Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Hispanic — Hispanic And Hispanic Culture

test_template

Hispanic and Hispanic Culture

  • Categories: Hispanic

About this sample

close

Words: 763 |

Published: Mar 14, 2024

Words: 763 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Image of Dr. Oliver Johnson

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

  • 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
  • Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

author

Verified writer

  • Expert in: Sociology

writer

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 739 words

1 pages / 1139 words

8 pages / 3593 words

1 pages / 613 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Hispanic

Black African Americans and Hispanic/Latinos are two distinct cultural groups with rich histories and unique identities. Understanding the historical, cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic factors that shape these communities [...]

Do people already assume you speak Spanish because you are of Hispanic descent? Do they judge when they find out you don't? If you don’t understand your culture would that make you any less of a member to your ethnic group. [...]

Bartolome de las Casas once stated, “Upon this herd of gentle sheep, the Spaniards descended like starving wolves and tigers and lions. ” Las Casas believed that Natives were peaceful and non-deserving of the torment and [...]

Introduction to the Quinceañera celebration in Spanish culture Definition of Quinceañera and its cultural significance Exploration of the origins of Quinceañeras Evolution of the celebration from pre-Hispanic [...]

In our country today, we recognize the importance of preserving culture, which will be discussed in this essay. As we are a nation of diverse cultures, our society is a beautiful blend of African American, Asian [...]

In Laguna culture, stories are as central as the language that tells them. Stories weave the world together and are constantly being reinvented and recreated over time. In Storyteller, Leslie Marmon Silko layers short stories, [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

  • Instructions Followed To The Letter
  • Deadlines Met At Every Stage
  • Unique And Plagiarism Free

hispanic culture college essay

Being Latina and the struggle of the dualities of two worlds

Reflections on why our identities can help create a better world for all of us.

A few days ago, I attended a Zoom presentation organized by ASUN entitled “What does it mean to be Latinx?” Every time I witness the complexity of identities in the Latinx community in the United States, I am amazed. Amazed that we are always perceived as a homogenous group, when in reality, we couldn’t come from more different backgrounds, and we couldn’t have more different and complex identities. Also, the challenges we face are as different as each of our stories. So, in the spirit of Hispanic Heritage Month, please indulge me in letting me tell you my story.

There is a well-known character in Mexican history that invokes both love and condemnation from most Mexicans. Her name was Malintzin but history knows her as La Malinche . Her story is similar to that of U.S.A.’s Pocahontas ; the beautiful indigenous woman who abandons her tribe to help the white man. (The legends omit how she became the property of such White men, but that’s another story). 

La Malinche was a Nahúatl woman who was given to Hernán Cortés as a slave. Due to her upperclass education, she spoke two languages, an ability that made her very useful to Hernán Cortés in communicating with the indigenous people as he went about conquering Mexico. On one hand, she was intelligent and, clearly, resilient. But on the other hand, she helped Cortés begin the Spanish colonization of the Nuevo Mundo. This duality is what gives her such a complex identity. And this duality is one that follows me.

When I was in high school, several of my classmates would sometimes call me Malinchista . As you can imagine, that was NOT a compliment. By definition, a Malinchista is “a person who denies her own cultural heritage by preferring foreign cultural expressions” (I’m not making it up; look it up).

In my early teens, I discovered American football. While switching channels on the television, I stumbled across a game being played in several feet of snow. I had never seen this! The game was being played in Minnesota. That year, the Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl, and I became a die-hard fan of Roger Staubach and “America’s Team.” This marked the initiation of my love for all things American. I learned about Formula 1, Sports Illustrated and Tiger Beat. Yes, Tiger Beat introduced me to the American darlings of my generation. My bedroom walls were covered with pictures of American teen idols I had never seen before in my life (in the 1970s, Mexican TV programming didn’t broadcast many American TV shows; I only remember Dallas and The Partridge Family , which of course, I loved).

I also loved English-language songs. I used to spend my money buying cancioneros , books similar in format and quality to comic books, for people who were learning to play the guitar. The cancioneros had the lyrics of the songs along with the music notes. I literally used these cancioneros to practice my English. I would translate each word of the songs, and then I would play the records over and over until I memorized the lyrics and could actually follow the singer pronouncing the words. Do you know how hard it is to sing at full speed: “Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall?”

By the time I was in college, I had already spent time in the city of Dallas (and yes, I made the pilgrimage to Irving, Texas and the Cowboys’ stadium) – and perfected my English. I started studying English when I entered first grade. By middle school, my parents were paying a private tutor. In Mexico, English was accepted as the lingua franca needed to succeed in the world, and my parents were going to make sure I learned it. (My dad had taught himself English, and he shared my enthusiasm for English language magazines, although not for the Dallas Cowboys.) Learning a second language allowed me to learn about, navigate and integrate into a different culture. And, unlike La Malinche , I did this of my own volition.

When I made the decision to come to the United States to study, my father told me, “If you ever decide this is not for you or things don’t work out, come back home.” But I was not turning back. In my mind, America was the best place in the whole world (my small world, at least). I had spent a semester in an exchange program at the University of Oklahoma, and I knew back then I belonged in the United States. One of the things that caught my attention early on was the fact that people could wear their pajamas to class (I know you’ve seen it), and nobody blinked an eye. One could wear her hair in blue spikes or wear slippers to the grocery store, and no one would say a thing. To me, that was amazing! People didn’t bother you, judge you or care what you wore. I felt America was the place where not only public services worked, but where you could be yourself and you could be free to be whomever you wanted to be. There was a sense of freedom that was refreshing.

However, for a long time I felt like I didn’t belong here, and I didn’t belong in Mexico, either. Navigating two worlds was not precisely difficult  but sometimes unsettling . You spend your time “live switching” from English to Spanish to Spanglish and back again. You mix Cholula with Five Guys hamburgers. You watch American soccer but listen to the Mexican commentators (otherwise it’s like listening to golf announcers). And you truly think Mexican soccer fans are like the old Oakland Raiders fans, only worse. Women in Mexico are as rabid fans as many men, but, at least back in my day (I feel ancient now), you didn’t see many women go to the stadiums. As a woman, I never felt safe. I only went to a match if my male friends went with me. This is one of the most striking differences between the U.S. and Mexico: American soccer fans are so mild-mannered in comparison!

Another striking difference I noticed when I first came to the U.S. was that I was not getting cat calls out when I was out walking in the streets. In Mexico, everywhere I went (since I was a preteen, for goodness’ sake), I would be subjected to cat calls and whistles – and the harassment only got worse the older I got. My experience as a woman was of always being on high alert. But when I came to the U.S., I felt respected. I could exist without being harassed continually. Women here seemed to have a voice and the same opportunities as men to grow and pursue their dreams. I felt free to pursue a career and to not be expected to only dream of marrying and having children. Although, over the years, I’ve come to realize there still is much room for improvement.

Back in the 1500s La Malinche did what she could to survive (did I say historians think she died before she was 30?). History asked her to do a task she didn’t want, and she did her best. I am sure she considered her options and bought time, respect and the right to live in the best way she could. She used her skills to earn a place in history, and although her role continues to be debated, I cannot blame her. Did I turn my back on my country? Or did I look for a better life? My circle of Latina friends in the U.S. is full of intelligent, professional women who left their countries and built a better life ­– a different life – here in the United States. They all miss their families, and they all support their biological families in many ways. What they can do from here, however, is more than they could have done had they stayed in their countries of origin.

Being Latina in America is both an honor and a challenge. We struggle with the dualities of our worlds. We struggle with the adjectives that define us. We are a complex mix of races, traditions and experiences. We care for our people, and we work tirelessly to do what must be done to help each other. The complexity of our identities can help us create a better world for all of us, a world where our differences are not viewed as a threat but as an asset. A world where we all thrive. ¡Sí, se puede!

Claudia Ortega-Lukas

By: Claudia Ortega-Lukas Graphic Designer & Communications Professional

Building a Team

‘Building a Team’ is the last installment in the University Libraries and Special Collection’s three-part sesquicentennial exhibit series. It focuses on the history of athletics on campus.

hispanic culture college essay

UPD Intern Macie King

‘What I didn't realize at the time was that I was about to join one of the most supportive, caring and energetic work environments I had ever experienced’

2024 Open educational grant awardees announced

The University Libraries are awarding grants hoping to save students money and make education more attainable

Optimism Series Domestic Mining Green Opportunities

Nevada Gold Mines Professor Pengbo Chu in the Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering sees domestic mining as a way to change the mining industry into a green industry

Editor's Picks

Kari Barber holding a glass trophy for her filmmaker of the year award

Kari Barber named Nevada Woman Filmmaker of the Year

Brian Sandoval sitting next to Paul Kwon in the podcasting studio holding up Wolf Pack hand signs.

