Stereotypes Of Mexican-Americans

Mexican-Americans
Culture has been defined as so many things but what does it really mean? Dictionary.com defines it as “the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.” I guess you can say that’s a pretty fair definition but that’s not all, culture also has to do with the way people dress and what people listen to (music wise). Culture also deals with religion, politics, education, jobs, economic status and things like that. Well where does that leave them? Where do Mexican-Americas get places in all of this?
As a Mexican American I feel it is my duty to know all of the stereotypes that are said about us. Politically speaking, people think that
Mexican-Americans vote democratic or that Mexican-Americans are liberals. I think that is very wrong, to be upfront with you. I know plenty of Mexican-Americans that are republican because they agree with republicans in terms of immigration, they believe that Mexican immigrants should stay in Mexico, they should be deported immediately if caught in the states. But on the other hand there are some democrats in there, just not all of them are.
Music plays a huge part in people’s culture. Music can be spiritual it can be emotional and so many other things. Depending on the area they were born in influences the sound of music, it also influences the way you learn to dance them. Despite what people think, Mexican-Americans don’t only listen to mariachi music. They have so many musical varieties including Duranguense, Cumbia, Zapateado, Bachata, Tribal and others. All of these types of music have different ways to dance them. There is a certain dance that is done when celebrating some religious events that are performed by matachines.
Mexican-Americans are presumed to only eat tacos or that they only eat beans. This is very very wrong and people have been misinformed greatly. Beef burritos, nachos, cheese dip, and fajitas are often associated with Mexican food when going out, but calling it that is incorrect. Authentic Mexican food almost never incorporated ingredient like beef, cheddar cheese, black beans, and wheat flower. As I mentioned above outsiders like to think that Mexicans eat hard shell tacos but that is also wrong. Hard shell tacos are an Americanized form of a Mexican taco. Mexicans originally ate tortilla tacos. Despite what people like to think, not all Mexican-Americans eat authentic Mexican food. Actually some try to avoid it while others indulge themselves in the authenticity of the food.
Education, in our culture, is kind of strange.
For the Mexican-Americans that are born in America but have Mexico born parents are brought to the states to live the “American Dream” that their parent has for them. Most Mexican-Americans who are teens and or are in their early twenty’s seem to have it hard. They are under the pressure from their parents and sometimes themselves, they want to receive an education because that’s what their parents want from them but most of the parents also want their student to work full time to help pay family bills to make things easier on them. While in a classroom setting, some Mexican-Americans get ridiculed from teachers and sometimes even student. Teachers will speak slower to us because they assume we do not understand what they are saying. Other students can make jokes trying to make us feel bad because of who we are. Now a days we have laws that protect us from ridicule and bullying, that has help in some situations but not all the
time.
Those laws can protect us in the work place as well.
As I said it still does not stop people from doing whatever they feel like doing or feel like saying. Being Mexican-American, people think that we are incompetent and unable to work. We get judged harshly if anybody sees a Mexican-America at work mess up or do something small wrong. Mexican-Americans also get the hardest punishment because we are expected to do so much better in a job. We are held to a higher expectation because we are who we are, and it also makes it harder to keep a job because if we are held to a higher expectation and we don’t meet that expectation we get punished, fired
even.