Puerto Rican Culture Observation Report

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There many different cultures around the globe. Each individual culture has their own definition of culture that are defined by their customs, practices, power influences, social interactions and so on. I attended the Latin America Culture festival that was held on campus and I chose to observe the Puerto Rican culture; being in my hometown many of my neighbors are Puerto Rican and I know little of their national culture. I figured observing this culture would be both beneficial for my assignment and my home life. The stand that was set up for the U.S. territory was ran by two women, Patricia and Sophia. I introduced myself, asked a few questions, and then proceeded to observe them of a table that I was still able to hear questions they were …show more content…
I noticed that the women would greet and interact with men and women differently. When I approached, they hugged and kissed me upon both cheeks, which startled to say the least. I asked if this was customary in Puerto Rico; they laughed, and said yes. They also said that it’s something they miss about their homeland because Americas do not greet each other warmly like they do in Puerto Rico. Once I was sitting and simply observing, the women greeted each female with a hug and a kiss on both cheeks while the men only received hand shakes. This leads me to believe that the Puerto Rican culture has a preference to divide men and women into “power distance.” Men being the more dominant figures and women the more submissive figures. Power distance is defined in the book as “… the degree to which cultures will encourage less members of the group to accept that power is distributed unequally,” (Matsumoto & Juang, 2013, p. 23). I also observed that when the women were speaking with other women they seemed to be more relaxed and animated when talking. They would shift their weight from side to side and move their hands in expressive movements. When talking with men, the women would stand up straight and generally keep their hands interlaced, only to break this when pointing to a poster on the table. The differences in interactions further supports my guess at the culture has power distance. The interaction differences shows that women have been socially taught that men are the more powerful sex and should be more respected during
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