When we qualify the inhabitants of a town of dirty, stupid, selfish, cold … we use stereotypes. We do not know the customs and values ??of others and fall in on subtle racism, that is, we believe that our culture is the only one that exists and we take as a reference to judge other societies without having some kind of respect for their cultural identity. The cultural identity of a people is defined historically through multiple aspects that portray their culture, such communication tool between members of a community, social relationships, or collective behavior, that is, the value systems and beliefs (Bauman; 1998: 129-152).
There are many ways to express cultural identity and the most significant is the Family Culture, because each family expressed in his daily life, and transmitted to their children in the process of socialization, a particular way of seeing the world and acting in it. Thus, a family teaches parents treat “you”, while other children are taught to treat them “you”, and they are no more rude than each other, so it is important to recognize that family, to be the core of our training, we learn from it depends attitudes and pass on from generation to generation.
Another important way to generate this feeling of belonging and develops in the neighborhoods, which they also have their own identity, depending on the degree of public relations, years old neighborhood, etc. so happens that in the New Year, for example, there are neighborhoods where families greet each other cheerfully, while in other neighborhoods barely greets people. However, to belong to a social group like this, people tend to protect their members from people who do not share a set of values ??and reduced to being an ethnocentric group, just for being afraid of what is different.
The clearest expression of identity, according to Sergio Mansilla in his essay about culture and identity refers to the experiences, beliefs, learned patterns of behavior and values ??shared by citizens of the same country. These common cultural elements, while representing our national identity and give us the category of “nation. ” For example, the elements of our culture are in the habit of eating, the value expressed in national symbols, our language and a rich traditional culture.
This, on the whole, reinforces the customs and values ??that give coherence to our way of life. According to the definition of cultural identity is relevant to mention that is the synthesis of the “being” of the individual and all that this implies in a space inhabited by other individuals, which is characterized by factors involved directly and indirectly. However, we must understand that no culture is better than another, and therefore can not be compared, only in this way will bring a beneficial multicultural coexistence.