Sagebrushers season 3 ep. 6: Professor Paul Kwon

Seven children participate in a potato bag race in a field while a smiling crowd watches.

Multicultural Center to celebrate Juneteenth at the 36th Annual Juneteenth Festival

President Sandoval on a grey background.

NSHE Board of Regents renews President Sandoval’s contract at the University of Nevada, Reno

Nevada Today

Nevada Division of Outdoor Recreation and University of Nevada, Reno team up to address employment needs in the outdoor industry

Two new programs have been added to prepare students for the growing outdoor recreation industry demand

A person stands atop a grassy hill in hiking gear, overlooking the cliff's edge with blue skies behind them.

Nevada partners with Idaho National Lab, Penn State on nuclear reprocessing project

Researchers studying the potential use of more cost-effective materials to reprocess nuclear waste

Dev Chidambaram, dressed in a gray/blue suit, stands on the walkway between LME and the Quad.

From Emergency Room Technician to Physician Assistant

Inspired by the PAs he worked with, Rene Torres found his calling for emergency medicine at UNR Med

Rene Torres sitting on a staircase.

Weather conditions make preparing for wildfire more important than ever

Extension’s Living With Fire Program urges Nevadans to take action now

A close-up image of brown, drooping grass in the foreground with sparse green plants and small yellow flowers in the background.

What do University of Nevada, Reno students do after graduation?

Find out with the First Destination Survey by the Nevada Career Studio

The Nevada Career Studio office on campus with a banner sign that reads “Open now to serve you!”

KUNR partners with StoryCorps to foster connection across America’s political divide

As part of the Reynolds School of Journalism, KUNR Public Radio will host the One Small Step program

Two people at a table at a coffee shop sitting and chatting.

UNR Med and Renown Health Pediatrics Residency Program helps address critical need

First year of new residency program wraps up with successful training to address a shortage of physicians in Nevada

Attendees of the inaugural Wolf Pack Pediatrics Symposium posing for a photo with the Mackay Stadium football field in the background.

Orvis School of Nursing Associate Dean Alexa Curtis named American Academy of Nursing Fellow

The fellows are recognized for their substantial impact on health and health care

Alexa Curtis.

Hispanic American Culture and its Impact in America Essay

  • To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
  • As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
  • As a template for you assignment

Hispanic Americans population in USA has been increasing over the last few decades. Today, Hispanic Americans make up about 16 percent of United State’s population and are minority group in the country.

Their presence is felt in various sectors; from work places, business, entertainment, to politics (Cafferty & Engstrom, 2002). As the number of Hispanic Americans increases, their culture is slowly becoming part of American culture.

The term Hispanic is used to refer to a diverse ethnic group united by their use of Spanish language. However, Hispanic Americans originate from various Spanish speaking countries especially in Central and Latin America.

The cultural group share common values by their shared Spanish culture but differ slightly by their country of origin. Hispanic Americans is a highly cultured ethnic group. Hispanic Americans’ family values, language, rituals and religions, etiquette, and eating habits are unique to other ethnic and cultural groups in the country.

The culture of Hispanic Americans has attracted high attention in the recent years. Many of Hispanic Americans maintain their cultures because most are recent immigrants. Family values, etiquette and use of Spanish language are the most distinguishing elements of Hispanic American. Hispanic Americans have high value for their families.

Hispanic American family extends beyond nuclear family and family members relate closely (Clutter & Nieto, 2008). The family is considered as the most important social unit and each family member considers helping other family members as a social responsibility. Family ties are such tight that Hispanic Americans have a habit of visiting one another or even living with other family members.

Spanish language and assent is what is most associated with Hispanic Americans. Most Hispanic American use both English and Spanish but the old and recent immigrants have difficulty in using English. Spanish, however, is the common language that used in Hispanic Americans homes or when speaking to other Hispanic Americans. Apart from language, Hispanic American’s etiquette is unique.

Most Hispanic Americans tend to be formal. For instance, a firm handshake is the common practice for greeting though slight hug and a kill on the cheek can be used among close family members (Clutter & Nieto, 2008). Another cultural feature of Hispanic Americans is religion and rituals. Most of Hispanic Americans are Roman Catholics and religion takes a central place in their lives (Clutter & Nieto, 2008).

Religious rituals such as prayers, attending daily and Sunday mass and celebrating patron saints make part of Hispanic Americans culture. In addition, Hispanic Americans’ eating habit reflects their origin and culture.

Impact of Hispanic Americans culture in American is evident. The most obvious impact is increased usage of Spanish in United States. Today Spanish is used in most parts of the country where Hispanic Americans live or work. A part from spreading Spanish, Hispanic Americans have been successful in small scale business, entertainment, sports and politics and their significance is being respected.

For example, Hispanic American musicians such as Jennifer Lopez, Gloria Estefan and Julio Iglesias and baseball players such as Juan Marichal have been very successful.

In addition, Hispanic Americans interact with other cultural and ethnic groups in the country; in work places, schools, churches and other places and share culture. Consequently, Hispanic Americans culture is slowly being accepted and integrated in American cultures. Hispanic foods, music, dance, clothing are becoming common with other cultural groups.

Hispanic Americans are the most culturally influential minority cultural and ethnic group in United States today.

The Hispanic cultural heritage month (15th September to 15 th October) set aside by United States government, demonstrates the impact of Hispanic Americans in the country (Lamb & Johnson, 2008). The action by the government shows that cultural diversity is something to celebrate and invites all Americans to embrace cultural diversity.

Reference List

Clutter, A. & Nieto, R. (2008). Understanding the Hispanic Culture . Web.

Lamb, A. & Johnson, L. (2008). Latino – Hispanic Heritage . Web.

Cafferty, P. & Engstrom, D. (2002). Hispanics in the United States: an agenda for the twenty-first century . New York: Transaction Publishers.

  • Paris City Cultural Pattern
  • A Culture Briefing of Germany
  • Chinese Etiquette and Connection to National Beliefs, History, and Values
  • Differences between China and Canada in Business Etiquettes
  • Chinese Etiquette and Cultural Communication Patterns
  • Creative Industry in New Zealand
  • Diasporic Cultural Institution and Identification of a Community
  • Acadian Culture in Cape Breton in Nova Scotia
  • Irish Culture in Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia
  • Monaco Cultural Analysis: One of the Smallest Independent State in the World
  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, June 24). Hispanic American Culture and its Impact in America. https://ivypanda.com/essays/hispanic-american-culture-and-its-impact-in-america/

"Hispanic American Culture and its Impact in America." IvyPanda , 24 June 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/hispanic-american-culture-and-its-impact-in-america/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Hispanic American Culture and its Impact in America'. 24 June.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Hispanic American Culture and its Impact in America." June 24, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/hispanic-american-culture-and-its-impact-in-america/.

1. IvyPanda . "Hispanic American Culture and its Impact in America." June 24, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/hispanic-american-culture-and-its-impact-in-america/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Hispanic American Culture and its Impact in America." June 24, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/hispanic-american-culture-and-its-impact-in-america/.

  • Career Advice

On Being Latina/o in Academe

By  Salvador Vidal-Ortiz

You have / 5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in.

Although I may be one of the first Latina/o faculty members to contribute to “Conditionally Accepted,” I want to start by stating the obvious: I am not speaking for all Latinas/os in academe. As a light-skinned, nonheterosexual Puerto Rican man, I have a specific social location that not even other Puerto Ricans or other queer Latina/o academics will share. That includes, as a Puerto Rican, having been born with U.S. citizenship, and coming from one of the only countries that has not achieved independence from its colonizers. And as a nonheterosexual faculty member, it includes the perks of being a multiply minoritized scholar, to use José Muñoz’s Disidentifications phrase.

Yet while I am only writing from my own experience, I have met and interacted with countless other nonwhite faculty members experiencing a range of issues like those I have faced. In this essay, I write from the self in ways that demonstrate a singular-social voice in order to situate the self in the social. Work on the humanities, communications and increasingly, the social sciences is doing this nowadays -- my own work on autoethnography attests to that.

For me, the writing from the self does not divorce from social categories or political ones inside and outside of academe. As a Latino, it is crucial for me to discuss that in 2016, after 15 years of the so-called threat of Latinas/os numerically surpassing African-Americans, Latinas/os are read in a multiplicity of ways: adhering to their own communities (whereas by nationality, region and/or as Latinas/os) while being charged with an assimilationist racial discourse in a (still) polarized black-white racial landscape. Latinas/os are racialized -- a practice that occurs irrespective of skin color or census-based ethno-racial categories . We are racialized in ways that mark us as people of color. But we are placed between the black and white racial binary, often forced to operate with those compass-like categories, pointing to ways of how to talk about race but always within the binary. All the while, our experience is trivialized as ethnic, not racial.

