I chose to interview my 40-year-old neighbor, M.A., a Latin American female who has lived in the US for about 20 years. M.A. is now married and a stay-at-home mother to her 2 children. Her daughter is 10 years old and her son is 7 years old. I explained to M.A. that I was going to be interviewing her about her culture and circumcision. When asked about her personal beliefs, she shared that circumcision is not common amongst Latinos. She did claim that she is now more familiar with the custom of circumcising after living in America for 20 years. When asked if M.A. and her husband decided to circumcise their son, she claimed that they decided not to circumcise their son. She explained how at the time of the decision, she wasnt able to support the procedure because she didnt know of a single good reason why she should have had her child circumcised. She said she would never be able to make such a big decision when knowing so little about
such a life-changing topic. When asked if there were any health benefits with circumcision, she claimed that there were no health benefits that she knew of or believed in. When asked about her husbands input on the decision, she claims that he was the first to decide he wanted their son to be circumcised. She believes that her husband would have felt uncomfortable if their son would have been different than him since her husband is not circumcised. When asked about the hardest part of her decision to circumcise her son, she explained that the hardest part was knowing she was making a lifelong decision for her son that he wasnt able to decide for himself at the time. She believes her son is still too young to fully understand the idea that he is not circumcised when many of his classmates are circumcised. She is concerned that in the future, her son will be embarrassed or ashamed of himself because she chose not to have him circumcised.