Research Study Of The Mexican Culture

Abstract

Mexico is very diverse and culturally rich country. In this research study Mexican religion, historical events, traditions, education system and languages has been discussed. Mexico is located in America, basically it is situated in south of North-America. Mexico is the third-largest country in North America and 13th largest country in the world. The country is the second most populous in America and the world’s 11th most populous country with a population of 120 million people. Majority of people of Mexico follow Roman Catholic Christianity as a religion. Very few portions of people in Mexico follow other religion and rest of them do not follow any religion. National holidays are celebrations of their history and culture, which are celebrated with full zeal and zest. There are numerous holidays and festivals that are celebrated according to various historical events and traditions. In regards with education system, the educational policy in modern Mexico focuses on putting a firm foundation on national cultural-educational camp, creating harmony between both globalization and unique individuality leanings of development. Spanish is the main language used to communicate in Mexico. In the country of Mexico, Spanish language has five diverse dialects that are further classified into few sub-dialects. Each and every dialect possess its own unique conducts of verb, tenses, vowels, and articles, its even comprises of entirely different vocabulary.

Religion

Mexico is located in America, basically it is located in southern part of North-America. Mexico is the third-largest country in North America and the world’s 13th largest country by land area with a total area of 2 million square kilometers. The country is the second most populous in America and the world’s 11th most populous country with a population of 120 million people. Basically, Mexico does not have an official religion. However, Majority of people in Mexico follow Roman Catholic Christianity as a religion. Catholicism is the central religion and dominant faith followed by citizens of Mexico. Spanish colonists introduce Roman Catholicism to Mexico in 16th century. This religious conviction imparts the principle of God as the ‘Holy Trinity’, comprising of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Today, Catholicism is the same with the culture and society of Mexico. It is profoundly imbued in the community life and visible in the languages. Few parts of inhabitants follow other religion in Mexico and rest of them have no religion at all. Mexican Americans (Mexican heritage persons living in the U.S.) are the largest and fastest growing Latino subgroup representing 59.3% of the Latino population and 7.4% of the U.S. population (U.S. Bureau of Census, 2001, 2004).

There are several customs and traditions that people of Mexico follow in daily life to pay respect. For example, usually many Mexicans cross their hands whenever they run across in front of a church in their paths. For the ordinary and typical member of Mexican culture, life is designated by influential Catholic instants, such as initiation, first relationship, approval and marriage. These rites of passage mark key turning points throughout one’s lifetime. Mexicans in the US tend to hold more lenient opinions about the limitations of priesthood.

Mexico has a patron saint, known as the ‘La Virgen de Guadalupe’. In Mexican religion of Catholicism, the Virgin of Guadalupe considered as the appropriate messenger of God. She is believed to answer and grant the prayers of those who worship her. Therefore, it is common for Mexicans to have a shrine in their home where they pray to an image or emblem of the Virgin of Guadalupe

There are cultural forms of superstition and folk religions which are unrelated to religious institutions and are generally known to almost all Mexicans. According to the surveys and research of anthropologists, Few Mexicans have a firm believe in magic and its probable effect on the events happen in their life. This phenomenon is common across all social classes, both rural and urban. It is thought to help offer a solution to those areas in people’s lives where both medical and Catholicism have not been able to provide comfort, ease and facilities.

As part of a widespread belief in supernatural elements, some Mexicans have a fear of black magic, curses, witches and the evil eye There are many curanderos throughout Mexico. Curanderos are traditional native healers that use herbs and ointments to cure physical ailments as well as to offer relief from bad luck. Curanderos are often cheaper than doctors. Many people may pay a curandero to protect them from a spell or dissolve it. These traditions continue to be practiced throughout many regions and cities of Mexico. People also seek fortune-tellers that read candles and tarot cards to interpret events in their daily and professional lives.

Historical Events

Mexico’s national holidays are celebrations of their history and culture. There hundreds of holidays and festivals celebrated by Mexican culture according to their historical events and traditions. They celebrate Constitution Day on first Monday of February each year. It is celebrated due to the establishment of many fundamental rights, such as the freedom of speech, freedom to assembly, freedom of the press, and the right to bear arms. On September 5th Mexican people celebrate Independence Day. This day honors the start of the Independence War between the people of Mexico and Spain’s colonial authorities. Over 10 years later, Mexico won their independence and became its own nation. This holiday is legal, so many citizens enjoy their day off by celebrating with their family and friends.

