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Me [29F] with my husband [30M] struggling with cultural differences in my extended family especially (by Sparky)

 Sparky (0)  (29 / M-F / Massachusetts)
6-Feb-18 2:30 am
Me [29F] with my husband [30M] struggling with cultural differences in my extended family especially regarding our baby [9months]. How to peacefully resolve?

I am a Latina woman, married to a white man. I hope this is the right place for this.
Technically, I am half-Latina. While my father is American, I have a proud Venezuelan mother. She grew up in the slums (for lack of a better English word) of Caracas and brought herself, and many of our extended family members over the years, to the United States - teaching herself English, getting her Master's degree, and starting a whole new life from literally nothing. I admire her and her struggle, as well as those of my family, more than I admire anything in this world.
I ended up with a relatively privileged childhood and college experience. I got a full ride at a small elite undergraduate program and ended up in one of the top 3 MBA programs in the country/the world. This has caused some minor tension with my family, who sometimes thinks my pedigree makes me act like I'm "better than them." Generally it's been resolved, but they are a prideful group and this lurks under the surface.
Along the way, I met my brilliant husband. He is kind, passionate, and has been my partner in every way imaginable. He is also extremely progressive socially, which is something I greatly admire and agree with him on.
The issue is that my mom's side of the family is definitely not progressive in the way you picture it. They are warm, fiercely loving, and would give you the shirt off their back without a second thought. They are fun as hell and in many ways more accepting of differences than the majority of white people that I know.
But they are... Venezuelan, and socioeconomically poor Venezuelan at that (no sifrinos here - this is the worst thing someone in my family could call you). They make crude jokes. They strongly believe in gender roles. They aren't particularly LGBTQ friendly. They are big proponents of superstitions, old wives tales, and they will come close to physically fighting you if you're dismissive about the validity of astrology (for instance). They are fierce defenders of a domestic matriarchal hierarchy. Etc., etc., etc.
In the beginning, my husband sort of took the bad with the good in stride and kept his opinions to himself, even when he disagreed with the topic or manner at hand.
But now we have a child, and he's becoming more and more wary of my family's beliefs and practices. He doesn't want her around people who will make her feel like her female sex makes her more delicate. He hates when my cousins call her "princess" when she's sweet or "diva" when she cries (again, I'm translating, but essentially). He barked angrily at my grandmother about bodily autonomy when she suggested that we pierce her ears. He sneered when an auntie offered to do our daughter's astrology chart.
And he has been butting heads with my mom nonstop, hating that my mom feels like she has any position of authority simply because she is abuela. He feels disrespected as a father and my mom feels disrespected as a grandmother (she gave her mother and MIL lots more leeway than my husband is willing to give her - I assume she feels cheated out of the traditional experience and it's causing some serious strife.).
It kind of came to a head this weekend when a cousin of mine made a crass joke that was pretty homophobic in nature. I am not defending the joke in any way, but it is one that is extremely common and also relatively mild compared to some of what you can hear. I think they thought it wasn't one that would upset my husband, and it was actually at effort at trying to censor himself, even though the overall content was still unacceptable. My husband slammed his hand on the table, told my cousin in no uncertain terms that he can never speak that way around his daughter, and put my daughter in her stroller and left. I went with him because I believe in the united front. But I am dealing with considerable fall-out from my family, who feel alienated and shunned for things that are very commonplace in their culture and like my husband suddenly hates them. They also are bringing back up the whole, "educated white people who think they're better than us" narrative again in subtle ways.
To be very clear, I do not disagree with my husband on these matters. I do believe there are ways to incorporate my mom's culture in my daughter's upbringing without supporting the negative aspects. A lot of the bigotry, machismo, and sexism can and should be phased out with new generations, and I recognize that this kind of macro shift has to start at the micro level.
But at the same time, I love my family. They are imperfect, but I don't think my husband quite grasps how much of this is truly cultural, rather than them just being hateful people and bad influences on our daughter.
I am also scared that eventually my daughter will see Latin culture as less-than - that my husband's response will make her hyper focused on the negative, rather than an imperfect part of a rich cultural background that means a lot to me and I hope will someday mean a lot to her. She is only 25% Latina, so it will already be a struggle to get her to connect to this part of her heritage. My family is rougher around the edges than my husband's family; they are liberal, wealthy, and mild-mannered. My family is loud and often crass and they fight like the stereotypes, to be honest. I'm realistic about the fact that it will already be "foreign" to my daughter and I admit I feel protective about ensuring that she has affection for Latin culture, even if it's not as comfortable compared to what she will always be surrounded by. There are obviously issues in white culture as well, but because white culture is considered the default, I worry she won't see those issues as inherent in the same way that it can be applied to Latin culture.
My husband says he doesn't disagree with me, but presses me for practical solutions for how to handle my family when they do things that go against our shared values. And I'm embarrassed to admit that I come up short.
So I wonder if anyone on Dating.mobi has any suggestions? Have you been through this on either side? Or just have wisdom to share? Anything would be appreciated. I worry I'm too close to the situation to see the bigger picture and objective pathways forward, and would appreciate the thoughts of others.

tl;dr: My family is an imperfect, very culturally Latin family from a rough socioeconomic background. They say and do things that go against my husband and my shared progressive values, but I feel like my husband is being too adversarial in dealing with it especially in regard to our daughter. I worry about how to balance the good and the bad with my mom's culture for her, so that she loves and respects it even if she can acknowledge that there are some deep-seated issues. Any advice on how to navigate this without my husband and extended family becoming completely opposed to each other would be appreciated.


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