With the purpose of gaining a more thorough understanding of the intricacies of intercultural communication, and in an effort to apply Intercultural Communications course knowledge to a real life instance I will interview my Ecuadorian-American uncle, Giovanni Veliz. I chose Giovanni because I do not know about his past, but I am aware that he speaks English and Spanish, and he or his family are from Ecuador originally. While inquiring into utilizing him as my interview subject, I uncovered some of the following details: Giovanni is a 45 year old heterosexual male; he graduated from John J. College in New York in 1992 with a BS in Criminal Justice; and then graduated from St. Thomas in MN in 2005 with a Master of Art in Police Leadership Education and Administration. Giovanni is a successful Sergeant of Investigations for the Minneapolis, MN police department who recently passed his Lieutenants exam and lives in a beautiful home in Maple Grove, MN with my Aunt Dawn King Veliz.
What I do not know is whether he was born in the United States or born in Ecuador and at what age he came to the United States if he was not born here. Additionally, I am not aware of what may have motivated his family to move here and I am unaware of the challenges he may have faced in communication being a minority where the dominant culture is white.
My reason for interviewing him was inspired by what I see as one of the greatest barriers of intercultural communication- fear. It is because of my own fear of asking the questions I have always wanted to ask him about his life that I do not know the answers to my questions about Giovanni. I think this is a perfect example of why we never end up understanding or gaining more sensitivity to other cultures;
According to Mahboub Hashem, mass communication professor at the American University of Sharjah (AUS), people socialise with similar others because they share common elements with fewer unknowns. If you don’t know the person, you might not feel comfortable so self-disclosure doesn’t take place, which is vital for successful communication. (Cultural Diversity Encourages Interaction, 2010)
It is because we are too afraid, embarrassed or uncomfortable that we opt out of asking the questions we long to ask even when we have the desire to understand one another. When I asked him to do the interview, he was more than willing to share his stories, and it was that easy-lesson learned.
With this in mind I asked Giovanni questions about his background to gain understanding about his frame of reference, questions about growing up in a culture different from his own to learn about his identity as he sees it and how his perceptions were shaped, questions about his struggles with learning another language and how this barrier affected his interaction and communication during his transition into a new culture, and finally, I asked him specific questions about communication with regard to intercultural barriers, stereotyping and experiences with prejudice, and questions about the role the media plays in shaping our understanding of our own culture, from his minority perspective.
Frame Of Reference
Giovanni shared with me some background on being born and raised for part of his life in Ecuador, and he shared about his move to the United States. Giovanni Veliz was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador with four siblings. He moved to the United States at the age of 15 in 1986 with his younger brother and joined his mother and brother already living in the United States. Due to his family’s financial hardship the siblings were separated and moved in with their uncles. Clothes, food, education and shelter were the most important things for his family at this time.
The country of Ecuador in terms of geography is divided into three areas; coast, mountains, and jungle. The government was democratic in Ecuador. The mode of transportation its residents used were buses and taxis. The economic system had three primary levels; wealthy, middle class and poor. They have public and private schools systems like we do in the U.S. The most prominent aspect of Giovanni’s life was that he grew up in Ecuador middle class, but even as middle class he and his family experienced financial struggles at times. His family valued better financial security and educational opportunity. It was because of this that they took on the challenge of moving their family to the United States.
Growing Up In a New Culture
I asked Giovanni how far back in time he could remember and he recalls his first childhood memory being as far back as the age of four. Giovanni remembers as far back as when he was four years old. He recalled spending summers with his family on the beautiful beaches of Salinas, Ecuador and his uncle taking him and his brothers on a motorboat.
The experience of being an immigrant brings back more memories of language barrier issues than anything for Giovanni it seems. He recalls that the language barrier hindered communication with the dominant culture. He also said that even though most people in New York City, the first U.S. city he lived in, were multi-lingual and often spoke Spanish, this was more of a liability because it prevented him from practicing speaking English.
After I inquired about the most vivid experiences Giovanni could recall after first arriving in the United States, he remembered the hunger, cold and poverty.
Giovanni (2010) recalled the following: I did not have enough money to buy food and endured a great deal of hunger. I did not have money to buy winter clothes; therefore I did not wear winter clothes and my hands, ears, forehead, feet and lips were always cold and frozen. (C. Tuenge, personal communication, August 27, 2010)
I asked Giovanni, “In the United States today, what is different about your life in terms of language, religion, family customs, diet, recreation, and work, as compared to childhood?” He said, in terms of language, he speaks English and Spanish approximately 50% of the time, his religion and family customs are limited and he does not attend church as often as he did in Ecuador. He follows a healthier diet her in the U.S. and no long eats Ecuadorian food. Recreation here in the U.S. includes working out at a gym whereas in Ecuador he played soccer outdoors every day.
