OUR CULTURE, OUR SELVES, OUR WORLD

By Contributing Blogger Dr. Thelma Reyna

Not a day passes in our modern American lives wherein we don’t interact with cultural diversity.  If any of us were to take an informal culture awareness test, we’d probably do pretty well.

After all—especially in places like Southern California where I live, the mega melting pot of the West—we’re accustomed to the sights, sounds, and aromas emanating from the polyglot venues of commerce and human interaction in our neighborhoods, restaurants, shopping centers, schools, and workplaces.

Our Everyday Contacts with “Other Cultures”

In fact, cultural diversity is so finely interwoven into our everyday lives,  that even those who might not otherwise consider themselves in tune with it actually traffic in it.

We have a breakfast burrito, a Thai salad for lunch, Colombian coffee during our work break, and might send out for Chinese food at dinnertime. Our music might be courtesy of Mariah Carey, Jay-Z, or Miriam Makeba.

Our favorite movie stars? Try Benjamin Bratt, Denzel Washington, Jackie Chan, and Cate Blanchett. For TV, we’ve rediscovered the handsomeness and huge talent of Jon Seda, star of “The Pacific,” and also admire the very diverse cast of “Law & Order: SVU.”

A quick reading of cast lists at the end of movies or TV programs, a glance at pop music charts, glossy magazines, and ads in print media all show us the beauty and widespread acceptance of multi-hued, culturally diverse people we admire and sometimes emulate.

Diversity in Our Minds

Intellectually, we’re equally eclectic, and why not? Which cultural group has a monopoly on wisdom, artistry, and innovativeness?  So we get health news updates from Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN; read books by Sandra Cisneros, Daniel Olivas, and Amy Tan.

We love the poetry of Maya Angelou and Pat Mora and are inspired by His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s vision of happiness in the workplace.  We get broadcast news from Julie Banderas, Fareed Zakariah, and Soledad O’Brien.

We keep up with the political leadership of Gloria Romero and Antonio Villaraigosa in California, Hilda Solis and Hillary Clinton at the federal level, and of course with the multi-pronged outreach efforts of our President Obama.

Our quest for knowledge and understanding is deepened by the richness and diversity of these various perspectives, of the evolution of these people’s selves that occurred through their different cultural lenses, which they now share with us, the broader society. We are all better for this heterogeneity of humanity.

“Culture” as Defined Globally

An article in the New York Times recently debated the “borders” of “culture.”  The author, Michael Kimmelman, stated that, while “culture” can carry “deeply rooted, special meanings to specific people, [it] doesn’t belong to anyone in the grand scheme of things. It doesn’t stand still.”

He went on to argue that culture “ultimately belongs to everyone and to no one.”  Although his article focused on art, his observations ring true in general, especially as time marches forward, and our everyday diversity expands exponentially, becoming inextricably woven into the tapestry of society.

So it becomes increasingly difficult—and will hopefully continue to be thus—for an average American, especially in our urban areas, to describe herself or himself in terms of one specific culture to the exclusion of others.

While we can cherish and give extra import to the facets of our particular ethnic identity, ultimately we have each become, or are becoming, an amalgamation of the diverse cultures we encounter at work, play, and home.

And what a beautiful thing this is!

The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

A great springboard to innovation in our business and industrial successes has been collaborative teamwork.  So it is in schools and other realms of organizational life, and this has traditionally been a dominant component of our Latino culture as well.

The elements of diversity of ideas and cross-pollination of perspectives figure prominently in this.

Conversely, history shows that isolated societies centered on their own particular cultures do not flourish as much as open societies do.

The Universality of Humanity

The ultimate beauty of multicultural integration—the co-mingling and eventual wholesale ownership of differences—is that it highlights the universality of humanity.  For that is something most of us have always known: We are all the same.

While our food may be cooked with different spices, and our wardrobes are woven in different colors, and our tongues inflect differently, we all cherish common values and hold similar dreams.

We love our children and hope the future is brighter for them than for us. We cherish respect for one another. We each want to feel valued and want to feel, upon our deaths, that our brief presence on earth made a positive difference for someone, somewhere. Except for those on the fringes of humanity who have unfortunately lost theirs in the process, this is the one culture of our planet: the human culture.