Spanish American Customs, Culture and Personality
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ri DOCUMENT RESUME ED 069 196 FL 003 704 AUTHOR Reindorp, Reginald C. TITLE Spanish American Customs, Culture andPersonality. PUB DATE 68 NOTE 358p. EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC-$13.16 DESCRIPTORS American Culture; *Area Studies; Comparative Analysis; *Cross Cultural Studies;Cultural Background; Cultural Differences; Cultural Interrelationships; International Education; *Latin American Culture; *Sociocultural Patterns; Spanish Culture; *Spanish Speaking ABSTRACT This textbook develops across-cultural portrait of Latin America. Four major sections are concerned with the cultural blueprint, historical and social foundations, the social structure, and intellectual and economic life. Subchapters include:(1) the rise of the Spanish people,(2) administration and jurisprudence,(3) the church,(4) the personality heritage,(5) early New World civilizations,(6) Spanish America toindependence,(7) independence and its problems,(8) social background,(9) attitudes and beliefs, (10) customs and practices,(11) education and intellectualism, (12) art and tradition, (13) ethics andlinguistic usage, and (14) economics and business administration. A bibliography is provided. (RL) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION 8 WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT.POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. SPANISH AMERICAN CUSTOMS. CULTURE AND PERSONALITY Reginald C. Reindorp Department of Foreign Languages Wesleyan College Macon, Georgia 1968 O rib (46 0 FILMED FROM BEST AVAILABLE COPY Copyright 1968 Reginald C. Reindorp "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY9.,..i&*tru.\ K.Q.,04:9 TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE U.S. OFFICE Oi EDUCATION. FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REOUIRES PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER." Available through College Book Store Wesleyan College Macon, Georgia 31201 ii The above quotation, beside the library at the Institute Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores in the city of Monterrey, State of 1uevo Leon, United States of Mexico, could be but is not necessarily, the motto for "Tec." It is, however, the philosophy of the Spanish Ameri- can in epigrammatic form. 0 PREFACE Most people are interested in travel, are quite curious about the behavior of other peoples or nationalities and are eager to hear about it. The meat of any good traveller's tale is not the strange places it tells about but the "queer people." Stories of alien customs are the gossip of our species and they and travelogues are listened to with the same. mixture of smug self-satisfaction and acknowledged envy which makes the smaller gossip of one's own society so delectable. The greatest of all international gossips, Herodotus, devotes much of his history to what we would call today descriptions of culture. He even goes so far as to point out some of the more outstanding dif- ferences between Greek and Egyptian customs, with genuine surprise that these barbarians retired to the house to perform their private functions instead of taking to the street in civilized Greek fashion. In other words, what "we" do is the only "civilized" way. The modern term is ethnocentrism. The unabashed egotism required to undertake such a study as is presented here can be excused only on the basis of man's lack of knowledge concerning himself and the need to fill the void. In this light, any small and humble contributions, where so few are avail- able, may be acceptable for they may add to the small store of know- ledge available in this field. A proper scientific study would require that one be at least a specialist in each of the disciplines of sociology, psychology, anthropology and philosophy, to name a few, and be bi- lingually fluent in two languages with all that this implies with refer- ence to a thorough understanding of the two cultures involved in the study. Since all this seems not to fall within the realm of the probable at present, perhaps a study based on first-hand observation and re- search over many years will not be unacceptable. The experience of teaching the Spanish language to English- speaking students and vice versa, on both sides of the Rio Grande, in- variably left a sense of dissatisfaction. There was the feeling that something was lacking, that more was needed to make the language come alive and to facilitate learning. After all, they are living langu- ages and should not be studied as dead ones. While meditating upon the problems, which the students struggled with, in the light of my own use of the language over the years, a possible solution for the problem began to take form. It soon became clear that while I had learned the language in context, in the common, everyday situations of life, my students had not the slightest conception of the situation in which the language is used. Furthermore, textbooks furnished no ii genuine aLi or comfort. This situation soon resolved itself into a realization that what the Anglo student needs is an image of the Spanish-speaking person functioning in the norma! situations of life. The result was a first and sOniewhai crude attempt at a course in Spanish American Customs and Culture. The experience of teaching the course repeatedly prompted additions, revisions and reorganiza- tions that eventually resulted in the necessity of re-writing the entire course once more. This in turn made it necessary to re-think and re- organize with the result that the course has also becomea study in personality. The fruit of it all is presented in this limited, experimental edi- tion with the hope that more teaching and study of the living organism will produce a revised edition, worthy of the people whom it purports to interpret in some small degree, and more useful to the student of Spanish and the overseas worker. Comments and criticism will be welcomed with joy as long as their hiiention is to producea better understanding of the Spanish American personality and the Spanish language. Reginald C. Reindorp ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Credit has been given the respective substantiating authors at the appropriate points in the body of the context. The references at the end of each chapter include these anda few additional readings that may be useful to the interested reader. Others, however. hadno place in the context yet should receive their just due. Among these are the many Spanish American friends to whom a deep debt of gratitude is owed for their hospitality, their friendship and their cooperation in our numerous undertakings and relationships over the span of a life time, especially for what they have so graciously given of themselves. Only the smallest portion of this debt of gratitude could possibly be discharged in this offeringon the altar of inter- American friendship. Credit is also due to the numerous students who "suffered" through and made pertinent contributions to the development of this course. The Organization of American States is entitled to important recognition and deep appreciation for the research Grant through the Pan American Union which made it possible to spend the entire summer of 1966 in Mexico in research on recent trends and develop- ments in Spanish America. Finally, this page would be ungratefully incomplete without a recognition of the great debt due to my wife, Trudy, for her patience, tact and typing assistance and for her moral support, inspiration and encouragement when the going was rough. Reginald C. Reindorp INTRODUCTION In Perspective Americans (U.S.A. variety)are frequently given to wondering why other peoples act so "strange," why they do thingsso differently. They often ask, "What makes other peoplesact the way they do?" Then, when they go abroad they fail to realize that it is they whoare the foreigners and not the people whose country theyare visiting. Taking a global look, Anglos are probably thestrangest people of all with the most difficult language, the most unusual ideas,man- ners and customs and the queerest way of thinking about things. Through it all they seldom realize that they havevery few differences with the English in spite of the oft quoted statement by H. L. Menc- ken that Great Britain and the United Statesare two great countries separated by a common language. The differencesare so few because they have a common origin and had lived together forso many cen- turies before they separated. As time goeson the diversity sharpens, but in the meantime the common origins hold both countries together or at least furnish many common interests. It is the lack of these common origins and the possession of dif- ferent languages that give rise to the differences in customs, culture and manners. Isolated groups of people in prehistoric times lookedat the world and life with differenteyes. At the same time and for un- known reasons they selected different groups of sounds to form their separate languages. The viewpoint imposed the structure; later the structure imposed the viewpoint and the ideas. Or,as has been so aptly said, we began by speakingas we thought and ended by thinking as we speak. In other words, language has become the mold of thought. After language began to appear it became instrumental in the development of culture and culture in turn influenced language. The result is that each cultural group is quite divergent from the others. Hence, to understand a people we must study their language, their origins no matter how far back theygo, and their development. As we undertake this study of Spanish American culture and personality it will be well to put the contrasting Anglosin their pro- per relationship to the other peoples of this world; letus put them in proper perspective. For this purpose, suppose for a few minutes that the total population of the world is represented by 1,000persons.