Cultural Reporter Post #2- Justin Woods

Cultural Reporter Post #2

            For my cultural reporter project, I decided to narrow my topic from the entire Hispanic culture, to people of Hispanic origin who are either first or second-generation immigrants to the United States of America. While researching the culture of first/second generation Hispanic immigrants to America, I will delve into and explore the concept of minority identity development.

Flags of Latin and Hispanic Countries

 

          Minority identity, as defined by Martin and Nakayama in Intercultural Communication, is, “a sense of belonging to a nondominant group” (Martin & Nakayama, 2010, pg. 181). Within the United States, especially here in Nebraska, Hispanic people are an ethnic minority. This causes them to develop their own sense of identity as a nondominant ethnicity, or minority identity development. Minority Identity typically develops in the following four stages: Stage 1- Unexamined Identity, Stage 2- Conformity, Stage 3- Resistance and Separatism, and Stage 4- Integration (Martin & Nakayama, 2010, pgs. 181-183). Stage 1 (Unexamined Identity) explains how an individual in a minority group starts out by not deeply exploring or searching for one’s identity, rather they tend to go along and accept the views of the majority culture/identity (Martin & Nakayama, 2010, pg. 181). Stage 2 (Conformity) explains how one in a minority group will then start to desire to assimilate and “fit in” with the majority group (Martin & Nakayama, 2010, pg. 181). The process then usually moves on into Stage 3 (Resistance and Separation). In this stage those in a minority group distance themselves from the views and attitudes of the majority group, they then start to embrace the views and attitudes of their minority group allowing themselves to no longer shy away or be ashamed of the part of their identity that belongs to a minority group (Martin & Nakayama, 2010, pgs. 181-182). In the final stage, Stage 4 (Integration), a member of a minority group is considered to have achieved his complete identity. In this stage the minority group member is able to embrace and value his identity as a minority group member, while still respecting and valuing other cultural groups they do not belong to (Martin & Nakayama, 2010, pg. 182).

            As I research the culture of first/second generation Hispanic immigrants, I would like to understand how they developed their own unique minority identity. Belonging to two distinct minority groups myself, religious minority (Unificationist) and ethnic minority (biracial), the formation of my identity as a member of a minority group(s) has followed a path extremely similar to the four stages of minority identity development previously described. I would like to see if those in the first/second generation Hispanic immigrant minority group followed a path of minority identity development similar to the four stages, or did they develop their minority identity in a different way? Through understanding how those in the first/second generation Hispanic immigrant minority group developed their minority identities, I may be able to understand how those in the first/second generation Hispanic immigrant minority group value their identity as an ethnic minority and how, if any, does ones identity as an ethnic minority as a first/second generation Hispanic immigrant affect day to day life? In understanding the minority identity development of a minority group other than ones I belong to or am familiar with, I may be able to see and understand that I have more similarities than differences than those that belong to other minority or majority groups.

 

 

Hispanic Immigrants to the USA    

            For my research of first/second generation Hispanic immigrant minority identity development, I plan on carrying out interviews and online research. I currently plan on interviewing two first generation Hispanic immigrants to the United States: Mrs. Gretchen Canarsky (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Mrs. Margarita Lisak (Buenos Aires, Argentina). I plan on asking how they developed a minority identity as first generation Hispanic immigrants to the United States, and how has being an ethnic minority affected day to day life in the United States? I also plan on carrying out at least two more interviews with second-generation Hispanic immigrants to the United States. Along with the interviews, I will go online to collect and research accounts of first/second generation Hispanic immigrants to the United States, and see how they developed identities as an ethnic minority in the United States.

 

 

References

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2010). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.