ODENA CHINCHILLA

SOCIOLOGY 1
PROJECT 2
MY TRANSCULTURAL
FAMILY

Introduction
What is a social institution?
Social institution's are a combination of
statuses, groups, and networks that can
coalesce to address the needs of a
particular sector of society (Witt, 106)

Examples of social institutions include

Family
Religion
Government
Education
Economy

Family as a social institution

A definition of the family based on blood, meaning shared
genetic heritage, and law, meaning social recognition and
affirmation of the bond including both marriage and
adoption

Functionalist view of family

Traditions that have shaped American cultural norms and

beliefs about family have been influenced by major
religious dogma and teachings.

the church influenced over the formation of both canon

and common law, and thereby helped to shape legislation
and definition around marriage as constituting a legal
agreement. An it helped to shape what became culturally,
and legally, accepted norms regarding what constitutes a
family. (Lerner, 2006)

Functionalist View
The family contributes to social stability by
performing important functions: reproduction,
protection, socialization, regulation of sexual
behavior, affection & companionship, and
providing social status.( Witt, 149)

Conflict view of family

A familys social position helps determine a
child's opportunities in life as a result of power,
properties and privilege that is passed from one
generations to the next(Witt, 165)

Power plays
Like with any kind of relationships, in the families there is a struggle
with power and who is in Charge.
Patriarchy: these are societies which assign men with the task of
making most of the decisions for the family.
Matriarchy: in this system women are in charge of decision making.
Egalitarian: This is an authority pattern in which spouses are
regarded as equals.

How has family changed over time

The change is the combination of a series of events, like

the polarized job market and the acceptance of partnering
& parenting outside of marriage that makes the current
state of the American family historically unique, writes
Cherlin. In the past there has not been a class-based link
into non married childbearing. There has never been such a
split between marriage-based families on the top rungs of
the social ladder and cohabitation- and single-parent based
families on the middle and bottom rungs.(Luscombe,
2014)

Abc.com
The tv show modern family gives us an insight on how diverse
contemporary families have become, e.g.: Blended families (second
marriage, stepmothers,ect), same sex parteners, as well as
transcultural marriages.

Challenges for families in society

The challenges that families in general go from
moral or religious perspectives, to educational; to
economical. Being able to provide these elements is
seen as essential for family prosperity and society
as well.

 Sometimes these goals are not achievable in war

or volatile societies so families choose to
emigrate to better environmental surroundings.
This may be a different city or a different country,
and a different society to what they are
accustomed to.

Both my parents came from a poor financial background,

grandparents from both sides did not have education beyond
high school, but had encouraged strongly the pursuit of a
university career for their kids.
My father comes from a family with thirteen siblings. With a
patriarchal system. My mother comes from a family of five
siblings, with a patriarchal and military system.

My mother is a phlebotomy tech and my dad a Lawyer in El

Salvador. My father worked at the time in a bank as the
legal council, in the volatile settings my father received
several treats on his life from different parties, taking
advantage of the situation of war to instill personal fear,
coercing him to approve loans and such. Not wanting to be
stuck in the cross fire my dad left the job and decided to
come to the U.S. until the situation got better.

My family as a transcultural entity

My parent experienced in their lifetime intergenerational
mobility (different social position from parent) as well as
intergenerational mobility( Social position within a persons
adult life).
Initially, when my parent started their careers in my native
country, they had good stable jobs that allowed then to rise
quickly in relation to my grandparents.
Both my parents helped their parents pay off the houses they
lived in and had been paying for years due to the lower
incomes.

Everything was looking promising economically speaking, also

because all their success had come from hard work and dedication,
they felt morally successful ( had done all the right things) because
they had keep their integrity intact, its easy when you become
successful to trade in your values, or so they feared. They had work
and education as tools to help us their children have an even more
promising future, than their own.

 My parents fled the country with me in toe. They

thought the war would not take long and that they
could wait it out or at least wait until it got better. So
they did little to become acculturated to this new
setting since it was a temporary thing.
Cultural Acculturation
One family influence on acculturation is the different

acculturative strategies different family members

utilize: children tend to adopt characteristics
(language, values)of the new country more rapidly
than their parents (Szapocznik, 1984).

Ten years would elapse before the war ceased on El Salvador,

still our family had grown from three of us to six. Were now
four children, a bigger family an yet my parents were having a
hard time adjusting.

One reason is because in El Salvador most families live within

distance an contact is a constant, not having family here as
support was very difficult, not to mention the fear of the family
left behind and their security.