As a queer Latino faculty member, I'm sometimes asked by colleagues at many colleges and universities (including my home institution, American University) to address questions of gender and sexuality in diversity sessions, classrooms and other academic settings. But when such conversations turn to race and racial inequality, or when I queer a plain conversation intended for the sake of discussing only gender and sexuality by introducing racialized content, questions of power and issues of racism, the ambience is like a first date gone awfully wrong. However, that is how one makes waves happen.

As noted before, the differences between Latinas/os are immense. Yet it is often assumed inside and outside academe that we speak in a particular way. (Many of us often hear the so very offensive “Gosh, your English is so good!”) Or that we think in a particular way about social and economic issues, or that we are significantly more Catholic (or religious, for that matter). Even in academic settings, it is often assumed that we cannot challenge machismo practices (which, oddly enough, are only attributed to Latino culture!). Being “conditionally accepted” means managing a constant negotiation of these assumptions -- and tapping into self-control and our artful skills to challenge the tenets of such assumptions, be it about dancing, food, religion, family ties, immigration -- you name it.

For instance, I have had my share of experiences with white feminist scholars who speak to me in Spanish. I let out a few seconds of generous doubt about what that means, only to respond in English. I assume this is read as a warning, a symbolic one, before calling them out verbally the second (or third) time around. When I hear a mention of machismo, I tend to sigh and redirect to issues of heterosexism. When I hear that Latinos have a harder time coming out , I loop back to Allan Bérubé, John D’Emilio, and Gayle Rubin, all gay and lesbian historians and anthropologists, to explain that most urban gay cities were formed by white gay men who left their families and formed new communities -- for it is quite easy to come out a thousand miles away from family and when you are self-sufficient, but not when you live in the same household.

I am casually touched in a hallway or at my office in ways that seem to read acceptance into some sort of a club (as a light-skinned Latino), in contrast to how my black colleagues are often not touched, nor their personal space invaded. I am asked to represent my ethno-racial group when discussing race, just like a student is tokenized by being brought into a committee to speak for their group. Indeed, paternalism comes in all colors. I turn around to challenge this, and then I lose -- too angry to be collegial, too volatile to collaborate with. But the energy and patience it takes to not talk back is precious, and the point there is that it takes a hold of one.

Of course, my experiences as a faculty member at AU have somewhat influenced my writing. I have had my share of great department chairs and students, as well as wonderful relationships with its many administrators in more than a decade at the university -- and a lot of challenges at many of those levels as well.

Yet my writing comes, as I noted before, from many other places, experiences and tales told to me by colleagues at public and private institutions. The point is really not about a faculty member at a single institution but rather about the echo produced once a story is told and how it resonates with others in academe. In that, it is not just my story. It is also not an ethnography of the institution where I have worked for over a decade nor an autoethnography of myself in a place. It is constitutive of larger experiences of managing one’s own set of lived realities as “diversity workers” by virtue of being on those spaces, as Sara Ahmed so eloquently notes in her 2012 book, On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life .

The point of this first post is that, while I am writing solo, I am not alone, but I am also not representing all Puerto Ricans, all queer people or all Latinas/os. That brings a lot of excitement to the writing, and I look forward to hearing, and reading, the echo of many other voices for which these stories resonate -- Latina/o and non-Latina/o alike.

A chalkboard-like surface displays three of the Ten Commandments—"VI Thou shalt do no Murder, VII Thou shalt not commit Adultery, VIII Thou shalt not Steal."

Louisiana Wants the Ten Commandments in College Classrooms, Too

The culture war over religion in public education has mostly ensnared K-12 schools.

Share This Article

More from diversity.

The word Accepted followed by an asterisk on a black background

Safeguarding Black Women Educators’ Mental Health

Campus leaders and colleagues must recognize their battle fatigue—and the sophisticated racism at its root—and work t

Accepted with an asterisk written in white letters on a black background

Hold Steady or Issue an Exit Ticket?

What’s really at stake when colleges lose faculty of color.

Top administrators must respond to increasingly pervasive legislation that hinders the recruitment, retention and vit

  • Become a Member
  • Sign up for Newsletters
  • Learning & Assessment
  • Diversity & Equity
  • Career Development
  • Labor & Unionization
  • Shared Governance
  • Academic Freedom
  • Books & Publishing
  • Financial Aid
  • Residential Life
  • Free Speech
  • Physical & Mental Health
  • Race & Ethnicity
  • Sex & Gender
  • Socioeconomics
  • Traditional-Age
  • Adult & Post-Traditional
  • Teaching & Learning
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Digital Publishing
  • Data Analytics
  • Administrative Tech
  • Alternative Credentials
  • Financial Health
  • Cost-Cutting
  • Revenue Strategies
  • Academic Programs
  • Physical Campuses
  • Mergers & Collaboration
  • Fundraising
  • Research Universities
  • Regional Public Universities
  • Community Colleges
  • Private Nonprofit Colleges
  • Minority-Serving Institutions
  • Religious Colleges
  • Women's Colleges
  • Specialized Colleges
  • For-Profit Colleges
  • Executive Leadership
  • Trustees & Regents
  • State Oversight
  • Accreditation
  • Politics & Elections
  • Supreme Court
  • Student Aid Policy
  • Science & Research Policy
  • State Policy
  • Colleges & Localities
  • Employee Satisfaction
  • Remote & Flexible Work
  • Staff Issues
  • Study Abroad
  • International Students in U.S.
  • U.S. Colleges in the World
  • Intellectual Affairs
  • Seeking a Faculty Job
  • Advancing in the Faculty
  • Seeking an Administrative Job
  • Advancing as an Administrator
  • Beyond Transfer
  • Call to Action
  • Confessions of a Community College Dean
  • Higher Ed Gamma
  • Higher Ed Policy
  • Just Explain It to Me!
  • Just Visiting
  • Law, Policy—and IT?
  • Leadership & StratEDgy
  • Leadership in Higher Education
  • Learning Innovation
  • Online: Trending Now
  • Resident Scholar
  • University of Venus
  • Student Voice
  • Academic Life
  • Health & Wellness
  • The College Experience
  • Life After College
  • Academic Minute
  • Weekly Wisdom
  • Reports & Data
  • Quick Takes
  • Advertising & Marketing
  • Consulting Services
  • Data & Insights
  • Hiring & Jobs
  • Event Partnerships

4 /5 Articles remaining this month.

Sign up for a free account or log in.

  • Sign Up, It’s FREE

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Duke University

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

hispanic culture college essay

6 Diversity College Essay Examples

What’s covered:, how to write the diversity essay after the end of affirmative action, essay #1: jewish identity, essay #2: being bangladeshi-american, essay #3: marvel vs dc, essay #4: leadership as a first-gen american, essay #5: protecting the earth, essay #6: music and accents, where to get your diversity essays edited, what is the diversity essay.

While working on your college applications, you may come across essays that focus on diversity , culture, or values. The purpose of these essays is to highlight any diverse views or opinions that you may bring to campus. Colleges want a diverse student body that’s made up of different backgrounds, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and interests. These essay prompts are a way for them to see what students can bring to their school.

In this post, we will share six essays written by real students that cover the topic of culture and diversity. We’ll also include what each essay did well and where there is room for improvement. Hopefully, this will be a useful resource to inspire your own diversity essay.

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. That said, you should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and they will not have a favorable view of students who have plagiarized.

In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of race in college admissions was unconstitutional. In other words, they struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions . This will affect college-bound students of color in a number of ways, including lowering their chances of acceptance and reducing the amount of direct outreach they’ll receive from colleges. Another change to consider is the ways in which students should tackle their diversity essays.

Although colleges can no longer directly factor race into admissions, students aren’t prohibited from discussing their racial backgrounds in supplemental application essays. If your racial background is important to you, seriously consider writing about it in your diversity essays. If you don’t, admissions officers are extremely limited in their ability to consider your race when making an admission decision.

As in the essays listed below, discussing your race is an excellent tool for showing admissions officers the person behind the grades and test scores. Beyond that, it provides admissions officers with an opportunity to put themselves in your shoes—showing them how your background has presented challenges to overcome, helped build important life skills, and taught you valuable lessons.

Diversity Essay Examples

I was thirsty. In my wallet was a lone $10 bill, ultimately useless at my school’s vending machine. Tasked with scrounging together the $1 cost of a water bottle, I fished out and arranged the spare change that normally hid in the bottom of my backpack in neat piles of nickels and dimes on my desk. I swept them into a spare Ziploc and began to leave when a classmate snatched the bag and held it above my head.

