Modern (?) (Latin) Family

I never stop wondering, how different Latin families are from what we see in Europe. First of all, they have enormously higher fertility. You can tell when walking around Cartagena, there are kids everywhere, screaming, shouting and running around you. Especially at the Plaza de la Trinidad, which is a very nice place to spend a wonderful evening with your friends with a couple of beers, but be aware, the kids will make a lot of noise! There are also many pregnant women everywhere and many stores with clothes for them.

When you meet a Latin person, one of the first questions she/he may ask you will be “How many brothers or sisters do you have?”. For any person from Europe it might seem very strange – I have friends in Poland whom I’ve known for a while and I have absolutely no idea if they have siblings. You don’t really talk a lot about your family in Europe, do you? And then, in Europe, if you ask the question, the right one would be “Do you have ANY siblings?”. Almost everybody I know is one of two or they are the only child in their families. It’s very rare to have more than one brother or sister, numerous families were common before the World War II, but people from my parents’ generation are mostly one of two. Nowadays even a family with three children in Europe would be considered as a numerous one.

In Latin America there are many people who have like 4-5 siblings and it’s totally normal. Most families have 3-4 children, though. Actually, people have more brothers and sisters, but not necessarily from the same parents. Latin society is still dominated by the macho-man image, it’s normal for Latin men to have some kids with their wives and some kids with other women. Your wife will always forgive you your sins, she has to accept your extramarital offspring, a holy matrimony is a holy matrimony, and kids with other women are just kids, that’s it!

Well, nowadays most of the macho-man get separated, women can’t stand it anymore. But I love all the stories like “My grandfather had 21 children, but only 5 of them with my grandma. The other one had 18, only 3 with the other grandma”. And the grandmas wouldn’t EVER leave their husbands! Sounds like a joke, but it’s a true testimony, I’m not kidding at all!

As you can guess, patchwork families are very common in Colombia. This figure is very different here than in my country. Many of my friends have stepfathers or stepmothers.  In Poland, if you have a stepparent, he might be your friend or enemy, but he or she does not have any right to tell you what to do as far as he or she does not have a legal custody over you. Here it’s different: your stepfather usually gives you the money to live and you must obey him. You want to get a piercing and he does not like this idea? He just tells you to leave his home and your mother is usually taking his side because she depends financially on him…..