Ethnocentrism Case

I spent most of my childhood hunting and fishing with my daddy in the "backwoods" of central Georgia. I am what most would call a true southern girl. I listen to country music, wear camouflage shirts, blue jeans, and my hair is almost always pulled back in a ponytail. I know how to bait a hook and skin a buck. I was bought up in true country fashion.

When I met my husband almost five years ago, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. He is of Cuban heritage, his dad is 100% Cuban and his mom is Caucasian. He spent half of his life in Tampa, FL then moved to Atlanta, GA. He was what I called a "city boy". He was raised by his mother, so he didn't know most things about the outdoors that my daddy had taught me. I kind of always thought that my way of living was better than his in some ways. I guess you could consider that ethnocentrism.

He always said that he was going to talk me into moving to Florida, so he could show me how he grew up. I always said that I would never leave my "home." Well, he was right. Six months ago he lost his job, and we lost everything. We had to leave our small country home in the outskirts of the city. We packed only what could fit in our compact car and our two sweet little boys took off to Naples, FL.

At that time his father and step-mother were the only family that we had that had the means to support us while my husband looked for another job. We were able to live with them rent free for 5 months so that we could save money to get on our feet again. We are so grateful for them and what they have done for us.

I must add that I have lived in Georgia my entire life. This was a huge adjustment to me. Don't get me wrong, I love the beach and tropical feel of Florida, but you can't get any further from the "country" than Naples. Almost everyone who lives here wears designer clothes, drives fancy cars, and lives in giant mansions in gated communities.

The culture in Naples is so diverse. I'm definitely not used to it. For example, there are many more Haitian and Hispanic Americans here than in my small hometown back in Georgia. This has taken some getting used to. I have no problem with those ethic groups whatsoever, but it is a little difficult when we go to our local Wal-Mart and the majority of the employees only speak Spanish or Creole. My husband and I both work for a large landscape maintenance company and most of the employees there also only speak Spanish as well. As you can imagine, this language barrier makes communicating efficiently very difficult.

We also are not accustomed to seeing big housing developments on every corner with multi-million dollar homes in them. Naples is a very affluent city, and with us being middle class citizens, it makes it challenging just to survive here. It seems that ordinary day to day items are so much more expensive than what it is in Georgia.

We often talk