Jonathan Gonzalez

Mrs. Thomas
English 1102 054
10 February 2014
When I wrote this piece I was sure that I wanted to share my experience of when I came to this
country and how music played an important role in this change. Although my English is not
perfect and my vocabulary is not too rich yet, it has improved over these three years. I tried to
share my feelings and experiences about my inquiry question. I also tried to not be boring and
bring my audiences attention to my topic. What I did in this proposal is to explain the reason
why I am so interested in this topic. I tried to use my experiences as a base to expand my inquiry.
Since Im pretty sure the sentence structure is not so good, I hope you can help me to improve it,
and change some words to new ones if needed. I really hope you enjoy this experience, which
shaped and its still shaping my personality in this new culture.
Inquiry Proposal
I am from Ambato, a small city in Ecuador. I grew up surrounded by the same culture
throughout my whole life. In Ecuador, and in general Latin America, people love music and
dancing. Among all teenagers it is normal to go out and dance. It is not a party if we did not get
to dance. From tropical and happy music to traditional and old music. Music was everywhere.
The important role that music played on this behavior, shaped our culture in many ways. When
I moved to the United States three years ago, I experienced a really strong cultural change. By
cultural change I mean in every possible way. It was not only about the language. It was a lot
more than that. Suddenly I was introduced in a lifestyle I never expected. New friends, new
traditions new behavior of people, etc. All these important parts of my life shaped my
personality and in general my culture. Among all these changes I experienced one that I can still
not understand the reasons behind it. This change is music. As individuals we grow up learning
from our society, which has its established culture. We smoothly change as our own
environment changes, but if this change is drastic, it can have a very strong impact on an
individuals life. From my experience, the music from my culture has been one of the most
important instruments that shaped my personality since I was a child. When I experienced this
drastic cultural change, music also played an important role in shaping my new personality. All
of these changes during this experience, either good or bad, left me with many questions that I
thought I will never be able to answer, until I started writing this paper. This paper will be a
starting point to answer all my questions. The main question from my inquiry are how music
shapes a culture? And how music can change the culture of an individual? These two questions
are going to be the starting point to expand my inquiry. My experience of coming to the Unites
States and the changes I underwent is the main reason of choosing these inquiry questions.
I am completely sure music plays a very important role in every individuals life. I know
how it feels when music suddenly changes your mood, but the question is why? Why does it
affect some people and not others? Why does it influence the way someone dress or act? Why
does some music, which is completely estrange and new, can change our mood? Our behavior?
Why is a specific genre of music more inspiring for some societies than to others? What
happens when an individual is introduced to a new society with a different musical
appreciation? Since the United States is a country of immigrants, full of many different cultures
from around the world, I am sure that this is something everyone might wonder at some point.
Especially when you see a Latino dancing their music, but why are people from Latin cultures
used to dance more than people from North American or other non-Latino cultures? How is
music correlated with this behavior? And what happens when two or more different cultures
music and behaviors are mixed? What happens when an individual from a North American
society is introduced to a Latino one? And vice versa? This final questions lead to the main
focus of this paper, which is how does music affect the correlation between Latino and North
American cultures? And their individuals?
What I am looking to find in with this inquiry questions is not a scientific explanation, I
am trying answer these questions based on comparing my own experiences with some research
and others experiences. This is a huge Inquiry project which will not be fully explained on this
or the next paper. What I am trying to find is some general and logic explanation to these
changes, and a reason why this had such a huge impact on me. What if the same happens to
others in my position? There might be many experts in the psychological field who can help me
understand the behavior of people under certain circumstances. But I will focus even more in
Latinos who were born here in the United States, and Latinos who are new to this country. Also
I will focus on the experiences of people from other cultures who have been interacting with
the Latin culture. And how these individuals react to the change of music or the mix of music
from one or more cultures. The only knowledge I had about this topic before I started, as I
already mentioned before, comes since three years ago when I moved to the United States.
Because of this reason, I think my inquiry is a perfect topic that will not only help myself, but
also everyone living in this country.
In order to find more information to answer my inquiry questions, I will have to
interview many people who have interacted with the Latin culture, and other Latinos who have
interacted with other different cultures. When I finish this project I am hoping I can understand
how much music influenced my new life. Did it change my way of seeing things? Did it make me
appreciate more my own culture? Did it help me appreciate other new cultures? How is
everyone elses impact to new different musical experiences? And how are their cultures and
personalities influenced by this experiences?