Personal Cultural Genogram

There is no doubt that my family history and ethnic culture have had an impact on the shape of my life. The big picture of that history is that of a definite pattern of change and increased acculturation to the mainstream social and cultural norms of white America. However, even within that pattern of change, the family bonds have been strong enough to transmit down the generations a definite sense of price and of distinctive identity anchored in the world-historical culture of Greece.

The Panos family history in the United States is quite short, when considered in the scheme of the history of the United States as a whole. However, the history of the extended family in Greece in previous generations explains much about how that history was structured and may even have the effect of forecasting possible lines of development in the future. Reference has been made to the family's distinctively Greek identity; however, that identity was Americanized soon after my parents immigrated to the US, from Panayiotakopoulos to Panos.

The Panos family is highly traditional in structure in this age of the so-called nontraditional family. As the firstborn of all

. . .
ue in the family. Their socially conservative values would get the most enormous shock. In some ways the second generation of Panoses is a little naïve about the way popular culture functions. Relatives on my father's side of the family, who immigrated to the US in the years following my grandfather's arrival in America, have, on the whole, been more educated than those on my mother's side. On the paternal line, some relatives have attended college, mainly those in my generation. No relatives on the maternal side have gone further than high school, in Greece. That means that they have remained very much in the working class. However, my father's brothers have experienced profitable job mobility, since Uncle John was a city supervisor, Uncle Tom a contractor, and Uncle Andreas a fire captain. Both my father and Uncle Bill are retired; they were administrators in the Southern California public-school system. On the other hand, it can be seen from the genogram that one of my uncles, Andreas, is younger than I am and has three children. I have never been married and have no children. In that connection, it should be obvious from the evidence of the traditional family values that the Panoses have that I would not wish to have childre
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Southern California, Aunt Demetra, War II, Greeks Nevertheless, Grandfather Pete, Panos Panos, Germans Germans, Family America, Mount Olympus, Greece Panos, panos family, third generation, uncle andreas, grandfather pete, southern california, sexual orientation, world war ii, war ii, world war, branch family visited, pattern change, school greece, stathis hitchhiked athens,
Approximate Word count = 2244
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Personal Cultural Genogram