“Want your money back, Jew?” she chanted, waving the coins around. I had forgotten the Star-of-David around my neck, but quickly realized she must have seen it and connected it to the stacks of coins. I am no stranger to experiencing and confronting antisemitism, but I had never been targeted in my school before. I grabbed my bag and sternly told her to leave. Although she sauntered away, the impact remained.

This incident serves as an example of the adversity I have and will continue to face from those who only see me as a stereotype. Ironically, however, these experiences of discrimination have only increased my pride as a member of the Jewish Community. Continuing to wear the Star-of-David connects me to my history and my family. I find meaning and direction in my community’s values, such as pride, education, and giving—and I am eager to transfer these values to my new community: the Duke community.

What the Essay Did Well

Writing about discrimination can be difficult, but if you are comfortable doing it, it can make for a powerful story. Although this essay is short and focused on one small interaction, it represents a much larger struggle for this student, and for that reason it makes the essay very impactful.

The author takes her time at the beginning of the essay to build the scene for the audience, which allows us to feel like we are there with her, making the hateful comments even more jarring later on. If she had just told us her classmate teased her with harmful stereotypes, we wouldn’t feel the same sense of anger as we do knowing that she was just trying to get a drink and ended up being harassed.

This essay does another important thing—it includes self-reflection on the experience and on the student’s identity. Without elaborating on the emotional impact of a situation, an essay about discrimination would make admission officers feel bad for the student, but they wouldn’t be compelled to admit the student. By describing how experiences like these drive her and make her more determined to embody positive values, this student reveals her character to the readers.

What Could Be Improved

While including emotional reflection in the latter half of the essay is important, the actual sentences could be tightened up a bit to leave a stronger impression. The student does a nice job of showing us her experience with antisemitism, but she just tells us about the impact it has on her. If she instead showed us what the impact looked like, the essay would be even better.

For example, rather than telling us “Continuing to wear the Star-of-David connects me to my history and my family,” she could have shown that connection: “My Star-of-David necklace thumps against my heart with every step I take, reminding me of my great-grandparents who had to hide their stars, my grandma’s spindly fingers lighting the menorah each Hanukkah, and my uncle’s homemade challah bread.” This new sentence reveals so much more than the existing sentence about the student and the deep connection she feels with her family and religion.

Life before was good: verdant forests, sumptuous curries, and a devoted family.

Then, my family abandoned our comfortable life in Bangladesh for a chance at the American dream in Los Angeles. Within our first year, my father was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He lost his battle three weeks before my sixth birthday. Facing a new country without the steady presence of my father, we were vulnerable—prisoners of hardship in the land of the free.

We resettled in the Bronx, in my uncle’s renovated basement. It was meant to be our refuge, but I felt more displaced than ever. Gone were the high-rise condos of West L.A.; instead, government projects towered over the neighborhood. Pedestrians no longer smiled and greeted me; the atmosphere was hostile, even toxic. Schoolkids were quick to pick on those they saw as weak or foreign, hurling harsh words I’d never heard before.

Meanwhile, my family began integrating into the local Bangladeshi community. I struggled to understand those who shared my heritage. Bangladeshi mothers stayed home while fathers drove cabs and sold fruit by the roadside—painful societal positions. Riding on crosstown buses or walking home from school, I began to internalize these disparities.

During my fleeting encounters with affluent Upper East Siders, I saw kids my age with nannies, parents who wore suits to work, and luxurious apartments with spectacular views. Most took cabs to their destinations: cabs that Bangladeshis drove. I watched the mundane moments of their lives with longing, aching to plant myself in their shoes. Shame prickled down my spine. I distanced myself from my heritage, rejecting the traditional panjabis worn on Eid and refusing the torkari we ate for dinner every day.

As I grappled with my relationship with the Bangladeshi community, I turned my attention to helping my Bronx community by pursuing an internship with Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda. I handled desk work and took calls, spending the bulk of my time actively listening to the hardships constituents faced—everything from a veteran stripped of his benefits to a grandmother unable to support her bedridden grandchild.

I’d never exposed myself to stories like these, and now I was the first to hear them. As an intern, I could only assist in what felt like the small ways—pointing out local job offerings, printing information on free ESL classes, reaching out to non-profits. But to a community facing an onslaught of intense struggles, I realized that something as small as these actions could have vast impacts.

Seeing the immediate consequences of my actions inspired me. Throughout that summer, I internalized my community’s daily challenges in a new light. I began to see the prevalent underemployment and cramped living quarters less as sources of shame. Instead, I saw them as realities that had to be acknowledged, but that could ultimately be remedied.

I also realized the benefits of the Bangladeshi culture I had been so ashamed of. My Bangla language skills were an asset to the office, and my understanding of Bangladeshi etiquette allowed for smooth communication between office staff and the office’s constituents. As I helped my neighbors navigate city services, I saw my heritage with pride—a perspective I never expected to have.

I can now appreciate the value of my unique culture and background, and the value of living with less. This perspective offers room for progress, community integration, and a future worth fighting for. My time with Assemblyman Sepulveda’s office taught me that I can be an agent of change who can enable this progression. Far from being ashamed of my community, I want to someday return to local politics in the Bronx to continue helping others access the American Dream. I hope to help my community appreciate the opportunity to make progress together. By embracing reality, I learned to live it. Along the way, I discovered one thing: life is good, but we can make it better.

This student’s passion for social justice and civic duty shines through in this essay because of how honest it is. Sharing their personal experience with immigrating, moving around, being an outsider, and finding a community allows us to see the hardships this student has faced and builds empathy towards their situation.

However, what really makes it strong is that the student goes beyond describing the difficulties they faced and explains the mental impact it had on them as a child: “Shame prickled down my spine. I distanced myself from my heritage, rejecting the traditional panjabis worn on Eid and refusing the torkari we ate for dinner every day.” The rejection of their culture presented at the beginning of the essay creates a nice juxtaposition with the student’s view in the latter half of the essay, and helps demonstrate how they have matured.

They then use their experience interning as a way to delve into a change in their thought process about their culture. This experience also serves as a way to show how their passion for social justice began. Using this experience as a mechanism to explore their thoughts and feelings is an excellent example of how items that are included elsewhere on your application should be incorporated into your essay.

This essay prioritizes emotions and personal views over specific anecdotes. Although there are details and certain moments incorporated throughout to emphasize the author’s points, the main focus remains on the student and how they grapple with their culture and identity.

One area for improvement is the conclusion. Although the forward-looking approach is a nice way to end an essay focused on social justice, it would be nice to include more details and imagery in the conclusion. How does the student want to help their community? What government position do they see themselves holding one day?

A more impactful ending might describe the student walking into their office at the New York City Housing Authority in 15 years. This future student might be looking at the plans to build a new development in the Bronx just blocks away from where they grew up that would provide quality housing to people in their Bangladeshi community. They would smile while thinking about how far they have come from that young kid who used to be ashamed of their culture.

Superhero cinema is an oligopoly consisting of two prominent, towering brands: Marvel and DC. I’m a religious supporter of Marvel, but last year, I discovered that my friend, Tom, was a DC fan. After a vociferous 20-minute quarrel about which was better, we decided to allocate one day to have a professional debate, using carefully assembled and coherent arguments.

One week later, we both brought pages of notes and evidence cards (I also had my Iron-Man bobblehead for moral support). Our impartial moderator—a Disney fan—sat in the middle with a stopwatch, open-policy style. I began the debate by discussing how Marvel accentuated the humanity of the storyline—such as in Tony Stark’s transformation from an egotistical billionaire to a compassionate father—which drew in a broader audience, because more people resonated with certain aspects of the characters. Tom rebutted this by capitalizing on how Deadpool was a duplicate of Deathstroke, how Vision copied Red Tornado, and how DC sold more comics than Marvel.

40 minutes later, we reached an impasse. We were out of cards, and we both made excellent points, so our moderator was unable to declare a winner. Difficult conversations aren’t necessarily always the ones that make political headlines. Instead, a difficult discussion involves any topic with which people share an emotional connection.

Over the years, I became so emotionally invested in Marvel that my mind erected an impenetrable shield, blocking out all other possibilities. Even today, we haven’t decided which franchise was better, but I realized that I was undermining DC for no reason other than my own ignorance.

The inevitability of diversity suggests that it is our responsibility to understand the other person and what they believe in. We may not always experience a change in opinion, but we can grant ourselves the opportunity to expand our global perspective. I strive to continue this adventure to increase my awareness as a superhero aficionado, activist, and student, by engaging in conversations that require me to think beyond what I believe and to view the world from others’ perspectives.

