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Social Class and Culture 1

Social class and culture play large roles in determining one's living space. The essay discusses how Judith Ortiz Cofer's family, recent immigrants from Puerto Rico, lived in a small apartment in a densely populated "beehive" style building due to their middle-class status and cultural background. While Cofer's father wanted to distance the family from Puerto Rican culture to adopt a more American lifestyle, their living situation and proximity to other Spanish-speaking immigrants reinforced the mother's cultural ties to Puerto Rico. Overall, one's social class constrains where one can live, while culture also shapes perceptions of and attachments to one's environment.

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65 views5 pages

Social Class and Culture 1

Social class and culture play large roles in determining one's living space. The essay discusses how Judith Ortiz Cofer's family, recent immigrants from Puerto Rico, lived in a small apartment in a densely populated "beehive" style building due to their middle-class status and cultural background. While Cofer's father wanted to distance the family from Puerto Rican culture to adopt a more American lifestyle, their living situation and proximity to other Spanish-speaking immigrants reinforced the mother's cultural ties to Puerto Rico. Overall, one's social class constrains where one can live, while culture also shapes perceptions of and attachments to one's environment.

Uploaded by

fresh20th
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Social Class and Culture

SOCIAL CLASS AND CULTURE Ozzy Reyes Devry University- ENG108

2 What determines ones space? Many associations can be made based on social class and ones culture that have an underlying outcome to ones space. Culture has a vast effect on the makeup of ones space, as well as ones social class because it establishes location and living conditions. In Judith Ortiz Cofers essay Silent Dancing, her parents are recent immigrants from Puerto Rico and the family has a strong cultural background that is shown throughout the essay. Growing up in a strong background with parents who place tremendous values on their ancestry and their culture characteristics has a profound effect on determining not only what ones space will look like, but also on how one views their environment. In Cofers essay Silent Dancing, her family are recent immigrants to the United States from Puerto Rico. Cofers father wanted to move to the states to provide his family with more opportunities and a better way of life as opposed to their living situation back in Puerto Rico. Not much is written about Cofers past in Puerto Rico, besides them living in a single family house. One can come to conclusion that Puerto Rico was nothing like where the family lives now when Cofer states, My mother was as new to this concept of beehive life as I was (Ortiz, n.p.). The small apartment that Cofer moved into contained thin walls, where everything could be heard and also many apartments were located beside one another, creating the beehive image. Compared to a house where there is a distance among neighbors, there was a vast difference in where the Cofer family lived to where they used to live. Ones social class plays an obvious factor in determining ones location of space because of observable financial constraints. The upper-class would typically be thought to live in a wealthy open neighborhood, as opposed to the middle/lower class, which would normally reside in a lesser more cluttered neighborhood. The Cofer family can be determined to inhabit a

3 middle-class lifestyle by the descriptions of the location and the details of what the apartment building in which they lived in looked like. Cofers father worked for the US Navy and with the economical pressures of his growing family, the father was still able to provide his family with a ..standard of life that the factory workers envied (Ortiz, n.p.). He provided his family with a television, which at the time was the first family to have one in the neighborhood, and other things like a real Christmas tree; which not many were capable of purchasing at the time. The father provided enough for the family to have financial security. The father wished to move his family to a better location and out of el barrio, but with limited finances coming from the Navy, the small apartment is the best the father could do at the time. Social class plays the largest obvious part in determining the scope of ones space. Cofers family were recent immigrants of Puerto Rico, as a result they bought along their strong culture with them to the United States. Cofers father, who faced prejudice and hardships because of his nationality wished for his family to distance themselves from the Puerto Rican culture and adopt a more American lifestyle. He insisted that the family shop at large shopping centers opposed to the small bodegas that was most commonly used by the people of the neighborhood. The father was also adamant about the family distancing themselves from forming bonds with the residents of the neighborhood in order to inhibit the family from becoming more Puerto Rican Americanized. Even with the fathers strict restrictions on the family, Cofers mother found comfort in the culture surrounding her because it reminded her of Puerto Rico. The mother grew fond that her language was spoken amongst her neighborhood, the Spanish music that was played loudly all day, and the aroma of the Spanish food were

4 reminiscent of her times back home. This strong emphasis on the families culture, structured how the families, especially the mother, outlook on their current space. The financial restrictions and the cultural backgrounds establish ones space. The rich live in rich neighborhoods; the poor live in poor neighborhoods. One can even come to the conclusion that social class portrays a large factor in determining the culture of a person. As one climbs the social ladder, ones culture goes along with it. Ones peer also has a factor in this as well, which is why Cofers father wanted his family to distance themselves from the people of el barrio because to him it seemed like they would only discourage the family from achieving the American lifestyle. A lot can be said about ones space that determines whom a person is, but it should not be the only thing that encapsulates all about a person. We are more than just where we live. Someone might just be stuck at the wrong place, but knows that they are capable of much more.

5 References Ortiz Cofer, J. (n.d.). Silent dancing. Retrieved October 19, 2013, from http://www2.hawaii.edu/~facoba/readings/cofer.htm

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