Mexican American Culture The Film Selena - 1006 Words

To help me understand and analyze a different culture, I watched the film Selena. The film tells the life story of the famous singer Selena Quintanilla-Pà ©rez. Not only does it just tell personal stories from her life, it also gives insight to the Mexican-American culture. Her whole life she lived in the United States, specifically in Texas, but was Hispanic and because of that both her and her family faced more struggles than white singers on the climb to her success. Even though the film is a story about a specific person, it brought understanding into the culture in which she lived. Keeping in mind that these ideas that I drew about the Mexican-American culture is very broad and do not apply to every single person in the culture, there†¦show more content†¦However, the first person she told was her father. She knew he would be furious that she disobeyed his orders but instead of just running off with Chris, she came back to the family. Selena and her father sat down and talked until they both came to an understanding about their feelings and actions. In American culture, when a teenager is told she can’t be with the man she loves, it tends to be the norm that two will run away together and not come back to the family. America focuses more on the individualized identity while Mexican-Americans care most about the familial identity. Martin and Nakayama had a Mexican-American student and the student actually explained in depth how their culture identifies as more familial rather than individualized or spiritual: To be Mexican-American is to unconditionally love one’s family and all it stands for. Mexican-Americans are an incredibly close-knit group of people, especially when it comes to family. We are probably the only culture that can actually recite the names of our fourth cousins by heart. In this respect our families are like clans, they go much further than the immediate family and very deep into extended families. (p. 173) This student helps to further reinforce the importance of family that was shown in the film Selena. When most immigrants move into America, they are greeted with much tension and conflict. There is still some discrimination between races, as much as American’sShow MoreRelatedThe Movie Selena 2286 Words   |  10 Pagesmain characters of the film: Who are they? What are their motivations? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are the obstacles they face? The main character in the film â€Å"Selena† is a woman named Selena. Everyone else in the movie is a sub character that plays off of the role of Selena. The movie is about Selena’s life and the movie begins with her as a little girl and ends with her as a Mexican-American pop star loved by both the Mexican and American communities. Selena goes from being a youngRead MoreLatin American Music And Its Impact On America915 Words   |  4 PagesLatin Americans are considered as minority in the USA because they have a great diversity regard with race, culture and language. They helped build this country since their cultures have been adopted in this country and them also apport help to this country. Latin Americans have made a lot of contributions to the USA such as military, language, fine arts, literal arts, music, politics, food and others. Economic Music Hispanic’s music had a great impact in USA. Nowadays, Americans listen to Hispanics’Read MoreCumbia in Mexican Culture Essay1955 Words   |  8 PagesCumbia serves as a unifier of Mexican people, especially families, and serves as a sociocultural outlet for celebration and upholds cultural traditions. A main theme of Mexican culture is togetherness of the family, and many celebrations create a community and place for family involvement. Celebrating together creates and maintains bonds and is an outlet for expression sharing commonalities such as cultural thoughts and ideas. Solidifying a connection in the community with people that listen to cumbiaRead MoreCoco Cola18335 Words   |  74 PagesMarriage Act * 5.4  Bolivian criticism * 6  References * 7  External links | ------------------------------------------------- Health effects[edit] Since studies indicate soda and sweetened drinks are the main source of calories in [the] American diet,[1]  most  nutritionists  advise that Coca-Cola and other soft drinks can be harmful if consumed excessively, particularly to young children whose soft drink consumption competes with, rather than complements, a balanced diet. Studies have shownRead MoreWho Are You Calling Old? Negotiating Old Age Identity in the Elderly Consumption Ensemble Michelle Barnhart Àà º Lisa Penaloza18943 Words   |  76 PagesCorvallis, OR 97331 (michelle.barnhart@bus.oregonstate.edu). Lisa Penaloza is professor of ËÅ" marketing, Bordeaux Management School, 680 Cours de la Liberation, 33405 Talence Cedex, France (lisa.penaloza@bem.edu), and advisor, Center for Consumer Culture Theory (3CT), Stockholm University School of Business, Sweden. This research was part of the lead author’s PhD dissertation at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. The authors would li ke to thank the members of the lead author’s