Christina Hill

Dr. Flowers

EDU280

28 January 2019

Individual Culture Project

Although I have yet to take an official DNA test, I know I am biracial. My mother is fully

black and fully Caribbean: Jamaican and Trinidadian. I do not know much about my father’s

heritage, but he is half African American and half Caucasian. Because of strong family ties in

Trinidad, I am lucky enough to experience that culture more closely than any other.

My mother was raised by traditional, fairly wealthy Caribbean parents. Hard work was

valued and believed to eventually pay off, and manners and discipline were taken very seriously.

Growing up, the reigns were tight on my twin sister, older brother, and I. Now, I am thankful for

the tough love and insistence on working hard because the outcomes in my family that came

from this way of thinking were always successful. However, I also strongly believe in living life

at your own pace, and working hard all the time does not always lead to success nor happiness.

My parents cleverly named me and my siblings inspired by people in the bible. Christina

is similar to Christ, or Christian. Maya, my twin sister, was named after Mary. My older brother,

John Mark took my father's name, as well as John the Baptist's. We have been living in Las

Vegas since 2002, but I was born in Woodland Hills, California. Living in the suburbs my entire

life--both California and Nevada-- has not exposed me to much of my race, but I have gotten to

know people from other religions and nationalities. In high school in Henderson, there was a

huge Mormon and Jehovah's Witness population. I was raised Christian, and my mom is still
devout, but I chose to no longer subscribe. I was able to educate myself a little more about

organized religion, which has been a helpful life tool. Also in high school, foreign exchange

students were coming to my school every year and I was able to meet people from Japan,

Sweden, and Kyrgyzstan. It is not too often that I meet someone new to the United States, so

hearing about those students' experiences in their home countries was an awesome opportunity.

It is also fairly rare when I can travel outside of my nation, so whenever the chance to go to

Trinidad arises, I take advantage.

This writing assignment made me look more closely at my family and culture to properly

answer the question of "Who Are You?" This assignment brought about dialogue in my home.

My sister and I were curious to find out more about how my mom was raised so that we could

better understand ourselves. It was also interesting to compare Trinidadian culture and the

American culture I am so used to.