And yes, Tom is still my friend.

Diversity doesn’t always have to be about culture or heritage; diversity exists all around us, even in our comic book preferences. The cleverness of this essay lies in the way the student flipped the traditional diversity prompt on its head and instead discussed his diverse perspective on a topic he is passionate about. If you don’t have a cultural connection you are compelled to write about, this is a nifty approach to a diversity prompt—if it’s handled appropriately.

While this student has a non-traditional topic, he still presents it in a way that pays respect to the key aspects of a diversity essay: depicting his perspective and recognizing the importance of diverse views. Just as someone who is writing about a culture that is possibly unfamiliar to the reader, the student describes what makes Marvel and DC unique and important to him and his friend, respectively. He also expands on how a lack of diversity in superhero consumption led to his feeling of ignorance, and how it now makes him appreciate the need for diversity in all aspects of his life.

This student is unapologetically himself in this essay, which is ultimately why this unorthodox topic is able to work. He committed to his passion for Marvel by sharing analytical takes on characters and demonstrating how the franchise was so important to his identity that it momentarily threatened a friendship. The inclusion of humor through his personal voice—e.g., referring to the argument as a professional debate and telling us that the friendship lived on—contributes to the essay feeling deeply personal.

Choosing an unconventional topic for a diversity essay requires extra care and attention to ensure that you are still addressing the core of the prompt. That being said, if you accomplish it successfully, it makes for an incredibly memorable essay that could easily set you apart!

While this is a great essay as is, the idea of diversity could have been addressed a little bit earlier in the piece to make it absolutely clear the student is writing about his diverse perspective. He positions Marvel and DC as two behemoths in the superhero movie industry, but in the event that his reader is unfamiliar with these two brands, there is little context about the cultural impact each has on its fans.

To this student, Marvel is more than just a movie franchise; it’s a crucial part of his identity, just as someone’s race or religion might be. In order for the reader to fully understand the weight of his perspective, there should be further elaboration—towards the beginning—on how important Marvel is to this student.

Leadership was thrust upon me at a young age. When I was six years old, my abusive father abandoned my family, leaving me to step up as the “man” of the house. From having to watch over my little sister to cooking dinner three nights a week, I never lived an ideal suburban life. I didn’t enjoy the luxuries of joining after-school activities, getting driven to school or friends’ houses, or taking weekend trips to the movies or bowling alley. Instead, I spent my childhood navigating legal hurdles, shouldering family responsibilities, and begrudgingly attending court-mandated therapy sessions.

At the same time, I tried to get decent grades and maintain my Colombian roots and Spanish fluency enough to at least partially communicate with my grandparents, both of whom speak little English. Although my childhood had its bright and joyful moments, much of it was weighty and would have been exhausting for any child to bear. In short, I grew up fast. However, the responsibilities I took on at home prepared me to be a leader and to work diligently, setting me up to use these skills later in life.

I didn’t have much time to explore my interests until high school, where I developed my knack for government and for serving others. Being cast in a lead role in my school’s fall production as a freshman was the first thing to give me the confidence I needed to pursue other activities: namely, student government. Shortly after being cast, I was elected Freshman Vice-President, a role that put me in charge of promoting events, delegating daily office tasks, collaborating with the administration on new school initiatives, and planning trips and fundraisers.

While my new position demanded a significant amount of responsibility, my childhood of helping my mom manage our household prepared me to be successful in the role. When I saw the happy faces of my classmates after a big event, I felt proud to know that I had made even a small difference to them. Seeing projects through to a successful outcome was thrilling. I enjoyed my time and responsibilities so much that I served all four years of high school, going on to become Executive Vice-President.

As I found success in high school, my mother and grandparents began speaking more about the life they faced prior to emigrating from Colombia. To better connect with them, I took a series of Spanish language classes to regain my fluency. After a practice run through my presentation on Bendíceme, Ultima ( Bless me, Ultima ) by Rudolofo Anaya, with my grandmother, she squeezed my hand and told me the story of how my family was forced from their home in order to live free of religious persecution. Though my grandparents have often expressed how much better their lives and their children’s lives have been in America, I have often struggled with my identity. I felt that much of it was erased with my loss of our native language.

In elementary school, I learned English best because in class I was surrounded by it. Spanish was more difficult to grasp without a formal education, and my family urged me to become fluent in English so I could be of better help to them in places as disparate as government agencies and grocery stores. When I was old enough to recognize the large part of my identity still rooted in being Colombian, it was challenging to connect these two sides of who I was.

Over time I have been able to reconcile the two in the context of my aspirations. I found purpose and fulfillment through student council, and I knew that I could help other families like my own if I worked in local government. By working through city offices that address housing, education, and support for survivors of childhood abuse, I could give others the same liberties and opportunities my family has enjoyed in this country. Doing so would also help me honor my roots as a first-generation American.

I have been a leader my entire life. Both at Harvard and after graduation, I want to continue that trend. I hope to volunteer with organizations that share my goals. I want to advise policy-making politicians on ways to make children and new immigrants safer and more secure. When my family was at their worst, my community gave back. I hope to give that gift to future generations. A career in local, city-based public service is not a rashly made decision; it is a reflection of where I’ve already been in life, and where I want to be in the future.

Although this essay begins on a somber note, it goes on to show this student’s determination and the joy he found. Importantly, it also ends with a positive, forward-looking perspective. This is a great example of how including your hardship can bolster an essay as long as it is not the essay’s main focus.

Explaining the challenges this student faced from a young age—becoming the man of the house, dealing with legal matters, maintaining good grades, etc.—builds sympathy for his situation. However, the first paragraph is even more impactful because he explains the emotional toll these actions had on him. We understand how he lost the innocence of his childhood and how he struggled to remain connected to his Colombian heritage with all his other responsibilities. Including these details truly allows the reader to see this student’s struggle, making us all the more joyful when he comes out stronger in the end.

Pivoting to discuss positive experiences with student government and Spanish classes for the rest of the essay demonstrates that this student has a positive approach to life and is willing to push through challenges. The tone of the essay shifts from heavy to uplifting. He explains the joy he got out of helping his classmates and connecting with his grandparents, once again providing emotional reflection to make the reader care more.

Overall, this essay does a nice job of demonstrating how this student approaches challenges and negative experiences. Admitting that the responsibilities of his childhood had a silver lining shows his maturity and how he will be able to succeed in government one day. The essay strikes a healthy balance between challenge and hope, leaving us with a positive view of a student with such emotional maturity.

Although the content of this essay is very strong, it struggles with redundancy and disorganized information. He mentions his passion for government at the beginning of the student government paragraph, then again addresses government in the paragraph focused on his Colombian heritage, and concludes by talking about how he wants to get into government once more. Similarly, in the first paragraph, he discusses the struggle of maintaining his Colombian identity and then fully delves into that topic in the third paragraph.

The repetition of ideas and lack of a streamlined organization of this student’s thoughts diminishes some of the emotional impact of the story. The reader is left trying to piece together a swirling mass of information on their own, rather than having a focused, sequential order to follow.

This could be fixed if the student rearranged details to make each paragraph focused on a singular idea. For example, the first paragraph could be about his childhood. The second could be about how student government sparked his interest in government and what he hopes to do one day. The third could be about how he reconnected with his Colombian roots through his Spanish classes, after years of struggling with his identity. And the final paragraph could tie everything together by explaining how everything led to him wanting to pursue a future serving others, particularly immigrants like his family.

Alternatively, the essay could follow a sequential order that would start with his childhood, then explain his struggle with his identity, then show how student government and Spanish classes helped him find himself, and finally, conclude with what he hopes to accomplish by pursuing government.

I never understood the power of community until I left home to join seven strangers in the Ecuadorian rainforest. Although we flew in from distant corners of the U.S., we shared a common purpose: immersing ourselves in our passion for protecting the natural world.

Back home in my predominantly conservative suburb, my neighbors had brushed off environmental concerns. My classmates debated the feasibility of Trump’s wall, not the deteriorating state of our planet. Contrastingly, these seven strangers delighted in bird-watching, brightened at the mention of medicinal tree sap, and understood why I once ran across a four-lane highway to retrieve discarded beer cans.

Their histories barely resembled mine, yet our values aligned intimately. We did not hesitate to joke about bullet ants, gush about the versatility of tree bark, or discuss the destructive consequences of materialism. Together, we let our inner tree-huggers run free.

In the short life of our little community, we did what we thought was impossible. By feeding on each other’s infectious tenacity, we cultivated an atmosphere that deepened our commitment to our values and empowered us to speak out on behalf of the environment. After a week of stimulating conversations and introspective revelations about engaging people from our hometowns in environmental advocacy, we developed a shared determination to devote our lives to this cause.

