How does my Latino/Caribbean culture display fondness for their milieu? I grew up in a rather conservative family, but also an open-minded one, depending on the situations we had to face; morals founded by traditional mindsets set the rules for the house and they were to be respected, even when those “morals” don’t necessarily fit in with the normalizations of Gen Z. Nevertheless, my culture cares for one another and practices love in its own special ways.

I grew up in Haiti, with a Haitian dad and a Dominican mother. Haitian and Dominican culture have very little to contrast. They have one important trait in common, companionship. My culture is very quick to help one another in bad situations, and to stand by each other in the good ones. They tend to stick up for each other against those in power during tough situations. For example, when a car accident happens, those who are on their way to work stop to go assist the victims. They help by taking care of those who might have been harmed, finding the ones who might be responsible, and alerting the authorities.

Additionally, my culture provides companionship by amplifying the voices of those who need to be heard. They do so through protests, exposing those issues to the press, and by voicing them on social media. They also provide one with support and empathy when we are to go through some difficult situations.

In my culture, affection or touch is not really a love language. My culture believes that affection should be shown by providing things such as a roof over our heads, food and drinks, and paying for some sort of education. Maybe one trait that could be considered “affectionate” or could fall into the love language category is the way of greeting people in public, and in general. Since my culture developed from Haiti and the Dominican Republic, this can be divided into two parts. The ways of greeting in both my cultures are extremely similar. When one greets someone familiar, we have to kiss on the cheek or bind our cheeks together and make that kissy noise with our mouths. On the other hand, the Dominican part of my culture greets family quite differently. When a young person greets an older person in the family, they are to say “tah” and the family member should respond by blessing them. The standard of greeting differs depending on who is approaching, because of my two cultures, but both show an exchange of love, of companionship.

My culture can be very hard to understand, or to live with, due to the conventional way of life. They have some ways of displaying that they care for one another that might be hard to grasp. My culture is unique, but no matter how conservative and traditional my culture might be, they never fail to show understanding and compassion.