Language
Giovanni’s native language is Spanish and he did not speak, read or write English when he arrived in the United States. The differences, Giovanni said, between the Spanish and English languages are that the sentence structure and verbs in the English language are more complicated. The English adjectives are in the reverse order from Spanish and that proved to be difficult for him while writing sentences. He attended a suburban school in New York City where only 3% of the students were bilingual and thus, he was in the minority. Therefore he was forced to speak, write and read English. His first year in high school was difficult; however, it was not long before he began to understand, read and write English. He did not have many friends and did not practice speaking or talking to other individuals. Learning the English language seems to have been the major stepping-stone in Giovanni’s transition into his new culture.
A California Senator back in 1981, S.I. Kayawaka, was quoted as saying “Language is a powerful tool. A common language can unify, separate languages can fracture and fragment a society” (Jandt, 2010, p. 153). A common language, such as English, may be able to bring a country of diverse cultures together, but it forces all, but native English speakers to struggle. Native English speakers in the U.S. take for granted the fact that they are at an advantage when the dominant language is their own. It is amazing to me how incredibly inconvenienced English speakers appear when presented with some who has trouble with the English language. How can you not be sympathetic to those struggling to learn a second, or third, language when the majority of English speakers speak only one in a world where we claim to be the leader, in a world with thousands of languages?
Communication
When I asked Giovanni about barriers to effective communication he encountered he told me the following:
I was not able to communicate my ideas due to the language barrier. I could not communicate my ideas, feelings, needs or wishes. I felt like an outsider and individual without a country. I began to leave behind my cultural identity, norms, ancestry and began to assimilate into the ‘American way of life.’ (C. Tuenge, personal communication, August 27, 2010)
To hear this answer hurt me. When you have never had to risk everything for opportunity, when you have never had to feel like an outsider, and when you have never had to worry about not being able to communicate your basic needs to others you do not realize how difficult this can make life, how frightening it can be, how diminishing it can feel, and how lonely one can get without an identity or anyone to identify with.
The first time I read Peggy McIntosh’s study on white privilege was four years ago while studying Spanish and Chicano Studies at the University of Minnesota, and I found it eye opening.
F. E. Jandt (2010) quotes McIntosh as saying the following:
As a white person, I have realized I had been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage. (p. 31)
I, too, was oblivious to my unearned advantages due to my skin color. I did not see the damaging effects of racism because I was taught that slavery was over, I had the idea that we live in a country where we have “equal opportunity,” and I was living under the assumption that the world looked the same to everyone else as it did to me. I did not understand how oppressive it might be to live under the suspicion, disregard, and cruel assumptions and labels of others due to your skin color. What I do know is that it is hard not to internalize these images our society hangs over people of color and it is not surprising to me that some live with such obvious resentment, anger and frustration toward white people’s ignorance of their advantages.
I have been, however, aware in my life of my disadvantages due to my gender and this is why I sympathize with the struggles of people of other cultures. As a woman, I have been underestimated, stereotyped and suspected of being in management positions for reasons other than that I had earned that position. This helps me make the connection between the feelings people of other cultures experience every day and the gender inequality issues I struggle with only every so often. I cannot imagine how heavy the weight of one’s race can weigh on their life, their optimism, their motivation, their hopes, and so many other things I take for granted, like interacting with people who see me before my skin color. The easy way out would be to take the attitude that what does not kill you makes you stronger or to turn away from the issue by asserting that all people can make it in this country because of “equal opportunity.” When we allow ourselves to speak to people like Giovanni and learn about other cultures we realize that even though we have come a long way in this country, we do have a long ways to go. One of those major issues that need to be dealt with is stereotyping.
Stereotypes
I asked Giovanni, if he was willing to share a story about experiences related to stereotyping, racism or prejudice he has experienced in his life. Giovanni described to me an experience he had related to stereotyping as an immigrant in this country. He told me about how new arrivals are perceived and labeled as undocumented immigrants; therefore companies give immigrants the toughest and most dangerous jobs with minimal rewards and benefits that they should be legally entitled to. This did not shock me, but the presence of this type of injustice is not something I have experienced or known of in my life. It makes me sad and angry that simply because someone has darker skin and an accent that they are immediately labeled as an “illegal immigrant.” When people say “illegal” or “undocumented,” there are other characteristics associated with those terms. Those characteristics range from laziness to drugs, and violence. The term “illegal” is damaging because it implies that these human beings, these individuals and families, are criminals. It is dehumanizing and allows stereotypes and racism to continue to flourish in this country of “equal opportunity.”
He also explained how being a recent immigrant impeded his opportunities for housing. He shared that renting and finding apartments was a difficult task and how it was more likely than not that immigrant tenants are given filthy, unhealthy and expensive apartments. This tells me that our country takes advantage of the weak or perceived weak for their own benefit. We do not welcome the struggles of others; their struggles become our strengths and are used for our own selfish benefits. This is unjust and speaks volumes of our culture. I cannot help but be disappointed in hearing these stories. Unless we learn and understand the struggles of others we will never eliminate these injustices. We only fuel them turning a blind eye and believing powerful media influences.