Another reason was because they had a hard time learning the
language, and ended up working as janitors, and that, I think
took a toll on their self worth.

There were several struggles through the years, but

discrimination was on the top. People thought that because they
did a low paid job ad did not speak English very well, they were
illiterate, they treated them with condescending attitudes. I was
around eight years old when I started to become aware of it.
Since I would do the translation of things that they could not
understand or catch. I was always seeing other adults make fun
of the way they said things or just pretend they did not
understand. Sometimes they wanted to pursued me to convince
them of something. Thinking if they dont speak English, they are
probably not smart.

In El Salvador its not uncommon to see children working side by

side with their parents, school is only half a day so many of the
children of lower income help their parents the other half of the
day mostly. My mother works since age 14 and my dad works
from age 11. So when they did not have babysitters for their
night cleaning shift, they would take us along to help, which did
not sit well with authorities or the people that worked late in
their offices.
How can they teach us the value of work said my father if we
dont get to engage in it ourselves.

Contrast of cultures
The main differences between Salvadorian an American
cultures and society base on personal experience.

Even though my parents were from the city and had

education as a background the contrast of a
underdeveloped country to a very well developed
country.
Patriarchal system vs. egalitarian system in family roles.
Education styles were different in school and at home.

 Cultural barriers
Working ethic: benefits, frequency of pay, tax
collecting (different system in El Salvador)
Individualist society vs. community society.
Holidays were celebrated differently and some
were altogether different.
Personal space & privacy.

How my (institution)family changed

I think the turning point for my parents was to stop
living physically in one place and mentally in
another. When they lived here, they were always
with their heads in El Salvador, and when we lived
there, they missed the safety as well as the higher
income with a lesser training job so they were
always slit.
They learned and then they taught us to acclimate
ourselves as soon as possible to the surrounding the
quicker the better.

Functional & Conflict

After the 10 yr. (1989)we returned to El Salvador, and
lived there until 2003. Having lived in two different
setting through our lives has given us greater
appreciation for the opportunities we have.
The functional role of my family became to learn to adapt
to our surroundings and make use of our past experience
to improve our current and future living.
The conflict portion of my family changed from a
patriarchal system to an egalitarian society.

How others perceive our (Family)

institutions.
One of the things that make my family stand out
from our relatives in El Salvador and even some of
our relatives that know live here, is the fact that we
have shredded much of our prejudice. We have
many biased and stereotypes but we have learn to
be more impartial, and that stands out to our family
and to our friends and I am proud of it.

As a way to better accommodate members of

society, how would you improve your institution?
For now we are improving ourselves through school
and work. When our decedents come we will teach
them to embrace change, because the only
constant is change, and we will help them explore
the duality and uniqueness of our family, letting
them choose what they want to embrace from each
cultural background and to be proud of what they
are and were they come from, because identifying
yourself & your purpose in society is key.

Who are the major participants in the institution?

What are their roles and statuses?
When we were children, our parents played the
biggest roles in our family, at some point extended
family did as well, but now that we are all adults (and
no children yet) we are all equally playing a role in our
family.

Does your institution workbetterfor some members

of society (as opposed to others)?
I think as immigrants we can relate better to other
immigrants and their struggles, we are not

as

relatable to families that have been stable in

place all their lives.

one

Conclusion
Although cultures can vary from place to place,
and families might have struggles merging
traditions and beliefs. The essential role of the
family is still in its core the same through the
spectrum and that is to equip its members to be
able to unfold themselves in society, to give
support emotionally, financially and spiritually
(were it applies) allowing people to develop their
moral compass, as well as the things they will
stand for throughout their life. Molding their
character and essence as members of something,
that goes beyond an individual.

Bibliography

MORRISON, MARIE, and SUSAN JAMES. "Portuguese Immigrant

Families: The Impact Of
Acculturation."Family Process48.1 (2009):
151-166.Col

Luscombe, Belinda. "How the American Family Has

Changed Dramatically."Time. Time, 9 Dec. 2014. Web. 23 July
2016.

Image of modern family taken from:

http://tietheknot.org/tonight-modern-family/ on July 20 2016

Witt, Jones. SOC (4th edition). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Calhoun, C. J., & Gerteis, J.. Classical sociological theory.

West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Boston (2012)

Chichester,

 Nuez, Cristina. "The 7 Biggest Challenges

Facing
Refugees and Immigrants in
the US."
Global Citizen. N.p., 12 Dec. 2014. Web. 21 July
2016.

Thanks for watching