Failing to acknowledge it leads to total failure brah. You have to "become" it to understand it, I do it all the time and it's fun to some extent... Personally I don't identify myself with the latin girl, the stereotype I mean and believe me I tried, it's just not my way of life. Dig in into her world and also it's imperative that you let her dig into yours too and maybe you are meant to be or not.
About the weaponry I'm an avid collector and autodidact, it's what one of my few passions, never used them on people lol. See the filipino sticks there? lol