For art teacher Fred Rodriguez, his Hispanic heritage is something that influences him as a dad. With three children Nate (5), Noah (7), and Luke (8), Rodriguez and his wife Nancy incorporate their background into every day life. “My culture influences a lot of the ways I raise my kids. Hispanic culture is very family oriented, so we tend to have a lot of family events,” Rodriguez said. “We have a lot of friends that come over and become like family. In those ways my culture influenced just how my family and I interact with people in our community.”

Passing down culture to next generation: Fred Rodriguez

Caroline Caruso and Ana Cuen

October 14, 2020

According to the United States Census Bureau, Hispanic and Latino people can be “Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or [of] other Spanish cultures or origin.”

Prior to the 1970s, Spanish and Latin Americans were classified as European-Americans; it wasn’t until Congress passed a law mandating the terms “Americans of Spanish origin or descent” be used by the U.S. government during the collection and analysis of census data.

However, the terms Hispanic and Latino are not interchangeable: while Latino (also known as Latinx, a gender inclusive form of the term) refers to people within Latin America, Hispanic simply means the person is from a country whose primary language is Spanish.

Someone from Spain is considered Hispanic, but not Latino. In the same way, someone from Brazil is considered Latino, but not Hispanic, for their primary language is Porteguese.

With parents from Nicaragua, first-generation American art teacher Fred Rodriguez grew up immersed in Nicaraguan culture learned from his family.

Now with a family of his own, Rodriguez passes down his culture to new generations and shares his experiences in hopes of educating future generations.

“My culture has had a huge impact growing up,” Rodriguez said. “Both my parents are from Nicaragua, they migrated here to the U.S. to give me and my brother a better life so we weren’t born yet but they wanted to have kids and this is where they started.”

Familism is a trait often depicted in Hispanic cultures, where people are “oriented toward family well-being, rather than individual well-being.”

For Rodriguez this is particularly true, as he now teaches his second-generation children this important aspect of their culture.

“My culture influences a lot of the ways I raise my kids. Hispanic culture is very family oriented, so we tend to have a lot of family events,” Rodriguez said. “We have a lot of friends that come over and become like family. In those ways my culture influenced just how my family and I interact with people in our community.”

Food is often an important asset of culture. For Rodriguez, it provides an opportunity to further understand his family roots.

“One way our family has kept our culture alive has been through food. To this day my mom and grandma still make authentic dishes from Nicaragua,” Rodriguez said. “Nicaraguan cuisine has so many different dishes, for example Nicaragua has tamales too but our Tamales are so different. We make our tamales in banana leaves, they are filled with masa, pork, rice, potatoes, olives, tomatoes and raisins. But as I have gotten older I’ve learned the importance of knowing where my family is from and the things they ate and did as kids.”

To this day, Rodriguez enjoys continuing to learn about his roots and heritage.

“I still ask my parents to share stories/recipes from when they lived on their ranch and took care of livestock,” he said. “When relatives would go visit Nicaragua one of my favorite things was receiving the toys that they would bring back, they were simple hand made wooden toys. I personally have never visited Nicaragua but have such a strong love/passion for the culture. I don’t take my parents’ sacrifice to leave Nicaragua and come to the U.S. lightly. I’ll forever be grateful for their commitment to our family.”

Rodriguez stands proud of his Nicaraguan heritage and hopes to emphasize the importance of acknowledging the individual aspects of each South American culture.

“I think it’s important to recognize that there’s a bunch of different countries in Central America, and that Central America is not just one big country,” Rodriguez said. “Mexico plays such a big role, but there are a bunch of different cultures, and Hispanic culture can vary so much within the different borders. Like Nicaraguan food is very different from Mexican food, and Costa Rican food might be similar to Nicaragua. So it’s just different aspects of how we might all be Hispanic but the traditions and beliefs can be very different.”