Alejandro Martinez
ENG 1101 - 0403
20/11/14
Not even the borderlines can stop us from sharing our values with the entire world.
Cultures are best distinguished by their nutrition, traditions, and believes. When it comes to
cultures, we usually think in differences that are in between of at least two groups. These
differences can determine one group from another and therefore distinguish them among all.
However, there are also similarities in cultures around the world that make them relate to each
other and look similar. Both, similarities and differences exist within cultures and they are
important to know because it is what tell us how to interact, relate, and live with many of several
cultures. During these essay we will talk about some of the differences and similarities that exist
in the cultures among the world in terms of their values, believes, and gastronomy and basing our
information upon researched material to support our ideas.
Although cultures are different around the world, they all keep some values in common
that makes people feel familiar with it. Many times we have faced situations where we don't
know the place where we are. It feels sad to be in such a situation because we can't recognize
anything about the place. However, the feeling of safety and encourage comes when we see
somebody that is similar (in race, language, or ethnicity) or that knows the unknown place and
guide us to the right way. That kind of feeling is the one we feel when we find people not only
when we are lost but when issues and difficult situations are present. This is something common
that many people no matter their culture face. This is one way where we keep some common
values to face those situations in order to success in life. The following words come from an
immigrant mother talking for a newspaper' article that shows a real life situation like our
example at the beginning that help us illustrate our ideas. It says: "…I don't have money, I don't
have papers. I don't have a family, but I have my faith and my hope that something is going to
change…" As we can see, this person is in a very difficult situation and this kind of situation is
commonly faced by people from different cultures. Immigrants come from different places
around the world and despite their nationalities, religion or values they understand that they
should not just give up, and that they must continue with their lives, fighting against the
difficulties of life. Based on our example, this is how "the world" share common values that puts
their differences of race, religion, cultural believes and traditions aside.
Gastronomy is a relevant factor of the cultures that help distinguish them among
themselves in the world. It may not sound very significant at the beginning but, it really function
very well to determine some differences and therefore identify them. Have you ever imagine
how many types of food and variations do we have in our world? Many!, right? That's why they
belong to their "native lands" or the places where they come from to help us to organize them
and finally determine their culture. One way we can see this is by comparing the food of
Mexico's culture and India's culture. They both have something in common: spicy food (It
doesn't mean that they have the same food and that they both are spicy, it's just the spicy
characteristic that appears to be similar). This is one thing in common that they both have and
cause it to fall into a different category from all other countries' gastronomy. So, when people eat
something that is spicy they instantly think: "oh, it should be Mexican, Indian, Korean, or Tai
food", causing to create a category of countries that have spicy food on their gastronomy. This is
how many use gastronomy to distinguish one culture among other. However, not all countries
have spicy on their foods, for instance, cultures from other countries do not have spicy in their
diets as much as others. This is proven by the words of Monica Sanchez from Ecuador who
shares about the gastronomy of her native country Ecuador by an interview. To emphases this,
When Monica was being asked "What do you think is the best food that represents your
country?" She answered:
"The food that represents my country Ecuador is very diverse, but also known as 'comida
criolla' (Creole food), each dish represents to each province, the coast is recognized by
the seafood, the sierra by the franesca, cuy (Guinea pig), and potatoes."
As we can see, based on Monica's answers, Ecuador could be distinguish by a country where
spicy is not part of its diet however, they have something special on their diets which is the
"cuy". The cuy or guinea pig is something that forms part of their diet, and they prepare it in
different ways and combine it with special meals they made for very special occasions. It is not
very common in other countries, and this is what gives Ecuador its unique characteristic by using
their gastronomy.
Every culture has their own beliefs that differs them from each other. Beliefs are those
pillars that support our thoughts and provide us the way of thinking to each culture in the world.
Some beliefs are very distinguished by the world while others are not well recognized. In some
places around the world there are extreme beliefs, beliefs that suppress people's basic rights to
the point where it is not even normal for a society. In the other hand, some cultures have opposite
beliefs. One example with can look into is the catholic religion which is a very common around
the world. Catholicism is a religion similar to others, that allow us to do a lot of things, and
restrict us to do unnatural things, based on the ancient knowledge passed through generation and
generations of societies. In this type of religion we