Hispanic culture is all around the world. About 19.1% of the population in the U.S. consists of Hispanic people. Hispanic culture is more than just being from a part of South America. There are traditions, foods, culture, our different appearances, and our cultural fashion. I interviewed four students from AJMS, two eighth graders, and two seventh graders, and I asked them about their culture, what they do, what they eat, and where they’re from.
For students with Mexican heritage, pozole is a popular food. Kayla Sagastume, whose family is from Mexico and Guatamala, shares pozole as one of her favorite things about her heritage, as does Niani Ayala, whose dad is from El Salvador and mom is from Mexico, and Isaac Reyna, whose mom is from Mexico City and dad is from Tlaxcala.
Niani said, “I like the food, it’s really yummy. Pozole, the red one not the green one.”
Kayla said, “Uh the food. Pozole, Mole, um the arroz con leche. Oh my god bro, the tres leches too.”
And Isaac said, “Mostly the food. Pozole.”
On the other hand, Jose Romero, whose mom is from Puebla, and dad is from Morelos, states his favorite part of his heritage is also the food, but carne asada. He said, “Uh, like the food is pretty good in my culture, you know like, uh, yeah I like the food and like yeah. My favorite food? Ooh, carne asada with some guacamole, that be bussin on God, it smacks.”
Another thing that’s popular in Hispanic culture are traditions. Many people celebrate different things and like to celebrate them differently. Some people celebrate with parties, food, traveling, or maybe just gathering with family.
Kayla celebrates multiple holidays. She said, “Oh yeah, quinces and like holidays too, yeah we celebrate every holiday. Like, Dia de los Muertos.”
Niani celebrates with food during the winter season. She said, “Um we have the bread with the baby in it,” which is the bread called Rosca de Reyes. This is a Mexican tradition where there’s a little plastic baby in a few pieces of the bread. If you happen to get it, most of the time the tradition is to cook food, but others may celebrate it differently.
Jose celebrates with family. He said, “We don’t really celebrate Christmas we just like you know, you know like Christmas we sometimes go with family you know or just uh hang around.”
And Isaac goes traveling and does a tradition. He said, “Traditions? For New Year’s we do this little thing called the Raging Bull where they get a pinata-type bull and put fireworks all around it and someone wears it and runs around. We went to Mexico this time for New Year’s and Christmas and we celebrated the tradition.”
Hispanic culture is more than how a person looks, or acts. It’s about tradition, language, family and so much more.
