Shelby Salazar

Whitney Harris
DANC 1010
August 2, 2021
Life History Essay

As I was thinking about who I would like to interview for this assignment, I was thinking

about how little we know about my father-in-law’s culture. He is from El Salvador but came

here when he was only seven years old, so he doesn’t remember too many details about the

life and culture there. I decided to interview my husband’s Tia (aunt) instead because she is

fourteen years older than her brother and therefore remembers more about life in El Salvador

and their culture and traditions there. Tia lives in California so when I called to see if she would

allow me to interview her and to set a time for the interview, she was so happy. I think her

excitement came from being able to catch up with us but also from the opportunity she would

have to share a little part of something that is so important to her. I conducted the interview in

Spanish to hopefully allow her memories to flow more smoothly and to be able to hear the way

that she describes her experiences because some things don’t translate into English with the

same meaning. So, if I am explaining how something moved me but then what she said seems

“ordinary”, then that is simply from me not being able to find the best word for the one she

used.

I really wanted to know how she defined her culture so I asked her how she would

explain it to someone who she had just met, and they knew nothing of El Salvador. Her

response was so well put. She said, “We work very hard and take care of our family. There is a

lot of poverty but what we do have, we like to share.” As she talked more about her culture as a

whole, it seemed that everything they do revolves around other people. This is why it was so

hard for them to adjust when they came to the United States. It seemed to them like everyone
Shelby Salazar
Whitney Harris
DANC 1010
August 2, 2021
here was in a hurry. “It was difficult for us to adjust to the culture here. It was a very cold

culture; it wasn’t like ours. For example, if it was raining in El Salvador, everyone would open

their door to let you in, so you don’t get wet since we all walked everywhere. We thought it

would be more like this when we got here but we noticed life here was very quick. Everyone

was always working, because you must work, so there was no time to sit and visit. This was a

shock to us.” She mentioned how many aspects of their culture were lost when they moved

here because life was so busy, and everyone eventually moved to different states which made

family time harder.

Family is a big part of Latin culture. When Tia was only thirteen my father-in-law was

born and because her mom was a single mom with now three kids, she couldn’t stay home and

take care of the baby, Jerry. Tia would take care of him in the morning before school and from

the moment she got home until he went to bed. Since she was the oldest, the role of the

“house mom” fell upon her. She had to take care of the house and family while her mom was at

work. She said this was extremely difficult to do at a young age, but she wouldn’t want anyone

else outside of her family to take on that responsibility.

Tia was about twenty years old when they came the United States. When I asked her if it

was difficult for her to learn English, I was taken back a little by her reply. She didn’t have the

opportunity to go to school when she got here because life was so fast paced so she mostly

learned little words and phrases here and there from her co-workers. She said she was about

forty years old by the time she started speaking English! Her English is much better than she will
Shelby Salazar
Whitney Harris
DANC 1010
August 2, 2021
admit but I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been for her to live and work in a country

where she didn’t even speak their major language.

I wanted to know more about the traditions that they practiced in El Salvador in hopes

we could bring one of them back to the family to keep their culture alive throughout more

generations. Tia said that Navidad (Christmas) was one of the most important celebrations for

most Salvadorans since most of them are Catholic. They would celebrate on December 24 and

stay up until midnight to see the first moment of the 25th which symbolized the birth of Christ.

She mentioned how this celebration wasn’t about the gifts because nobody really ever had tons

of money, instead it was about the time they spent together as a family. In her city of Santa Ana

they also celebrated the a festival called La Senora Santa Ana where they would have parades

and processions down the streets with lots and lots of dancing. Dancing was a big part of any

celebration that they had. Most of the time they were just dressed in normal clothes because

they couldn’t afford the super nice things, however, they would wear the best of what they

had.

I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to talk with our Tia a little more and learn

about their culture. My husband is the only Salazar boy, so I felt it was important to know more

about his family, their culture, and what has shaped them into the people they are today. It was

a humbling experience to talk to someone who came from so little but still felt that she had

everything that she could ever need within the walls of her home. I asked her if she has ever

felt discriminated against here and her reply was, “I have not felt this way because I will not

give them a reason to discriminate against me.” She is truly a remarkable woman!