Narciso Cesar Soto: Adapting To American Culture

Indeed, immigrating to a different country may present inconvenient obstacles to overcome. This is due to the dissimilarities of countries that may differentiate in language, education, and culture. It is inevitable for an immigrant to avoid such obstacles; however, different people may adapt at a different rate. In my case, I interviewed my father to which he mentioned that adapting to American Culture was not as strenuous as it seemed. His name is Narciso Cesar Soto and he immigrated at the age of 14 from Morelia, Michoacán to Santa Monica, California. His birthday is on the 29th of October; however, his sister in law, Rosa Santander, changed it accidently to the 31st of October on his American birth certificate. He has a mother, father,
He said, smiling, “my favorite foods were big mac, KFC chicken, and french fries.” In Morelia, they did not have french fries, Cheetos, and soda. The foods in Morelia were home cooked and freshly grown from his garden; such as, beans, corn, and vegetables. Also, he mentioned, that the soda in America was similar in popularity to the “Aguas”, freshly made fruit juice, in Morelia. In terms of food, he enjoyed the American food experience, especially Mediterranean food since it reminded him of his favorite home dish, ceviche, a Southern American dish made of raw fish and spices. However, he disliked the fact that American food was calorically dense compared to Mexican food. In addition, he made a remark that Morelia will slowly increase its obesity rate because of the expansion of fast food restaurants. Aside from food, the scenery of America, specifically Santa Monica, was completely different compared to Morelia. He said, “that the sky was beautiful, the ground was clean, and the streets were organized.” On top of that, he saw the ocean for the first time in which he would spend most of his time exercising, relaxing, and hanging with his new friends that would help him adapt to American
He was surprised and accustomed to the norm that children in Morelia could work at a young age. For example, his father made him work at construction sites at the age of 10. Once my father settled in his new home with his brother, Mariano Soto and his sister in law, Rosa Santander, they stressed the importance of an education to become competitive in the work force in America. His parents, however, disregarded the importance of an education, but rather stressed the importance of possessing a strong work ethic. He attended University High School, at Santa Monica, where he was placed in his favorite class, English as a Second Language (E.S.L). The most of the ethnicities he saw were Asians, Armenians, and lacked in African Americans and Latinos. He was surprised with the amount of diversity in America compared to Morelia. In his favorite class, he met some people who were, too, international students and were struggling to learn English. They hanged out frequently and he established a relationship with them in which improved the rate of learning the language. They would spend time during lunch, at the beach, or watching movies at the local theater. Also, they would hang out with other Americans at the beach and would all play sports, such as volleyball. Their constant interactions made him more confident in speaking out and helped him break the