As we shared a goodbye hug, my new friend whispered, “The world needs saving. Someone’s gotta do it.” For the first time, I believed that that someone could be me.

This student is expressing their diversity through their involvement in a particular community—another nice approach if you don’t want to write about culture or ethnicity. We all have unique things that we geek out over. This student expresses the joy that they derived from finding a community where they could express their love for the environment. Passion is fundamental to university life and generally finds its way into any successful application.

The essay finds strength in the fact that readers feel for the student. We get a little bit of backstory about where they come from and how they felt silenced— “Back home in my predominantly conservative suburb, my neighbors had brushed off environmental concerns” —so it’s easy to feel joy for them when they get set free and finally find their community.

This student displays clear values: community, ecoconsciousness, dedication, and compassion. An admissions officer who reads a diversity essay is looking for students with strong values who will enrich the university community with their unique perspective—that sounds just like this student!

One area of weakness in this essay is the introduction. The opening line— “I never understood the power of community until I left home to join seven strangers in the Ecuadorian rainforest” —is a bit clichéd. Introductions should be captivating and build excitement and suspense for what is to come. Simply telling the reader about how your experience made you understand the power of community reveals the main takeaway of your essay without the reader needing to go any further.

Instead of starting this essay with a summary of what the essay is about, the student should have made their hook part of the story. Whether that looks like them being exasperated with comments their classmates made about politics, or them looking around apprehensively at the seven strangers in their program as they all boarded their flight, the student should start off in the action.

India holds a permanent place in my heart and ears. Whenever I returned on a trip or vacation, I would show my grandmother how to play Monopoly and she would let me tie her sari. I would teach my grandfather English idioms—which he would repeat to random people and fishmongers on the streets—and he would teach me Telugu phrases.

It was a curious exchange of worlds that I am reminded of every time I listen to Indian music. It was these tunes that helped me reconnect with my heritage and ground my meandering identity. Indian music, unlike the stereotype I’d long been imbued with, was not just a one-and-done Bollywood dance number! Each region and language was like an island with its own unique sonic identity. I’m grateful for my discovery of Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil tunes, for these discoveries have opened me up to the incredible smorgasbord of diversity, depth, and complexity within the subcontinent I was born in.

Here’s an entirely-different sonic identity for you: Texan slang. “Couldya pass the Mango seltzer, please, hon?” asked my Houstonian neighbor, Rae Ann—her syllables melding together like the sticky cake batter we were making.

Rae Ann and her twang were real curiosities to me. Once, she invited my family to a traditional Texan barbecue with the rest of our neighbors. As Hindus, we didn’t eat beef, so we showed up with chicken kebabs, instead. Rather than looking at us bizarrely, she gladly accepted the dish, lining it up beside grilled loins and hamburger patties.

Her gesture was a small but very well-accepted one and I quickly became convinced she was the human manifestation of “Southern hospitality”—something reflected in each of her viscous, honey-dripping phrases. “Watch out for the skeeters!” was an excellent example. It was always funny at first, but conveyed a simple message: We’ve got each other’s backs and together, we can overcome the blood-sucking mosquitoes of the Houstonian summer! I began to see how her words built bridges, not boundaries.

I believe that sounds—whether it’s music or accents—can make a difference in the ways we perceive and accept individuals from other backgrounds. But sound is about listening too. In Rice’s residential college, I would be the type of person to strike up a conversation with an international student and ask for one of their Airpods (you’d be surprised how many different genres and languages of music I’ve picked up in this way!).

As both an international student and Houstonian at heart, I hope to bridge the gap between Rice’s domestic and international populations. Whether it’s organizing cultural events or simply taking the time to get to know a student whose first language isn’t English, I look forward to listening to the stories that only a fellow wanderer can tell.

This essay does an excellent job of addressing two aspects of this student’s identity. Looking at diversity through sound is a very creative way to descriptively depict their Indian and Texan cultures. Essays are always more successful when they stimulate the senses, so framing the entire response around sound automatically opens the door for vivid imagery.

The quotes from this student’s quirky neighbor bring a sense of realism to the essay. We can feel ourselves at the barbecue and hear her thick Texan accent coming through. The way people communicate is a huge part of their culture and identity, so the way that this student perfectly captures the essence of their Texan identity with accented phrases is skillfully done.

This essay does such a great job of making the sounds of Texas jump off the page, so it is a bit disappointing that it wasn’t able to accomplish the same for India. The student describes the different Indian languages and music styles, but doesn’t bring them to life with quotes or onomatopoeia in the manner that they did for the sounds of Texas.

They could have described the buzz of the sitar or the lyrical pattern of the Telugu phrases their grandfather taught them. Telling us about the diversity of sounds in Indian music is fine, but if the reader can’t appreciate what those sounds resemble, it makes it harder to understand the Indian half of the author’s identity. Especially since this student emulated the sounds and essence of Texas so well, it’s important that India is given the same treatment so we can fully appreciate both sides of this essay.

More Supplemental Essay Tips

How to Write a Stellar “Why This College?” Essay + Examples

How to Write a Stellar Extracurricular Activity College Essay

Do you want feedback on your diversity essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

hispanic culture college essay

Pitchgrade

Presentations made painless

  • Get Premium

100 Hispanics Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Hispanics have made significant contributions to various fields and have diverse experiences and perspectives that can be explored in essays. Here are 100 essay topic ideas and examples that showcase the rich culture and heritage of Hispanics:

  • The impact of Hispanic immigrants on American society
  • The history and significance of Hispanic Heritage Month
  • The influence of Hispanic cuisine on American food culture
  • The role of Hispanic women in shaping history and culture
  • Exploring the concept of "machismo" in Hispanic culture
  • The importance of family in Hispanic culture
  • The history and evolution of Latin American music
  • The portrayal of Hispanics in mainstream media
  • The legacy of Hispanic civil rights leaders
  • The contributions of Hispanic scientists to society
  • Exploring the history of Hispanic literature
  • The significance of Catholicism in Hispanic culture
  • The impact of Latinx artists on the art world
  • The role of Hispanic activists in social justice movements
  • The history and traditions of Hispanic weddings
  • The influence of Hispanic fashion on global trends
  • The representation of Hispanics in literature and film
  • The history and significance of Dia de los Muertos
  • The impact of colonialism on Hispanic culture
  • The contributions of Hispanic athletes to sports
  • Exploring the concept of "spanglish" in Hispanic communities
  • The role of Hispanic immigrants in the workforce
  • The history and significance of Hispanic dance
  • The impact of Hispanic entrepreneurs on the economy
  • The influence of Hispanic folklore on modern storytelling
  • The representation of Hispanic LGBTQ+ individuals in media
  • The history and traditions of Hispanic holidays
  • The role of Hispanic labor activists in the fight for workers' rights
  • The impact of Hispanic literature on the literary world
  • The contributions of Hispanic musicians to the music industry
  • Exploring the concept of "Latinidad" in Hispanic identity
  • The history and significance of Hispanic art
  • The portrayal of Hispanic culture in children's literature
  • The role of Hispanic environmental activists in protecting the planet
  • The impact of Hispanic performers on theater and Broadway
  • Exploring the history of Hispanic education in the United States
  • The contributions of Hispanic journalists to media and news reporting
  • The representation of Hispanic superheroes in comics and movies
  • The role of Hispanic community organizers in advocating for social change
  • The impact of Hispanic filmmakers on the film industry
  • The history and significance of Hispanic migration patterns
  • The influence of Hispanic poets on the world of literature
  • The legacy of Hispanic political leaders
  • Exploring the concept of "borderlands" in Hispanic literature
  • The contributions of Hispanic entrepreneurs to the tech industry
  • The role of Hispanic healthcare workers in providing care to underserved communities
  • The history and traditions of Hispanic music festivals
  • The impact of Hispanic actors on Hollywood
  • The representation of Hispanic culture in video games
  • The role of Hispanic activists in the fight for immigrant rights
  • Exploring the history of Hispanic street art
  • The contributions of Hispanic chefs to the culinary world
  • The influence of Hispanic poets on the art of spoken word
  • The portrayal of Hispanic culture in television shows
  • The history and significance of Hispanic theater
  • The impact of Hispanic social media influencers
  • The role of Hispanic educators in shaping the minds of future generations
  • Exploring the concept of "Latinx feminism" in Hispanic communities
  • The contributions of Hispanic architects to the world of design
  • The history and traditions of Hispanic folk music
  • The influence of Hispanic comedians on the world of comedy
  • The representation of Hispanic culture in fashion magazines
  • The role of Hispanic non-profit organizations in supporting the community
  • The impact of Hispanic writers on the world of journalism
  • The history and significance of Hispanic visual artists
  • Exploring the concept of "Latino/a/x" identity in Hispanic communities
  • The contributions of Hispanic dancers to the world of dance
  • The role of Hispanic activists in advocating for LGBTQ+ rights
  • The history and traditions of Hispanic street festivals
  • The impact of Hispanic filmmakers on documentary filmmaking
  • The influence of Hispanic playwrights on the world of theater
  • The portrayal of Hispanic culture in music videos
  • The history and significance of Hispanic graffiti art
  • The contributions of Hispanic cartoonists to the world of comics
  • The role of Hispanic chefs in preserving traditional recipes
  • Exploring the concept of "Latinx masculinity" in Hispanic communities
  • The impact of Hispanic fashion designers on the fashion industry
  • The representation of Hispanic culture in art galleries
  • The history and traditions of

Want to create a presentation now?

