Names

 

 

   When it comes to my culture, it was all about family. I was closer to my family than I was to anyone else and thought that they were the most important people in my life. We didn't trust strangers with anything, and if we did need anything we would ask other family members before resorting to the help of someone we didn't know. When we did let strangers into the tight-knit group, they were quickly made family. As such, we'd call the 'Tío' or 'Tía' more often than not. I have a lot of tíos and tías because of this. Family members would have their names put behind a  title of what they were (tío, tía, primo, prima, etc.). So someone would be referred to as 'Tía Maria' from then on. Or more times than not we would just shorten it to tía. We don't call anyone by their names unless they are a child. It reminds me of adding a 'Chan' to the end of someone's name in Japanese to distinguish their position from yours. I think a lot of cultures that are not inherently western follow a similar structure to each other. My time exploring Japanese culture made me realize how different the place I grew up in was from what I was taught.