On November 1st and 2nd Mexican people celebrate “Day of Dead”. This is one of the most important historical events, which is celebrated among them. This festival honors deceased friends and relatives with vigils, altars, rituals, and offerings. It is split up into two days. The first is called Día de Todos los Santos, meaning “All Saint’s Day”, celebrating those who were unmarried and passed away before turning eighteen. The second day is Día de los Fieles Difuntos, which translates “All Souls Day”, for those who were older than 18 and married.

On December 31st Mexican people celebrate New Year’s Eve. Although this holiday is celebrated worldwide, each country has unique traditions to welcome the New Year. Mexico traditionally celebrates the New Year by eating a grape on every stroke of the bell at midnight, making a wish with each one. The significance of the decorations used is also unique; red represents strong life and improvement of love, yellow honors the blessing of employment, green represents financial standing, and white for improved health. Families and friends also gather at 1:00AM for a traditional Mexican meal. Others usually attend local parties or nightclubs until the early hours of the morning. Also, it is a common tradition to throw a list of negative events in a fire, symbolizing a new year, free of negative energy.

Mexicans also celebrate a historical event of holy weekend. This holiday is celebrated in April. Good Friday is celebrated prior to Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Good Friday is a public holiday. It is a day off for the general population, and schools and most businesses are closed. Many people travel on vacation during the Holy Week, long-weekend so tourist destinations, particularly along the coast of Mexico, can be quite busy. Most banks and schools are closed in Mexico on Good Friday. Traffic and public transport may be stalled in streets where there are Good Friday processions in Mexico.

Mexican culture is also famous for its unique dances. The jarabe Tapeti is a Mexican folk dance, often called the national dance of Mexico, and better known internationally as the Mexican hat dance.

Values of This Culture in Relation to Hofstede’s Theory

The researcher Geert Hofstede classifies five cultural dimensions, which allot mathematical digit scores labeling a specific country's principles about each of the five dimensions. (Laura M. Milner, Dale Fodness, and Mark W. Speece 1993) By examining Mexican culture under the lens of the 6-D Model, many new aspects has been observed.

Power Distance:

Mexico scores 81 in this dimension. This shows that Mexico is a hierarchical society. This explains the fact that people of Mexico respect their hierarchical order, they respect everyone’s place and value while living together in a harmony.

Individualism:

Mexico, score of 30 in this dimension. That is why it is considered as a collectivistic society. This means that they live together in harmony and peace many members of the certain group live with each other to be called as a family, extended family, or extended relationships. Their society nurtures strong relationships among each other where everyone takes responsibility for related members of their group.

Masculinity:

In this dimension Mexico scores 69 which shows that Mexico is a masculine society. The countries which follows Masculinity, people “live in order to work”, managers are likely to be critical and forceful, the importance is on justice, struggle and presentation and fights are resolute by facing them.

Uncertainty avoidance index:

The country of Mexico scores 82 in this particular dimension. This means that the culture of Mexica, avoiding uncertainty has been extremely preferred. They sustain firm codes of belief and behavior and are very narrow-minded towards unconventional conduct, actions and ideas.

Long-term Orientation:

In this dimension country of Mexica scored a mathematical value of 24. This shows that Mexican culture is highly normative. Mexican people have a strong concern with developing new fundamentals. They are normative and conservative in their thinking. They show huge admiration for customs and traditions, a comparatively small tendency to adapt new customs for the future, which will keep them up to date with the modern world.

Educational System

The modern Mexican education system encloses basic education which includes

• Preschool
• Primary school
• Secondary school
• Preparatory school
• Higher education
• Postgraduate education.

The main objective of the Mexican education system is its self-governing, vocal development of human individuality, provoking love to the home country, development of self-consciousness, international solidarity in conditions of the independence and justice.

The basic education level of Mexican education system develops student’s abilities of thinking, reading, writing, speaking, counting, their abilities to study systematically and apprehending the norms of social life. This study level is represented by state and private institutions. 79% of the students of all study levels are basic education level students. Statistical data also reveal that 2 million Mexican children and teenagers don’t visit the school.