Instantly Create A Deck

Let PitchGrade do this for me

Hassle Free

We will create your text and designs for you. Sit back and relax while we do the work.

Explore More Content

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

© 2023 Pitchgrade

85 Hispanics Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on hispanics, ✍️ hispanics essay topics for college, 👍 good hispanics research topics & essay examples, 🌶️ hot hispanics ideas to write about.

  • Hispanic Marketing in Online and Mobile Formats
  • The Hispanic Community in Homestead Florida
  • Interpersonal Space and Touch in Hispanic Culture
  • Health Promotion Among Hispanic-Latino Population
  • Transcultural Nursing and Hispanic Patient’s Outcomes
  • Hispanic Culture Immersion in United States
  • Obesity in Hispanic American Citizens
  • Impact of the 2008 Election on the Hispanic Population The 2008 presidential election can be considered a major historical event, as the percentage of the Hispanic population that voted for Obama was the highest ever.
  • Hispanic Population’s Health at Miami-Dade County Miami-Dade County ranks 23 out of 67 counties in the state of Florida. 67.3 percent of the population is Hispanic and encounters several chronic diseases.
  • Hispanic Cuban Americans’ Cultural Heritage and Traditions The Cuban American’s culture and traditions are a blend of Spanish customary practices, different homeland Cubania heritages, and the US lifestyle.
  • Health Disparities Among Hispanic Patients The cultural aspects of the Hispanic community contribute significantly to the health disparities experienced by Hispanics as an ethnic minority.
  • That Is What They Call Us: Hispanic, Latinos and Latinx The article “That is What They Call Us” covers the ongoing debate surrounding the labels and classifications given to Spanish-speaking immigrants in the US.
  • The Hispanic Cultural Group Healthcare The Hispanic cultural group is diverse and dynamic. The Hispanics have divergent views about the causes of diseases in the community.
  • Epidemiology of COVID-19 Among Hispanics in the US Discriminatory factors that lead to the extreme epidemiological situation among Hispanics in the United States reflect the general social, economic, and racial inequality.
  • Inventing Hispanics: Labeling a Diverse Minority It is widely believed that a Hispanic employee can have lunch for two hours, or their five-minute breaks will last for half an hour.
  • Alcohol Use Amongst Hispanic College Apprentices The results showed that less assimilated Hispanic percent of boys in the buffer zone could be at greater risk of alcohol addiction than Hispanic masculine apprentices.
  • The Hispanic Unemployment Issue in the US A Hispanic person in the US is more likely to be unemployed than an average American. People of color have historically been one of the most discriminated groups.
  • Depression in Hispanic Culture There are different ways in which culture or ethnicity can impact the treatment of the development of mental health disorders.
  • Latinos and Hispanics: History of Migration to North America Throughout history, and even in modem times, Hispanic and Latino immigrants have often relocated to North America to seek better opportunities.
  • Epidemic of Type 2 Diabetes Among Hispanic Males Diabetes is a disease with a very high prevalence of 19% among Hispanic males. It is more common among Hispanics than all other races.
  • Health Status of Hispanic Americans The US is populated by numerous ethnic groups, including non-Hispanic whites, Alaskan Natives, Asian and African Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Hispanics.
  • The Discrepancies in Unhealthy Food Advertising: Hispanic and Black Consumers This research aims to outline the discrepancies in unhealthy food advertising directed toward Hispanic and Black consumers.
  • Obesity in Adolescence in the Hispanic Community The health risks linked to Hispanic community adolescent obesity range from diabetes, heart problems, sleep disorders, asthma, and joint pain.
  • People of Cuban Heritage: Hispanic Americans v. Cuban Americans The highest proportion of Hispanic Americans is in New Mexico, California, and Texas. The largest proportion of Cuban Americans is in Florida, New Jersey, California.
  • Mental Health in Adolescents Ages 15-18 of Hispanic Culture Latino youngsters face many challenges, such as the risk of behavioral issues like drug use, unplanned pregnancy, and low education levels.
  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder in a Hispanic Male Nicolάs, 27 years old, is a Hispanic male who reports three years of anxiety attacks. Thus, the complete diagnosis is Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
  • The Problem of Hispanic Interracial Crimes Hispanic on Hispanic crime is more prevalent than Hispanic on non-Hispanic crime. In summary, most offenders commit crimes against people of a similar race or ethnicity to them.
  • Hispanic Obesity in the Context of Cultural Empowerment This paper identifies negative factors directly causing obesity within the Hispanic people while distinguishing positive effects upon which potential interventions should be based.
  • Researching the Hispanic Community in El Paso, Texas The Hispanic community is an ethnic group residing in El Paso, Texas, on the border with Mexico. The community is dominant in the city as of the approximately 680,000 population
  • Hispanic or Latino Populations of the USA: Health Status and Promotion and Disease Prevention The socioeconomic factors play a particularly important role as a barrier to the health promotion of the group.
  • The Prevalence and Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Diseases Among Hispanics This paper focuses on one of the minority ethnic groups namely Hispanics/Latinos. It discusses the frequency of CVD risk factors that affect the community.
  • Prevention and Treatment of Pressure Ulcers in Hispanic Elderly People This paper shows that pressure ulcers will continue to increase in severity and costs if the current situation persists and becomes worse than the current situation.
  • Roberto Clemente as a Hispanic Hero Roberto Clemente was also a humanitarian and a powerful source of inspiration, overcoming the discrimination that was prevalent at the time and helping others.
  • Cultural Assessment in Healthcare Setting: Hispanic Americans The research claims that certain health care issues affect Hispanic clients more than non-Hispanics due to their unique social, economic, and environmental factors.
  • Analysis of Hispanic American Literature Over the years, Hispanic American literature has developed a rich and complex diversity of themes, forms, creative idioms, and styles that call for analysis.
  • Increasing Diabetes Infections Among the Hispanic Populations The article’s objective is centered around establishing whether chronic stress makes US Hispanics more susceptible to diabetes.
  • Challenges Faced by Hispanic Immigrant Population The purpose of this article is to briefly describe the problems faced by Hispanic immigrants and suggest ways in which you can help them.
  • Food and Family in the Hispanic Culture The notion of family is crucial to the Hispanic culture due to its encouraging idea of interdependence and belonging. The food became an integral part of family gatherings.
  • Hispanic Community: Alcohol & Substance Abuse Among the Female Gender Population This study will focus on alcohol and substance abuse among the female gender population proportion (12-20 years and 25-45 years) in the Hispanic community in California.
  • Hispanic Americans Cultural Care: Background and Beliefs Culturally respectful treatment can make healthcare for Hispanic people less stressful and more common, lowering the risk of chronic illness and improving the community’s health.
  • Portrayal of a Hispanic Social Group in the Media As of late, Hispanics have been portrayed in the media as leeches on the American public system wherein they take but do not give.
  • Children’s Obesity in the Hispanic Population The purpose of this manuscript is to examine nurses’ knowledge concerning the major risk factors of obesity in school-age Hispanic population.
  • Hispanics as Vulnerable Population Children, women, the elderly, the poor and immigrants are main social groups considered to be vulnerable population.
  • The History of Florida and Hispanics in It This paper looks at the history of Florida and Hispanics in it, and their social diversity; looks at Hispanic contribution in the political arena, social life and economic sector.
  • Pregnant Hispanic Girls Despite Available Birth Control Girls who are sexually active are at risk of getting unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
  • Ethnicity Studies: Hispanic American Diversity The Hispanics do not have differences across their cultures except for the fact they came from different locations.
  • Hispanics in the United States It is clear that all Hispanics are not natives of the US; they have Spanish as their primary language which actually form the basis of their name.
  • Hispanic American Diversity: A Comparison of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Chileans This work analyzes the main similarities and differences in social, political, and cultural conventions of Hispanic ethnic groups live in the U.S.
  • Social Diversity: Hispanics in America The essay describes occurrences of several common elements in culture, that serve in uniting the Hispanics from varied backgrounds.
  • Intervention and Health Promotion Plan for Hispanic and Latino Community Such primary health problems of young Hispanics as STDs, HIV, heart diseases, and cancer are imposed by excessive alcohol consumption as a moderator of acculturative stress.
  • Hispanic and Mexican Heritage and Health Beliefs This paper demonstrates a compare and contrast analysis of common characteristics and distinguishing traits between Hispanic American, Latino American, and Mexican heritage.
  • The Hispanic Community of Miami The Hispanic community of Miami is the most dominant in the city due to large-scale migrations that occurred during the 1920s.
  • Hispanic and Latino Population Presentation The aim of this research paper is to present the main characteristics of such cultural groups as Hispanics and Latinos.
  • Hispanic, Latino Americans and Mexican Heritage Culture Hispanics/Latinos are the largest minority cultural group, while Mexicans form the largest socio-cultural group among the Hispanic/Latino constituency.
  • Hispanic Ethnocultural Population: Immersion Project This project explores the “Hispanics” group that consists of the US citizens affiliated with the Hispanic ethnocultural background, who share some of the same behavioral traits.
  • Hispanic Society’s and Bryant Park Websites Both the Hispanic Society and the Bryant Park sites comply with the existing standards for websites in terms of information provision.
  • Hispanic Communities Effects on Policing Plans This paper is a literature review that seeks to examine whether or not the characteristics of the Hispanic communities affect the community-oriented policing plans.
  • Health Disparity of Hispanics Hispanics are an ethnic group that is disproportionately affected by obesity. The health disparity requires the immediate attention of the members of the health community.
  • French, Chinese and Hispanic Cultural Customs The paper discusses a French custom of getting together to have dinner, Chinese weddings, and Hispanic Quinceañeras – celebrating girl’s passage from childhood to womanhood.
  • Culturally Congruent Care and Hispanic Health The paper overviews health promotion beliefs, health needs and concerns, and evidence-based health promotion strategies specific to Hispanic people.
  • IPhone Addiction and Health of Hispanic Adolescents iPhone addiction among Hispanic adolescents is becoming a major health problem in the United States. The use of phones while driving is one of the leading causes of accidents.
  • Hypertension Literacy Among Hispanic Patients One is considered to have hypertension if the force exerted by blood against the wall of blood vessels is greater than normal.
  • Educational Programs for Hispanic Patients with Diabetes The main goals of this paper are to provide an evaluation plan and discuss the implications for the practice and future research. The research will be carried out in medical settings.
  • Colon Cancer Among Male Hispanic Population The problem of colon cancer among the male Hispanic population in the United States is a major cause of concern.
  • Hispanic Patient’s Health and Heritage Assessment The Heritage Assessment tool is helpful in evaluating and analyzing the health problems of a particular cultural group.
  • The HIV Risk for Older Hispanic Women The authors of the article Unique Factors that Place Older Hispanic Women at Risk for HIV: Intimate Partner Violence, Machismo, and Marianismo clearly state the primary purpose of the research.
  • Diabetes Among Hispanics in Miami: Risk Factors Diabetes is one of the most severe health-related threats in the world, as well as the USA. Hispanics develop diabetes due to their eating habits and sedentary life.
  • Health Promotion Among Hispanic Population Hispanic Americans are still an underprivileged group that has limited access to healthcare services. The major health issues are related to healthy lifestyle.
  • The Hispanic Population’s Health in the USA The target population is exposed to a series of risks. Statistics reveal that Hispanic Americans show a 50% higher diabetes-caused death rate than the whites.
  • Hispanics and African Americans in Miami Community Miami is one of the diverse communities in Florida. This is the case because it is characterized by different ethnic groups such as African Americans, Latinos.
  • Adolescent Pregnancy in Hispanics and Afro-Americans This statement defines and explores the problem of adolescent pregnancy in Hispanic and black females and provides a position statement on the issue.
  • Hispanic, Asian-Pacific, Jewish Populations’ Health This paper describes the unique cultural perspective toward health and well-being and the health needs of Hispanic populations, Asian-Pacific Islanders, and Jewish people.
  • Old Hispanic Women and HIV Risk Factors The current study provides a significant contribution to the existing level of knowledge that involves old Hispanic women (OHW) and the already defined HIV risk factors.
  • Diabetic Retinopathy Among Hispanics in Miami The purpose of the current paper is to evaluate the health risk related to the timely diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy that is faced by Hispanics/Latinos in Miami.
  • Hispanic Communities’ Healthcare and Spirituality The demography of Hispanic communities in the United States demonstrates low economic standards as opposed to other communities.
  • Health Issues Affecting African Americans and Hispanics Healthcare practitioners should provide adequate care to different members of the community. This exercise examines the health issues affecting African Americans and Hispanics.
  • Hispanic Elderly Patients and Their Caregivers In elderly patients with chronic diseases does patient education intervention compared with only medication treatments improve their health statuses?
  • Obesity Trends Among Non-Hispanic Whites and Blacks The primary objective of the reported study was to investigate the connection between education achievements and obesity.
  • Culturally Competent Care and Hispanic Patients This paper seeks to collect information that might be relevant to nurses when they are caring for Hispanic families and patients in clinical settings.
  • Health Promotion Among Hispanic Minority Group The following paper addresses the issue of health disparities of the Hispanic minority group through health promotion.
  • Hispanic Population With Heart Failure The research problem was based on the realization that the effectiveness of heart failure management programs had not been tested when in Hispanic participants.
  • Hispanic as a Vulnerable Population in the US The paper reviews Hispanic population as a vulnerable population in the US using Vulnerable Population Conceptual Model, and healthcare models in the US.
  • Hispanic American Cultural Group: Demographic and Behavior The Hispanic American cultural group is comprised of individuals of different ancestry. The group includes the Mexican, Colombian, Rican, Neomexican, Guatemalan, Cuban, and Dominican.
  • Hispanic Population in the USA The Hispanic population is the largest national-linguistic minority on the territory of the USA, which has a long and complicated history. The Hispanics are the representatives of two unequal groups.
  • Hispanics Health and Cultural Practices Hispanic Americans originated in Spain and other countries in Latin America. Hispanic Americans are made up of a wide range of other ethnicities.

