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Zoe Cantu-Backhaus
Professor Agosta
UWRT 1101-035
7 October 2015

Literacy Narrative: Culture Appreciation

I was born in Chicago, the Windy City. I dont remember much since I moved to
North Carolina when I was very young. I remember the move clearly. My Mom drew a small
house on our Harry Potter calendar and told both my brother and I that the move would be an
exciting thing. Well be closer to Disney World! At that point, my Mom sold me on moving.
The move to North Carolina was a big change for the entire family. It was hot, humid, and there
were extremely huge bugs flying around. We were in a new world. My family wanted to move to
the best part of North Carolina education wise and that was when we moved to Chapel Hill
where I began my academic career. In Chapel Hill, my Mother exposed my brother and I to
different cultures, where I learned how to appreciate other religions and experiences.
When I first went to school, I was shy and didnt speak to anyone. To this day I am still
quiet when I meet someone for the first time, but I have slowly evolved from that. At first, like
many elementary schools, I fit in well, occasionally got bullied, but not many problems. It wasnt
until I went to middle school that I acknowledged my difference from other children. I am mixed
with Mexican and German but I am fully American. Not many people at that time that I knew
were mixed kids. I realized that I didnt exactly fit in a group. I didnt have the same social
standings as the white kids, but I had the same economical standings as they did in my
neighborhood. I remember going up to my mom, telling her about my concerns when she told me

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something that I follow by today. She told me that Ill never truly fit into a group due to myself
being mixed. I was Hispanic, but I wasnt raised with Spanish in my home. I had to work hard in
order to become proficient in spanish so that people wouldnt look at me and say, So youre
Hispanic but cant speak Spanish? I was always ashamed of that. How could I be Hispanic but
not know spanish? Random people would come up to my family and assume that we didnt know
english. As I matured, I realized that it didnt matter much for what group I would fit in. I had to
acknowledge that I was different and embrace the fact that I was mixed.
My Mother believed that showing appreciation for other religions was something we
should learn. I was raised very liberally in the sense that I got to pick a religion I found
interesting, research it, then question whether or not I wanted to be apart of that religion. This
included going to church, mass, learning stories about the buddhist gods, and even celebrating
Hanukkah and Christmas in December. With the learning of multiple cultures, we embraced
them and tried to celebrate them to the fullest. However, even with all of the experiences with the
religions and cultures, I decided to consider myself a Humanist. I believe in helping people
because my parents always taught me that being good to people was something that should be
done not because I believe I will get something out of it; but because were all human and we
share a communal space on this planet. This influenced me to do a lot of community service
projects and treat others with complete and utter respect.
Chapel Hill opened my eyes to the liberalness that a place could be. The choices that I
could make without being judged. My Dad got a job in New York City, one of the well known
places in the United States. My family believed this would have to be the next move for us, but
my Mother wanted us to continue our education in Chapel Hill. This led to our many summers in
New York. New York was easily the largest cultural change for myself. In order to not spend too

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much money, we lived in a very poor neighborhood in Brooklyn known as Bed-Stuy. Bed-Stuy is
a predominantly African-American neighborhood. This was a cultural change for me since the
neighborhoods I grew up in primarily consisted of Caucasians. Bed-Stuy allowed me to
experience the differences between a Caucasian and African-American neighborhoods. I gained
experiences in Bed-Stuy that I would not have had if I stayed in Chapel Hill. For example, I
would walk down the street passed the projects and go to a small park where I would play pickup
soccer in the park with random people. Bed-Stuy was only a small portion of the cultural
experiences I gained in New York. New York allowed me to learn how to navigate the city, and
experience a wave of different types of people. What I enjoyed the most about New York was the
fact that you never truly knew someones social standing. I could walk into the subway station
and sit next to either a Homeless person or one of the wealthiest people in New York. The thing
is, you never exactly knew who it was that you were near. Everyone was unique in their own
way.
Culture has always been something that people hold dear into their hearts. Whether that
be focused on their religion, race, or location every place has something that is unique in their
own way. I was fortunate enough to be capable of experiencing a variety of cultures spreading
from both a town and a city. Without the experiences that my parents provided me, I wouldnt be
the same person that I am today. From the liberalness of my parents, teaching me how things are
choices, to the new places I was capable of traveling to, I had access to the cultural world at the
fingertips as it seemed. ( I know I need to add more to the conclusion)

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