Cultural Awareness: Various Aspects Of The Hispanic Culture

Cultural awareness is acknowledging the ways a person believes, acts, and lives, apart from their own ways. Cultural awareness is to understand and learn how to adapt and care for another person with different values and expectations.

Communication

For the Hispanic culture communication is both verbal and non-verbal. Spanish is frequently spoken while using hand gestures. The world “stupid” is considered extremely rude and should not be used in any circumstances. Non-verbal communication includes hugging and kissing. Cheek touching among men and women is common while making a kissing noise for greeting one another. Tossing items between each other is considered inappropriate and should be handed directly to one another. TimeIt is not uncommon for the Hispanic culture to show up past a specific time they were given. This culture believes in the present time having a greater meaning than what the future could bring. Flexibility of time is incorporated in their everyday life, meaning most will not show up to an event any earlier than the set time. The Hispanic culture does not see themselves as “being late” nor disrespectful but incorporating the importance of what is happening in the present time.

Space

Personal contact is to be expected. Personal space in this culture is not much of a big deal, meaning hugs, kisses, handshakes are a way of life. Eye contact is expected, along with “real” dialogue, not memorized everyday language. With meeting new people, a person-to-person contact approach is still expected and no contact is deemed disrespectful.

Social organization

Socialization is maintained easily among the Hispanic culture. Avoiding issues that could cause conflict is not uncommon to keep the harmony between one another. Sympathy, tolerance, and forgiveness are common traits amongst each other. Personal relationships are kept with respect towards one another and differences are rarely spoken about to keep problem-free relationships. The Hispanic culture is encouraged to “invite” others to their lives by greeting and maintaining a healthy friendship.

Environmental control

Illness are usually blamed due to the hot and cold of a substance involved, not temperature. An illness related to hot is treated with something cold and vise versa. Many of these beliefs are from many generations that have been passed down. Hot foods shall not be served with more hot food, but with cold to keep balance. An example includes if one develops a fever, a hot experience, one must eat cold foods to balance out the body. Herbs, prayers, and offerings are considered treatment for many illnesses, and are believed to bring good luck. During serious illness, candles, and shrines may be used even if professional medical staff is involved. Healers may be called upon to pray over a body to rid of any disease.

Biological variations

The Hispanic culture have a greater risk for chronic illnesses. In contrary to the statistics, a healthy diet, low numbers of smoking, and family structure has been proven to increase lower mortality rates. With each generation that stays in the United States, a negative impact on diet, drugs, and structure increase. Economic status, immunizations, and authority also play a role in declined health status. Lower cost in Mexico for medications make it easier for purchase and compliance for the Hispanic culture. Heart disease, cancer, and accidents are leading causes for death in Hispanics for all age groups.

Cultures in community

Cultures present in my community include Hispanic/Latino, Islamic, Asian, and Western. As these cultures tend to become more existent in this community, I believe having more knowledge of the different types is of importance to facilitate the best care. One example includes incorporating in-service training on how to care for people of specific cultures so including likes, dislikes, belief systems, and medication regimens. Another example includes having informational sheets handy for the different types of cultures in the area, which contain basic needs and frequently used dialogue if a different language is spoken.