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Defining Relationships In Mexican Culture

Defining Relationships in Mexican Culture

This paper will define certain relationships in Mexican culture, taken from a popular belief's perspective. The topics covered will be family, community, religion, and the word Chingar.
Some background facts about Mexico: The place of advanced Amerindian civilizations, Mexico came under Spanish rule for three centuries before achieving independence early in the 19th century. A devaluation of the peso in late 1994 threw Mexico into economic turmoil, triggering the worst recession in over half a century. The nation continues to make an impressive recovery. Ongoing economic and social concerns include low real wages, underemployment for a large segment of the population, inequitable income distribution, and few advancement opportunities for the largely Amerindian population in the hurting southern states. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time since the 1910 Mexican Revolution that the opposition defeated the party in government, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Vicente FOX of the National Action Party (PAN) was sworn on 1 December, 2000 as the first chief executive elected in free and fair elections. (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html)
Mexican culture is known for the unified nature of the family. In Cisnero's book, Caramelo we see that nothing is more important than the family, "Always remember," Inocencio tells his daughter, "…the family comes first—la familia." (Cisneros, 2002) Children regularly live with their parents until they marry, even if they remain single until their thirties or later. It is also quite common for family units to remain connected, often with grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and children all living in the same area or even in the same house. Of course that is not the case all the time, especially when families have to migrate. Loyalty within the family is absolute – brothers will fight for the honor of their sisters. A lot of times the...