Lea Martinez

Artifact 1- Personal Cultural Project

EDU 280
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Cultural Belonging

When I think about my cultural belonging, I first think about my parents. Both my

parents are what they called French Canadian. I remember them saying to all us children that we

should learn French because both they and their parents knew French. None of us really grasped

the language except for a few words like oui and comment allez-vous. I do have to give my

parents credit for trying to have us learn a language other than English.

It was not until I got to second grade that I started learning how to say things in another

language. My second-grade teacher Mrs. Terron spoke both English and Spanish. Because of

that, she was able to allow me to learn how to say everyday school items like paper, pencil, and

door in Spanish. I had quite a few Spanish speaking students in my class then, and I am sure by

Mrs. Terron incorporating some Spanish in the classroom it helped them to feel included with the

other students.

In addition to speaking only English in my family household, I also lived in a few places

from childhood until now. I was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, and lived there till I was about

three years old. My family then moved us to El Monte in southern California. That is where I

went to school up through High School. I believe by growing up in California, I was able to be

around many different cultures, and it helped me to appreciate the diversity. Southern California

is also where I met my husband and had my two children. After many years of my family living
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in California, we decided to pick up and move to Las Vegas, Nevada, and that is where we still

reside today.

During my childhood, I always celebrated Halloween by dressing up and going trick o

treating. My children did the same thing on Halloween. Besides the costumes on Halloween,

Christmas with the family was celebrated with a Christmas Tree, lots of food, and of course

Santa Clause for the kids. After having my own children, we incorporated some of my

husband’s traditions with my traditions. My husband is of Mexican heritage and he celebrated

Chsristmas a little differently than I did. One of the best and tastiest traditions from my husband

was making tamales for Christmas Eve. In fact, it is a tradition that his mother and father did

long before I met him. Having both traditions in the family is something I do cherish and glad to

have experienced.
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Experiences

There are some experiences in my life that affected me and these are the ones I remember

the most. One of my most challenging life experiences happened soon after having my first

child. I feel that during the first few years after she was born we struggled financially and I

became very depressed with myself. For example, I felt I was not a good mother for my

daughter or a good wife. With the help of my husband, I was able to get out of the difficult time

that I was experiencing and enjoy my daughter and was able to be the mother that she needed in

her life. When I had my second child, I was scared that I would fall into the same depression I

had with my first child, but I didn’t. It may have been because our life was better financially

than before. I was thankful that I could now concentrate on being a wife and a mother.

Another experience I remember was after graduating high school. After finishing high

school, I decided I was not ready to go a college or a university. Besides, I had my heart set on

becoming a flight attendant and traveling to different places. I wanted to travel the world and see

and meet different people and how they live. After graduating from an airline school landing a

job was harder than I thought. My dream did not become a reality but it did not keep me down

because here I am again working towards a new goal.

When thinking about my experiences, I also think about things that interest me. One

activity I really enjoy is hiking in the mountains. Because of my love for that activity, my

daughters also enjoy it too. I feel good that I can pass the joy of hiking in nature to my children.

Another interest I have is baking and I enjoy baking things especially from scratch. To be

honest, they just taste so much better than store bought baked goods. I became interested in

baking after my first child was born and believed as a mother I needed to be able to bake treats
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for my children. To this day I still enjoy looking up new dessert recipes online to share with my

family.

My Worldview

While growing up, I was brought up Catholic. I went to church every Sunday, I attended

communion and confirmation classes, and I read passages from the Bible. As I became an adult,

I turned my views towards being Agnostic. I believe that by learning more about how our

universe works and how life evolved made me go in the agnostic direction. I still respect

everyone’s religious beliefs because I believe we have the right to worship as we please.
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However, I also believe people who choose not to worship or do not believe should also have the

same respect.

I do not consider myself a prejudice person, but I do know at times I have caught myself

looking down on people who seemed to always use food stamps. For example, I thought perhaps

they did not want to try and do better for themselves. My sister in law was the person who made

me open my eyes because she was someone who used food stamps for her children. Once I

understood more about her life and other people in similar situations, it changed my perspective

about them. I became more sympathetic to these people and felt that they needed the chance and

the opportunity to do better in their lives.

My worldviews also include some of my goals in life. My short term goals are to

graduate from CSN by the end of next year. My long term goals in life are to find a job that I am

happy with doing and will give me a satisfying feeling. I also want to be able to travel to other

countries. I want to be able to appreciate others cultures and how they live compared to the way

I live in the United States. I feel that there is something to learn from other people and what

better way to learn about someone else then to see firsthand the way they live.