Latino community cultural description

Latino community cultural description

The Latino community in America is increasing steadily. It has the highest population among the minority groups. Latinos have strong cultural beliefs that they bring with themselves during immigration. The strong cultural beliefs are linked to gender relations and roles. The Latinos have the machismo and marianismo that state out the gender roles for men and women. Machismo distinguishes the male traits, which include being independent, dominant, and virile. Marianismo refers to the characteristics of females that involve being submissive, chaste, and dependent (Brannon, 2017). The male is considered the breadwinner of the family while the female is expected to perform the domestic chores, including taking care of children.

Latino men are often considered strict and cautious to the outsiders. This provides a sense of dominance and superiority back at home. The idea of domestic dominance is gotten from the cultural belief of taking care of responsibilities in the family. Traditionally, the role of women is the mother.  The significant circle of women is with the family and religious members. The direct links among family members create Familismo.

Comparison of the two cultural practices

Machismo is a cultural belief among Latino. It gives the male pressure from both parents and peers to prove their manhood. It involves conquering the female, and it is considered an adolescent ritual of initiation into the machismo world. In America, homophobia is not feared compared to the Latino countries. In the United States, homosexual males are rather judged on their decision not to prove their manhood. It is considered a sin in most rural Spanish communities to be a homosexual, which is the direct opposite of machismo. .

Marianismo distinguishes the women as being kind, gentle, quiet, predictable, vulnerable, mother, and wife. This involved accepting inferiority to the male and accepting any mutual acknowledgment by the male. The Latino culture characterized the women with remaining back at home and utterly dependent on the male. The American women are allowed to take part in active occupations, just like the male. The United States women have changes in the family and gender dynamics. A considerable percentage of women are among the working class compared to the Latino who is slowly permeating and defying their culture (Brannon, 2017).

Theory of gender development

            Social Learning theory stipulates thata person grows gender by copying the behaviours of the people within their social environment. The approach shows that learning through observation is quickly reinforced. Vicarious reinforcement is observed when the Latinos witness their individuals within their cultural context getting an award for behaving appropriately. The continuous learning and imitation of the person are expected to be done in the future. The theory states four systematic processes that occur for the Latinos and Americans to understand the gender role completely. The first stage is the individuals giving attention to the model’s behaviour. Secondly, the person has to code and store the information in the retention level. The third level, reproduction level, involves the individual imitating the learned behaviour. Finally, the individual has to find the motivation to perform the routine continually.

Social learning theory enables individuals to learn behaviours, attitudes, and traits from the people within their social environment. The gender behaviours learned can easily be unlearnt through observing and imitating other actions. Criminal activities are based on social learning, with most of the criminals having grown in crime-prone areas. Gender roles are observed in the social environment. Criminal offences can be learned through vicarious imitation and learning.Latino female learns the cultural practices from observation of the mother and gradually imitating.

Social learning has a massive emphasis on children’s gender behaviour, which they learn from parents, peers, and teachers. Children get their actions from the broader social environment, such as the school and society. Individuals within the workplace learn gender roles through cross colleague adjustments (Maccoby, 2000). The perceived behaviours modify the workplace adjustment pattern. The social learning enables the workers to adjust to dynamic working environments within given timelines.

In conclusion, the development theory significantly describes the gender role, combining the observed social and cultural practices. Children relate individual’s gender relations within their environment. The children pay close attention to the role models and retain the behaviours they observed. During the later stages of growth, the children imitate the appropriate gender behaviours they saw. Several external factors influence the modelled behaviour within the individual. An individual is affected to imitate someone within the social space following behaviour appropriateness. The child reproduces the practices that the community views as accepted for the sex. The theory explicitly explains gender development among Latinos and American society. Cultural beliefs are acquired from generation to generation through observation, and finally, the individual reproducing the appropriate gender behaviours.

References

Brannon, L. (2017). Gender: Psychological perspectives (7th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Maccoby, E. (2000). Perspectives on gender development. International Journal Of Behavioral Development, 24(4), 398-406. doi: 10.1080/016502500750037946