Krisalys Cruz

Oral History of Cristian Ortiz

Cristian Ortiz is a 33 year old mother. She has three kids: A 16 year boy, a 15 year old girl, and a 11 year old boy. She is Puerto Rican- born over there and spent half of her life over here in New York. We took time off in the night to do this interview about peer pressure.

As a kid I had a lot of friends. When growing up I got to admite I did go under peer pressure. To me peer pressure just means that people are followers. I always told my kids not be like others all the time I don't like that. When I was young my friends always wanted to cut school and since I wanted to be cool like them I fail all my classes and didn't finish school. Thats what happens when you go under peer pressure. The friends I like are people who's honest , always there for me , and when I'm doing something wrong they will let me know. To me I think peer pressure is always negative. People fall into peer pressure when their friends tell someone to do something and if they don't do it, they are not cool. Peer pressure influences the way I dress because I want to be down and cool. Peer pressure influences people sometimes to do sex, drugs, to drink, etc. I am the way I am today because the people i really grew up with didn't put me under pressure. To me, peer pressure has not affected me because i didn't follow it. The way people dress and the things they use some things that under peer pressure that people don't notice. People are influences by other people because maybe they just want to be better than them