How often do you make parts of your own culture relevant to your stories? Are most of your stories set in your part of the world starring a character from your people group?
I wouldn't say that most of my stories do, but out of my two released stories, they both have quite a lot of connection to parts of my culture.
"Rain Dance" my first published short story which I wrote when I was 17, is set in the El Capacito, a mountain town in the Dominican Republic where I lived when I was 12 or 13 years old. The entire story revolves around the life I lived and the lives I witnessed in my time there. Especially the scene where their house is flooded with mud, which happened to me and my family during one rainy season. My experience of hurricanes, of witnessing relatives who were unable to read, and watching crops get destroyed were all woven into this narrative, and it was honestly surprising to me that anyone wanted to read it, since most other pieces I've written that revolve around my experience with island life have not had very good reception.
"Damsel in the Red Dress" is a lot less about Hispanic culture, but is set in Maryland where I also spent part of my childhood. Notes about the weird Maryland whether are incorporated into the story, but there is also quite a bit of reference to the way my grandmother celebrated Christmas, burning incense, Spanish Christmas songs xyz. And lines of dialog in Spanish because the MCs ARE Hispanic, though the story doesn't mostly revolve around that, it IS relevant to the plot, especially Kattar's childhood, because he's biracial, but has only experienced one half of his ancestry for basically his whole life.
With "Lion Proof": the story revolves around African American hair struggles, which is obviously entirely based on my experience growing up with natural hair.