A Story of Cultural Origins.
In today's world, it is easy to lose track of our cultural heritage within the giant melting pot of modern society. In order to understand ourselves, and why we sometimes do the things we do, perhaps we must first try to understand the culture from which we originated. In order to better understand my culture I interviewed my aunt, Rita, who is in her late thirties, and resides in New York. She is West Indian in ethnicity. At first I did not know what I would gain from this interview, but in the end I left with a better understanding of where I came from.
My aunt came to New York about 10 years ago, and she said that it was a choice that she would never regret. Even though she enjoys life here, she still manages to cling to the culture from which she came. The primary reason she came was to ensure her family's safety, because at that time there was a crime wave sweeping through Guyana. She also came because she wanted to provide her family with the best life possible, and in order to do this she needed a job, and that became her primary goal when she got here.
In order to get a better understanding about the Guyanese culture, I decided to ask her about her childhood, because culture is instilled from the time of birth, and is continued throughout life, what better place to start than the beginning? My aunt grew up with her parents, sister and brother, she was the eldest. In the area where she grew up, it was common for the eldest, no matter the gender, to take a lot of the house-hold responsibilities, while the youngest were allowed to go to school. In the family, the male was the head figure, and her father was the only person who had any say in family matters. She told me that while growing up she was taught by her mother to be obedient to her parents and her elders, and not only to respect herself, but treat others with the same respect that she expected to be treated with.