Kinship

1) My interviewee was my mother, Gabriela Rubi de Salceda. She was born in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico. My mother, while she lived in Mexico for twenty-five years was part of the upper-middleclass, now living in Los Angeles, she is part of the middle-class. Culturally, Gabriela identifies as Mexican and ethnically recognizes that she is a mix of Native Mexican and European.
2) While trying to interview my mother, I found myself stressed over trying to explain exactly what I was trying to ask her and what information I was looking for. The main method I used was a sit-down discussion at the kitchen table, trying to keep distractions to a minimum. As an anthropologist, I see the issues of communication and privacy that come up during a kinship interview. With us, the main issue was communication, with privacy not being a barrier because I was inquiring over my own family. The interview and the subject matter wasn't awkward because it was my own family and I approached this assignment from an anthropological perspective. By that, I mean I approached it with an open-mind, subjectivity, and without judgement. The thoroughness of the interview was satisfactory, but I feel that was only because of our own familial bonds that exist and bring down the barriers of privacy and miscommunication. Interviewing someone who had no relation to me, I believe the interview would go in a completely different direction. To protect their own family from embarrassment or a stranger's judgement, I believe the person is more likely to lie or leave information out during an interview.
3) The major trend in regard to closeness was the amount of distance between our family unit -- my mother, my father, and me -- and the rest of my mother's family -- my mother's brother and her parents. As you can tell, our family, on my mother's side, is quite small. The trend is for a small family unit, with no particular emphasis on either maternal or paternal family lines only looking at these three generations stemming from my maternal grandparents. The main difference within the family is our unit and that of my uncle and my grandparents, mainly being a cultural difference with us living in the United States. The family relationship, before my grandparents made the decision to move in with us here in the United States, was strained due to distance, with us seeing them about once a year at best. The second cultural difference between myself and the rest of my maternal family, excluding my parents, was a language barrier. Everyone spoke Spanish as their first language while it was my second, creating a constant strain on communication between myself and my grandparents and uncle.
4) Due to the distance between myself and both of my parents families, us being the only ones who live in the United States, closeness is very hard to achieve or maintain. I believe that I know both families, but I wouldn't go so far as to say I know them well, due to the lack of socialization between myself and them. I socialize more with my grandparents and my dad's brother's family (uncle, aunt, and cousin). From what I remember of my interaction with both families over the years, I believe that I've spent a roughly equal amount of time with both, but the closeness is still limited mostly to those two groups of family. The decisions within the family aren't really something I'm familiar with. Within our own nuclear family, my parents make the decisions with me bringing a different perspective to the decision-making table. Overall, I have no real idea who makes the decisions for the overall family, due to a lack of participation within the overall family structure. Within the family, members who marry in are scrutinized at first until they are accepted into the familial system. For example, when my dad married my mother, he was under a metaphorical microscope for the beginning of the marriage and every action or word was liable for judgement by my mother's parents. From the interview, as you go farther back in time, the gender roles within my maternal family were more stark than they are today. Between my grandmother's day and my mother's, women's education and the traditional gender role for women have both evolved to a more progressive state. My mother is a full-time worker, while my grandmother was a housewife and never imagined being anything else at the time. I think the main insight I've gained from this exercise is an understanding of the dynamic and evolution of my maternal family from my grandparents to my own generation. The ethics, beliefs, morals, and mode of thinking has changed drastically over the years. However, along with evolution, I saw what stayed the same. For example, my grandparents decided to migrate from Mazatlan, Mexico to Mexico City in search of a better life as my parents emigrated from Mexico City to Los Angeles for the same reason. If history repeats itself, I find it highly probable that behaviors and decisions made within the family unit are more often than not repeated, at least the ones that end up benefiting my family positively, such as gaining more opportunities through relocating.

Kinship Chart: