Zaida Garcia

The cultural capital in my life

Tara Yossos article Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion

of community cultural wealth, an article discussing marginalization that people of color

go through in the education system by educators. Yosso being an associate professor

herself, in UC Santa Barbara, mentions many point of views that some educators have.

For instance, the dominant group of people have a deficit way of thinking, making

people of color feel like they are lacking something because they didnt come from a

wealthy family who could pay for higher education or have the credentials to being

considered educated from gaining knowledge through your family who went through

schooling. Similarly, the educators also believe that the students have a deprivation of

family support. For that reason, in her text Yosso invites the readers to look at people of

color with a different perspective, and see all the different forms of cultural capital that

people of color bring to the table. Yosso lays out that the racism in our community is not

very fair to the people of color because once a person of color sets foot in a class, the

educator already starts making assumptions based on your culture, the way you look,

the way you carry yourself, and the form in which you speak as well as how many

languages you speak. That way of deficit thinking by educators can be poisonous to the

students, and she would rather educators open their minds to the endless possibilities

they can bring out in people of color. According to Yossos text, she argues that there

are 6 different forms of cultural capital that a person of color brings to the class that

enrich their lives; aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistance
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capital. Personally I feel I bring; aspirational capital ,linguistic capital , and familial

capital, both in the education system and everywhere else surrounding me.

Coming from a hispanic family people can already guess my parents immigrated

from Mexico, but not all understand the struggles they went through to get here into the

US, and what life they left behind. My immediate family consist of both my parents, my

two older brothers, and an older sister. Without a doubt, my family has been my support

system and the shove I always need when life gets rough. For this reason, I have

attained aspirational capital. Moreover, Yossos text mentions These stories nurture a

culture of possibility as they represent the creation of a history that would break the

links between parents current occupational status and their childrens future academic

attainment (pg.78). My parents never told me the regular things I would hear other

parents telling their kids, I want you to do good in school, Dont end up in my

situation, I worked hard in hopes of you getting a better life than me, but my siblings

did, and for that I am grateful. For example, instead of my dad telling me he wanted

better for me because he struggled as a kid, having barely anything like food

sometimes, and luxury items like shampoo and conditioner.He would yell at me to pay

attention in class and would push me to do my homework. He would call me burra

(dumb) sometimes, out of his frustration and worry, when I didnt understand something

the first time, but I understand it was him caring about me gaining knowledge in school

to further my education and go further than he was able to. Similarly, my siblings have

pushed me, and all have said I dont want you to be like me, I want you to go further in

school, get your education, and get a better job that makes good money and that you
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enjoy at some point in time. As a result, I can say that my aspirational culture has been

passed down to me through my experiences with those around me all the time, and am

now pursuing my educational goal with all of my motivation, ambition, and passion

inflamed by wanting better for myself as well as for my family.

Having spanish as my first language, since that's what my parents knew and

spoke to me, and English as my second language, that I attained through hearing my

older siblings, TV- shows, and learning it in school over time, my linguistic capital is

quite strong. At a very young age I soon became a master of the two languages. This is

why, from a very young age and to this day I have been bilingual and my parents

personal translator. According to Yossos text bilingual children who are often called

upon to translate for their parents or other adults [,] finds that these youth gain multiple

social tools of vocabulary, audience awareness, real world literacy skills, math skills,

metalinguistic awareness, teaching and tutoring skills, civic and familial responsibility,

[and] social maturity(pg.79). Subsequently, I agree with almost all of those examples in

that text about the linguistic capital that I relate to and have lived my entire life. Indeed, I

would agree that being bilingual has definitely added to my attention to details, my

ability to learn new words in both languages, and audience awareness. For example, in

Spanish the way you talk to someone or refer to them depends on their age. If it is an

elder, whether its your parents, grandparents, or just a stranger older than you, you

speak to them with respect, kind of like in english when you say Mr. or Ms.. In English

it's a bit different because it doesnt share some of the same terms in Spanish, but

either way I use that cross-cultural awareness and apply it to both languages. Also,
Zaida Garcia

having this literary capital has helped me socially mature, since I had to help my parents

translate a lot, as well as strengthened my teaching skills when having to be patient and

explain everything in detail to my parents. Above all, It has also helped me throughout

my education, having to teach things to my peers, helping my friends in times of need

when they didnt understand things, or having to explain things to my teachers.

Being in a hispanic household, familial capital is vital. In fact, your family is who

shapes you, they are who encourage you, and they are the ones there in your time of

despair. You learn how to communicate, build strong bonds, and teach. In fact, Yosso

mentions From these kinship ties, we learn the importance of maintaining a healthy

connection to our community and its resources. Our kin also model lessons of caring,

coping and providing (education), which inform our emotional, moral, educational, and

occupational consciousness.(pg.79). With this example by Yosso we see that we get a

lot from our family. With that being said, I am not sure I would be the person I am today,

patient, loving, caring, strong, ambitious, and curious. Due to, all the time spent with my

mother, father, older sister, and close friends I gained great attributes. My mother taught

me how to be patient. Every time I wanted a toy at the store she would tell me no hay

dinero en este momento, pero te lo compro cuando me llegue el prximo cheque de

pago (theres no money right now, but I will buy it for you next paycheck). My sister as

well as my dad, taught me to be ambitious and strong, they always pushed me when it

came to school work , and my sister would sit with me to help me with my homework.

The curiosity came from my trips to the parks that my mother would take me to explore,

and the new friends I would make, always wanting to get to know them better.
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Identically, I got the loving and caring part from all of my family, learning to love new

friends, receiving it from my family, and building a special bond with each person

differently making me a caring person over all. Over time, this familial capital has come

in handy in my education, creating bonds with friends making school fun, becoming

ambitious to be able to gain more for myself, being strong during those hard

assignments in school, having the curiosity to learn more, the love for learning, and

possessing the ability to teach those around me the things I have learned.

All things considered, when educators have a deficit way of thinking towards

people of color, it tends to limit those students. Those students may shut deficit thinking

educators out, leaving their record as an educator stained, creating a culture of hate

and disgust towards one another because of our differences in culture that they

marginalized. However, if educators decided to educate themselves on the diversity

around them they would learn that those differences are what make everyone a

community, empowered by the exchanges of culture from one another. Immediately, a

new harmony would be established, a harmony not yet fully known everywhere due to

ignorance. As a result, having gained aspirational, linguistic, and familial cultural

capitals I have gotten farther than imagined by myself. Coming to college was just a

mere thought and nearly unreachable goal because every year felt long, but over time

shortened, and without those three capitals I wouldnt be patient, loving, caring,

ambitious, strong, curious, or here in college on my way to bigger goals.