Today's Society

In today's society there's an enormously variety of ancestral values that we preserve. I believe that preserving the values of our ancestors is important and worthy of a life's work. It is often said, that history has much to teach us and it is worth knowing where our ancestors have come from, their values, and how their struggles have made for a better society today. While many cultures continue practicing their ancestral traditions, beliefs, and customs we need to understand that many of these values don't fit in today's era. That is why I believe it's important to preserve the values of our ancestors but only to a certain extent. In "No Name Woman", Maxine Hong Kingston explores the values of her traditional Chinese culture and the differences between Chinese culture and American culture. As well as in "The Way to Rainy Mountain", Momaday traces his ancestral roots back to the beginning of the Kiowa tribe and reminisces on the values of his grandmother.

By preserving the values of our ancestor's culture, one keeps the traditions, family values, sociological standards, and language. One keeps their personal identity intact. However, by not preserving a culture, it all goes away and people cease to have their family background together. No one knows what the family meant, what the traditions were and where the family came from. Nor could they appreciate the family history and struggles made. As we move forward in time, people continue to move from nation to nation. People of various ethnic origins sometimes end up living halfway across the world from their ancestral homeland and this makes it difficult for them to preserve their ancestral values completely when they have to adapt to a new society. Also when people marry and have children, their ethnic backgrounds combine to form the ethnic background of that child. Today, living in the U.S, I am trying to preserve some of the traditions and customs from my ancestors that settled in Mexico and my parents brought to the U.S. But I admit it is tough, since the way of life of my parents and grandparents was very different than what it is for me today. Many of their country ways, customs and beliefs have disappeared mainly to "progress". I am not against progress. But we have to understand that we are part of a new generation and our ancestors were young once, started families, lived and worked hard, had their own dreams, happiness, and sorrows. Now it is our turn to believe, dream, and live our own generation. The only thing left for us is to understand that our ancestors' lives can't be relived or imitated but only honored and preserved.

By learning more about my ancestors, I individually know who I am and I gain a new respect and love for them. That is why I am proud to be Mexican American. I am proud of Mexico and its people as well as America and its grandiose accomplishments. They both have much to be proud of and this one of my ways of preserving and honoring my ancestors. However, living in the U.S my family has developed a variety of traditions over the years that celebrate our cultural background as well as American customs. Many of these traditions involve food and holiday celebrations like Dia De los Muertos, Cinco de Mayo, and El Dia De Los Ninos as well as some American traditions like Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Halloween. Today, I realize that I am a descendant of two different cultures thanks to my ancestors and parents for immigrating to America in search for a better life. For some it may be easy to include their ancestral cultures in an American society however others may find themselves lost and confused like Maxine Hong Kinston. A young girl from two different cultures shares her ancestors' life story and explains through her stumbles in America how important preserving two cultures can be.

In "No Name Woman", Kingston states that the villagers had punished her aunt because she had taken an unacceptable road that demoralized their values just as Kingston's search for her identity in America questioned the Chinese culture enforced upon her. The role that culture plays on Kingston is reinforced throughout the story through her pursuit for self-identity. Kingston says "Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese?" Through her rhetorical question, Kingston directly states the difficulties to identify and include her Chinese culture in American society. She finds herself sacrificing her ancestral culture in order to adapt to the American values which remain practical and applicable here in America. An example where Kingston adapts to what is desired in the American society, "...speaking in an inaudible voice, she had tried to turn herself American-feminine." The Chinese cultural influence of the past still remains present within Kingston as it was refreshed from time to time and expressed in her memory of her aunt's story and the moral conclusions inferred through her mother. "Don't