The Influence Of American Culture: El Paso

El Paso is a very culturally diverse city that borders, its sister city, Juarez. The

city has given me a unique view that is very different than most people in the United

States and the rest of the world. Living here since the day I was born has greatly

influenced my childhood, it has given me an understanding of how different the Hispanic

culture is from the American culture.

I had a live-in maid until I was about ten. All of my maids only spoke Spanish, so

in order to communicate with them I had to figure out my own way to speak to them so

they could understand me. As a child it was hard for me to learn two languages at once,

but it was essential to break the communication barrier. By the age of three I spoke

proficient

On the other hand, American families like my

Irish side of the family; the kids sort of have less parental authority, more freedom. I

experienced both the American culture and the Mexican culture. There were many

differences in the two sides of my family, half an American oriented family, and half a

Mexican oriented family. The final influence of the Hispanic culture in my life, is the

place I lived, El Paso its self.

El Paso is truly a Mexican-American environment. In my elementary and middle

school, learning to speak and write Spanish was required. Most of my classmates also

grew up in Hispanic families. They also spoke English but they would only speak

Spanish to the other Hispanics. What made this interesting is that they didn’t think I

could speak Spanish, but I could understand everything they were saying. Being able to

understood all of their gossip and all of the things they said about everyone else in the

class was an advantage I had. The reason I had so many of these influences is because I

live in El Paso, I wouldn’t have had the cultural diversity in any other city. Not even the

other border cities such as San Diego, because they are still mainly centered on