This seems to almost produce a language barrier. Is there a magic age in your family where the young are old enough to be part of the older generation's conversation? Or do the ages stay in their groupings, with younger groupings becoming the older groupings over time?
ReplyDeleteGood post. Well done.
I also found it hard to ask certain questions. Certain things that maybe they weren’t so proud of. When I was interviewing my father I hit a subject that almost felt like I re-opened a wound long forgotten. It made me feel bad and awkward. I felt that If I wasn’t related to him than these questions would still hurt him but I would be less attached and probably would have pushed the subject more. 60 – 70 first cousins?!? Yea I probably would pick the best one out of all of them and just focused my attention on that 1 lol that is just way too many to keep track of.
ReplyDeleteI know that families form our Mexican culture are big, but it is the first time I know someone with sixty-seventy cousins. I understand that you may not have great conversations with your uncles and aunts, and I feel that it is more a problem of culture than age because as long you talk to them about corrido, banda and their ranch, they will be very interesting talking to you.
ReplyDeleteyou should try to have a better communication with cousins in Mexico because in our culture we love to talk with our relatives. For example, in my facebook I have some second cousins from Matamoros Tamaulipas and I have never meet them in person.
When you said the older you are the "wiser" I could relate completely. That same view/tradition takes place in my own family. It's so frustrating!
ReplyDeleteYou also mentioned the men typically make the big and important decisions for the entire family. This is true for my father's side, my two aunts are basically ruled by their husbands. However, my mother was brought up to fight for herself and it's shown in our household and my attitude.
Jenifer, I think your post on your role as an anthropologist is really interesting. I felt the complete opposite - I have a pretty close relationship with my aunt and felt very comfortable when asking her questions about her past. It seemed like she was able to tell me anything about anyone. Therefore, for me, I feel like it would have been a issue if I interviewed someone NOT related to me because I would think that they wouldn't feel as comfortable to disclose certain information. I was intrigued to read our differences in perspective!
ReplyDeleteI am also Mexican and can relate to several things you talked about. For example, one or two of the younger kids in my family don't speak Spanish. The rest of my family members always give them a hard time, sometimes because we feel that they understand it but are embarrassed to speak it. It's frustrating because there are also people in my family that don't speak English making it impossible for them to communicate. I also have lots of cousins but most of us are close or at least have some sort of communication with each other. I really enjoyed reading your post, there were some differences that you encounter with your family yet I can totally relate to everything you said.
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