The preparatory education system is divided in two types: propaedeutic and bivalent.

• Propaedeutic includes a general bachelor course and is represented by state and private institutions. This bachelor program includes general student’s preparation and technical one such as humanistic knowledge: mathematics, natural and social sciences, language skills, research abilities, communication skills and computer knowledge. In the last semesters students are separated in four groups according to their skills and preferences: physical-mathematical sciences and engineering, biology and medicine, social sciences, humanities and arts.
• Bivalent bachelorship takes place in two forms: technical and professional-technical bachelorship. Both concentrate on laboratory practice, work in industry, professional practice and social service outside of the educational institutions. Study plans are composed of general education disciplines, which are identical for all specialties, and of professional directed technological courses, which are special for each group.

Nowadays 93 teenagers out of 100, who finish secondary school, continue their studies in preparatory school. 46.8% of 16–18 aged teenagers were registered, who visit preparatory schools in Mexico. Mexican immigrant parents in the U.S. have several characteristics that can enhance young children’s academic success, including high marital stability, a commitment to mutual assistance among family members, high educational aspirations, beliefs in the value of schooling, and responsiveness to teachers and schools (Goldenberg, Gallimore, & Reese, 2005; Goldenberg, Gallimore, Reese, & Garnier, 2001). In modern Mexico, the educational policy focuses on building national cultural-educational camp, harmonizing both globalization and unique identity of development. Mexican universities initiated cooperation with many world-known universities and invited outstanding professors to teach in Mexico and prepare highly-qualified professionals in different areas. For example, Ukraine takes part in this collaboration too and approximately 300 Ukrainian scientists work at Mexican universities.

Languages

Many different languages are spoken in the country of Mexico. Mexico is a culturally rich and diverse country. In spite of being culturally this much diverse with many different languages penetrated into the culture, Spanish is the most popular language in this country. Though Spanish has been widely spoken in this country it is not the original language of Mexico.

Amerindian and other native or indigenous languages are the original languages of Mexico. Mesoamerican is supposed to be the origin of these indigenous languages. Nahuatl is the most widely spoken indigenous language in Mexico. Nahuatl belongs to Uto-Aztecan family which according to researchers was initiated in the US in its southwestern region.

There are three major language families, which were used, including, Mayan, Mixe-Zoquean, and Oto-Manguean. When the time passes several other civilizations begun to flourish over the Olmecs, and they introduced their own language families like Uto-Aztecan. As time passes, the other civilizations such as Aztec, Zapotec, and Mixtec grow to flourish their influence far afield, which induces the spoken languages within their regions.

Although Mexico has totally different original languages, their officials and locals still use Spanish for communication. The government along with 120 million people exclusively uses Spanish. But it is not designated as the official language of Mexico. In reality, the Constitution of Mexico states that the country is a multilingual region and it identifies the right of native people to use and preserve their original. Numerous studies also indicate that U.S.-born and more acculturated Mexican origin youth exhibit higher rates of externalizing behavior when compared to less acculturated, Mexican-born peers. Markers of acculturation, such as generation status and English language use, are consistently related to a range of externalizing outcomes including conduct problems, juvenile arrest and substance use (see Gonzales, Knight, Morgan-Lopez, Saenz, & Sirolli, 2002 for review).

Furthermore, the government passed the Law of Linguistic Rights in 2003, which identifies the 62 native languages as co-official national languages. It also founds trend of bilingual education and encourages the hard work to continue reassuring the contradictory languages and dialects found across the whole country. Unfortunately, the effort of preserving and promoting the native and indigenous languages of Mexico is still not very well accomplished. This happened because is youth and people in new generations have much more exposure and contact to Spanish and English through global communications as compared to indigenous languages. In today’s vastly growing and modern world, people usually discard their native language, the languages of their ancestors. As Spanish is the main language used in Mexico as well as in many other countries, it is spread across five continents. And every in every country and continent this language has a number of variations called dialects, which varies across many regions.

In the country of Mexico, Spanish language has five different dialects each dialect is further divided into several sub-dialects.

1. Northern
2. Baja Californian
3. Central
4. Coastal
5. Southern

These five dialects have their own methods of pronunciations, usage of verb adverbs, vowels and articles. Each dialect even comprises vast variety of vocabulary.

References

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