Interdependent or Independent?

Daily writing experience - day 3

I was born and raised in Guatemala, into one of the most interdependent or collectivist cultures in the world. This means I was trained / conditioned to take care of the “we” or the group before taking care of “me”.

When I was 9 years old, our family of 8 moved to the United States, one of the most independent or individualist cultures in the world. We moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico so my father could get his Master's degree from New Mexico State University.

We returned to Guatemala three years later, when I was 12 years old.

My second move to the United States from Guatemala happened when I was 19. I stayed almost two years, and then went back to Guatemala.

The last time I moved to the United States was about a year later when I was almost 23. And I've been living in the US for the last 22 years of my life.

I’ve also had the experience of working with a social enterprise based in Guatemala, which was looking to establish a U.S. presence. It didn’t work out. And I didn’t have the knowledge, distance or wisdom to understand why the experiment failed.

I’ve often felt I was “ni de aquí, ni de allá”, (neither from here, nor there).

I felt relief and a sense of understanding of my personal experience when I attended a conference at Stanford University.

Hazel Rose Markus and Alana Conner presented their work contained in their book “Clash!: 8 Cultural Conflicts That Make Us Who We Are”.

https://www.amazon.com/Clash-How-Thrive-Multicultural-World/dp/0142180939

They asked us to fill out the experiences we've had that have conditioned us to be independent or interdependent.

My score was the same for both! I started to understand why I can show up differently depending on the circumstances I find myself in. However that doesn’t mean others around me can do the same!

I have clearly been moving toward more independent behavior the older I’ve gotten. I’d venture to say this writing exercise falls in the independent arena. And I couldn’t have done it before. I’ve had to get comfortable with myself. With standing in my own authority taking the risk that I’ll stand out without a group to support me.

However, I’ve been lucky to find a group that is blending the independence of self-directed individual writers with the support of a group of about 600 people doing the same thing.

I'm looking forward to exploring this theme of new ways of blending/ experimenting creatively with what has been as we move forward into a world that will never go back to the way it was pre-pandemic.

Although I'm not clear yet on a specific goal for my writing, I'm trusting that the threads that show up will create an interesting tapestry.