Luz E Singh

EDU 280 / Fall 2017

10/23/2014

Cultural Autobiography

My name is Luz Elena Singh, I am thirty years born here in Las Vegas Nevada. However, when I

was two months old my mother took me back to Mexico, a city in the border with California called

Mexicali. I was raised in a humble home, with my younger sister and my mother, who only speaks

Spanish. My mother, who is Mexican ensured that I took the Mexican roots as my own. Ensuring that I

grew proud of who I was and where I came from.

Especially because being raised on the border with Mexico I was exposed the beauty and the

ugly of both countries. While living and spending my spear time in Mexicali, my education was held on

the other side of the border, a small town called El Centro, California. The experience of living in a

border city is amazing because even though 95% of the people who live in Mexicali are Mexicans, they

all come from various parts of Mexico, such as Sinaloa, Michoacán, Oaxaca, among many other cities

and this converted the city in a pot of cultural stew. Even though one might not think so and as

unorthodox as it may sound, many people in Mexicali suffer from racism due to their place of origin,

accent or cultural beliefs. However, my mother always thought me that I should not judge anyone by

what they wear, where they are from or what they believe, instead I was to love and care for all

individuals.

Since I grew up in a home without a father my mother made sure to teach me that as a female I

was to be responsible for everything at home, from the cooking to the manual labor. At the age of 7, my

mother thought me how to make homemade tortillas and by the time I was 10 years old I could change
the oil on a car. My mother broke the tradition in our family to have the girls at home cooking for the

husbands. Instead she worked extremely hard to make both my sister and myself self-sufficient and

unafraid to do anything.

I consider myself fully Mexican even though I was born here in Las Vegas and have always

thought that my cultural beliefs are only Mexican. However, my mother opened the door to cultural

diversity. As well I am married to a wonderful man whose cultural beliefs are somewhat different from

mine, since he was raised in an Mexican-Hindu home. Today I am raising my two daughters in a much

more diverse environment than what I grew up to. Due to my husband we are a family that believes in

God just like a typical Catholic family, however we as well have introduced Krishna and Vishnu the Hindu

Gods to our daughters. This for them to decide what religion (if any) they will practice.

Culture is part of all our lives, and I can say that for me, cultures around me have change my

family. I am grateful for that since cultural diversity is the most beautiful rainbow.