Cite this post

  • Chicago (N-B)
  • Chicago (A-D)

StudyCorgi. (2022, July 14). 85 Hispanics Essay Topics. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/hispanics-essay-topics/

"85 Hispanics Essay Topics." StudyCorgi , 14 July 2022, studycorgi.com/ideas/hispanics-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . (2022) '85 Hispanics Essay Topics'. 14 July.

1. StudyCorgi . "85 Hispanics Essay Topics." July 14, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/hispanics-essay-topics/.

Bibliography

StudyCorgi . "85 Hispanics Essay Topics." July 14, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/hispanics-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . 2022. "85 Hispanics Essay Topics." July 14, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/hispanics-essay-topics/.

These essay examples and topics on Hispanics were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on June 23, 2024 .

Home / Essay Samples / Culture / World Cultures / Hispanic Culture

Essays on Hispanic Culture

Mental health in hispanic culture.

Mental health is an essential aspect of overall well-being, and its perception and treatment vary across different cultures. In Hispanic culture, attitudes towards mental health are influenced by a combination of traditional beliefs, family dynamics, and cultural norms. This essay explores the unique characteristics of...

Gender Roles in Hispanic Culture

Gender roles play a significant role in shaping the social dynamics and expectations within Hispanic culture. Like many other cultures, Hispanic communities have traditional gender norms and values that influence the roles and responsibilities of men and women. This essay examines the complexities of gender...

Growing Up in a Hispanic Household

Growing up in a Hispanic household is a unique and enriching experience that is shaped by the rich cultural traditions and values of Hispanic communities. This essay delves into two key aspects of growing up in a Hispanic household - Family, and Cultural Celebrations. Family...

Trying to find an excellent essay sample but no results?

Don’t waste your time and get a professional writer to help!

You may also like

  • Multiculturalism
  • Thanksgiving
  • Holi Festival
  • Winter Break
  • Western Civilization
  • Asian American Culture
  • Chinese Culture Essays
  • Indian Culture Essays
  • American Culture Essays
  • Japanese Culture Essays
  • African American Culture Essays
  • Cultural Anthropology Essays
  • Korean Culture Essays
  • Punjabi Culture Essays
  • Singaporean Culture Essays
  • Vietnamese Essays

samplius.com uses cookies to offer you the best service possible.By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .--> -->