American/Mexican Culture Essay

Part A) The American and Mexican cultures both celebrate Holidays. Some are similar such as our Independence Day/ the Mexican Independence Day, and Valentine’s Day, and some are different. Americans celebrate New Year Day which is celebrating the first day of a new year, Memorial Day honors the American soldiers who have died in the military, Labor Day which was once a pure labor union celebration is now a festival marking the end of summer, Columbus Day is the day Christopher Columbus arrived in America, Veterans Day honors our military Veterans, Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival that expresses thankfulness and gratitude, and Christmas Day celebrates the birth of Jesus. Mexicans celebrate, Dia de los Reyes Magos which is a gift giving ceremony, Benito Juarez Birthday celebrates the first indigenous president of Mexico, Cinco de Mayo celebrates when the Mexicans won the Battle of Puebla against the French, Dia de los Muertos honors Mexican dead souls, and Dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe which is when the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego. American and Mexican cultures have different foods. American food consist of Hamburgers, Chicken, Steak, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, corn, green beans, chili, spaghetti, salad, bread, cupcakes, and chocolate. There are many more American foods this is a small example. Mexican food consist of, Tamales-which has dough that is made out of corn which is called masa. The masa is wrapped in corn husk. Enchiladas-which is a tortilla that is covered with red chili, in the inside you could put pork, or chicken. Mole- It is a chili chocolate sauce. Posole- is soup with hominy and pork in it, and Tortillas- which is thin and made of corn dough or flour. The American and Mexican Cultures have different languages. Americans speak English and Mexicans Speak Spanish. Both American and Mexican Cultures practice the same sports, such as: football, boxing, baseball, basketball, golf, and wrestling. Part B) I have been affected by a culture barrier many of times. On Time in particular was not too long ago. I work at Subway and we had some Mexicans come in. They didn’t speak a bit of English and neither my coworker nor I spoke any Spanish. There were about 10 Mexicans wanting food and there were only two of us trying to figure out what they were telling us they wanted. It was funny, they were pointing at the signs trying to tell us what they wanted, but as you probably know there are a lot of different sandwiches on each sign. So, we were not getting nowhere that  way. I just started making them random sandwiches, they didn’t seem to care. This situation could have been prevented if my coworker and I knew some Spanish, or if the Mexicans would have known some English.