Let’s talk about our culture:

Beyond beans and tortillas

There are times when we talk about our culture as the things we eat and the music we sing or hear. But we must go beyond this and examine our way of thinking, how we expressive ourselves and communicate, how we relate with others and how we live our faith.

Let’s begin with the basics. Hispanic cultures are primarily verbal cultures and these types of cultures are characterized by their sense of community. Since they didn’t have access to many books or writings, they received and transmitted their values in community. Communities would get together in the evenings around a fire to tell stories. Through these stories they would relay the things that were important to the community, what was acceptable and admired. Ways of thinking, acting and relating were also established.

Verbal cultures are much more “sensuous” then the literate ones since they learn more from sounds and their senses than from lineal thinking. They also depend more on memories since there are no books to research information and as such, things are repeated with rhythm and music so it can be easily remembered. It is a learning where much more of the senses come into use. The verbal culture depends greatly on stories with conflicting values or an internal conflict with a character and a resolution. It usually involves a symbolic battle between good and evil, but it is not expressed in philosophical terms. These are cultures where symbols are very important.

How important is it to you to share and know common traditions?
Formation directors with Hispanic candidates may not get to the bottom of things with these candidates by using philosophical analysis and abstract concepts, but through personal stories and a “parable”—examples that they can relate to. The short narrations often teach more because they relate to your experiences and feelings better than concepts.

Since the academic formation of these candidates literally derives a lot from the philosophical and cultural, it is also important to introduce them little by little to the classical philosophy, and help them to understand and practice the structure of traditional thinking in the western culture. But always give priority to the symbolism in the exercises of spirituality and above all recognize their way of communicating and understanding.