The Myth Of The Latin Woman

Sabika Khan
Irina Nizova
English 1301-6006
25 June 2014
“Identifying Cultures” All around the world we are one big melting pot. Meaning there are a huge variety of different cultures throughout different nations. But I simply ask one question, how does someone tell them apart? There are many ways to differentiate cultures with many different factors. One in particular would be the language they speak. In a more general prospective, if someone were to live in Mexico they would obviously speak Spanish. But, if someone were to live in China they would speak Chinese. People can tell what culture is which by the language, language is most important when identifying culture. Language shows where the culture all started and can also show
In the essay, “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Marìa”, Judith Ortiz Cofer explained that “[a]t Puerto Rican festivities, neither the music nor the colors we wore could be too loud”(252). Many different cultures have many different ways of dressing. For example, in Pakistan girls wear “shalwar kameez.” (Which is basically like a long shirt with trousers underneath.) And as for in Japanese girls wear “kimonos.” People in different cultures dress the way they do for certain reasons. For instance, in the Islamic culture they like to be all covered up because it shows modesty and also respect. However, in the Latin culture mothers were from the tropical island. So “showing your skin was one way to keep cool as well as to look sexy”(Cofer 253). The different types of dressing identifies what culture people belong too. If someone were to see a girl in a scarf around her head they would assume that she belongs to the Middle Eastern culture. HoSomeones appearance can also show their ethnicity or culture. This could sound a little racist, but it is true. For appearance, someones feature can show their culture. As an example, if someone were to see someone else with little squinty eyes they would assume that they are from the Asian culture. But if someone were to be a darker skin color that would be assumed to be from the African culture. It is not meant to be racist because it shows different ways to identify
Every nation has different traditions that they follow by. For example, in the essay “The Arab World”, Edward T. Hall acknowledges that “the form of the home is such as to hold the family together inside a single protective shell, because Arabs are deeply involved with each other”(266). In Islamic culture there are many different traditions. One being that when someone gets married in the Islamic culture the wedding lasts not for one day, but three days. In American culture, weddings are typically one day. This just goes to show that many traditions are involved when identifying a