Media Influence
The biggest impact the media had on Giovanni was on his view and opinion about males and females in the United States. The Latin American news media portrayed American males and females as individuals who enjoy drinking and partying a lot. The female gender is portrayed as being promiscuous and that they like to reveal their bodies by wearing skimpy clothing. One specific example he could recall of this was in U.S. commercials aired in Ecuador that “showed males and females kissing, hugging, etc. which was considered taboo in Ecuador for young individuals” (C. Tuenge, personal communication, August 27, 2010). I imagine that as a teenager in Ecuador Giovanni may have been viewing primarily commercial ads but even those speak volumes of a culture. The standard by which we display our people in advertising is a reflection of what you see here, not everywhere, but you can find it and you can find people who value the life depicted in the ads. It is disappointing to think about how careless we seem to be with how we show U.S.’s Americans in commercials. That is sometimes all other countries will see of us. When we only show the glamorous, carefree party life, we certainly appear to be as arrogant and oblivious as some people hold us to be.
Giovanni says the most significant difference in his day-to-day life now than in this past is that today, in the U.S. he has a nice home, a good job where he works full-time, 40 hours a week, Monday through Friday, and his work and transportation provides security for him and his family today. This answer, although not what I was expecting, was very basic and to the point. That is what we do in the United States, we work. Had he continued to live in Ecuador, he may have remained middle class or even struggled in poverty, but he would have kept true to the shared values in Ecuador. He probably would attend church regularly, and exercised in the company of friends on a soccer field rather than in a fitness center. Giovanni expressed this difference so simply that I almost missed what huge differences there are compared to had he lived his life in Ecuador.
Through this interview, I have conquered some of my fear in asking people of other cultures questions about their memories and experiences living in the United States, however, it is hard to know how personal of a question it is because for some it is very personal. After completing my line of questions I found that I had more and more questions and it is hard to know when you have asked too many. I have developed more knowledge of another culture, improved my communication skills with regard to interviewing and intercultural communication, and what I find myself learning over and over again as I speak to people who have immigrated to the U.S. from other countries is that the only thing to fear is not being as brave as they were to take their life into their own hands and risk it all to make a better life for their children. It is something to admire, not to shy away from.
What I have learned about my own culture is that some of us would rather remain oblivious to the struggles of people who are of another nationality, color, race or religion. Some of us would rather take advantage of someone struggling to make it in our country than to lend them a hand or equal opportunity we speak so often about. There are also those of us who choose to learn and understand and work on our fears so that our children can bring up a country where we welcome people, not immigrants or any of the other labels that seem to damage human beings who come from other countries to the U.S.
What can be learned when studying the life of another is compassion, acceptance, and what can be unlearned is the fear of the unknown. When we allow ourselves to communicate with someone of another culture we allow ourselves to let go of the fears that bind us to our own culture and this spins the wheel of change. We are all spokes on the wheel of our culture and it is up to individuals to change the direction of that culture. We created it, collectively, and together through communication we can develop our culture into one that allows for other cultures to live harmoniously within it.
An anonymous author from the Sunday Observer (2010) shares the following in an article entitled Towards Intercultural Communication:
There is indeed a close and mutually nurturing relationship between culture and communication. It is clear that we cannot understand culture without reference to communication, and analogously we cannot understand communication without reference to culture. Culture, according to some scholars, is a code we share, and learning and sharing, one need hardly add, require communication. And communication, in turn, presupposes codes and symbols and common semiotic fields which must be learned and shared.
If we can learn to share the codes of our cultures through communication we may learn that human life in all cultures has value and should be respected. To learn and understand each other though, we must make an effort to do so. It is only by luck that we are exposed to other cultures in work environments, or by introduction through family. We should not rely on luck to change; we should consciously make an effort to learn and understand others out of respect for ourselves and our own culture rather than live in the illusion of our superiority.
This interview experience, through my discussion with Giovanni, has been an awakening and a reminder of things I learned years ago, right and wrong. I learned about the perspective of someone who came from Ecuador and the development of his frame of reference, which was built on his experience growing up in Ecuador and then moving to New York City for better economic opportunities and better education opportunities for his family and he shared some of the struggles he experienced along the way. Communication barriers, stereotypes and other dominant cultural influences shape the world immigrants live in and as we learn to understand these struggles, we may be able to see the person first before the color of their skin and assume nothing before welcoming them in to our lives. For me, welcoming Giovanni was as easy as the smile on my aunt’s face at their wedding and at Christmas time, but we are not all as fortunate to have an intercultural relationship handed to them like I have. Thanks to this course and this assignment I was able to reinvent my relationship with Giovanni and share in his story and even learn a little bit about myself and my own barriers to intercultural communication. The first step to intercultural communication, learning and understanding of other cultures, is asking the questions we have always wanted to ask and not being afraid to do so. This behavior can lead to the kind of compassion that has the power to unite global citizens.
References
Cultural diversity encourages interaction. (2010, July 24). Gulf News. Retrieved August 27,
2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 2090369181).
Jandt, F. (2009). An Introduction to intercultural communication. Sage Publications, Inc.
The Writing Lab, The OWL at Purdue, & Purdue University. (2010). Owl purdue online writing
lab. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/
Towards intercultural Communication. (2010, June 27). The Sunday Observer. Retrieved
August 28, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 2067876791).
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