Crossing Cultures and Chicken Fights

Yesterday, I met with one of the participants to catch up with her since I had not seen her for a number of months and to tell her a little bit more about the project in person. As we were catching up, she told me a story about how her stepfather had brought back a bunch of chickens and roosters from Puerto Rico a while back. She talked about how much she had loved the chickens and how cute they were. She said that at one point they had over 50 chickens and roosters in her backyard before a neighbor called animal control on them. She was really sad not to have them anymore. When I asked what all the chickens and roosters were for and why animal control was called, she said that they were for fighting. At first, I was really appalled and thought that animal control had the right idea, though I tried to hide it on my face so she wouldn't feel uncomfortable. It has always seemed very cruel and wrong to me to take animals, coop them up together, and then teach or encourage them to fight to the death. It reminds me too much of the Roman colosseum. My face must have given me away more than I meant for it to, however, because she defended it casually and said it had a lot to do with "Puerto Rican pride." She was very enthusiastic about caring for and raising the chickens as well as watching them fight to the death. It is a part of her culture and she is not ashamed.

Right now, I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it. I guess I'm still pretty appalled and strongly reminded of the colosseum, but I also feel a little more open-minded because of knowing her and because of her feelings toward chicken fighting and its link to "Puerto Rican pride." Not that I'm going to take up the hobby of chicken fighting, but the conversation made me think more about being able to interact and live cross-culturally. I was raised a certain way with certain values and so was she. That doesn't necessarily make either one of us right or wrong, just different. There are things about the culture in which I was raised that I believe are wrong and there are probably things that I will believe are wrong later after I have had more experiences. So much of right and wrong has more to do with how we are socialized and what we personally believe based on our experiences than what is actually "right" and "wrong." There is so much more gray in the world than any of us are comfortable with. We like to know where we stand and so we are much more comfortable in the black and white, even if it means damaging our relationships, reacting without love, and arrogantly telling others they are wrong. I would rather be uncomfortable and humbled than comfortable, fearful, and prideful. No culture has it all right and every culture has value and deserves, if nothing else, an open mind.