Aria A Memoir Of A Bilingual Childhood Analysis

Richard Rodriguez, author of “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” grew up speaking Spanish at home for the beginning of his life, and having the great connection with family that most hope for during their lifetime. This all suddenly changed when he entered school. Starting at a young age, Richard was surrounded by all English-speaking people that he could not communicate well with. The only instances where English would be would have been during public outings, and interaction with others. At home, his parents also struggled to speak English making the situation even harder on Richard. Fortunately, Richard had encouraging teachers jumpstarted his English learning curriculum so he would be better equip to interact within his community. As he started becoming more and more fluent in English, his native Spanish language started to drift. Richard began to realize that the connection at home slowly dwindled away as he was increasing his English speaking at school. Richard began to sense a lack of safety in his own home. His involvement in public conversation; using his newly learned language, effected his life so much to the point where he had to choose between

The benefit of sharing his deep, and very personal experiences is that in the story we get a better sense of who the writer actually is as a person. Through this we have a deeper connection with what he is attempting to portray through his story. Richard Rodriguez tells us that, “Each time I’d hear myself addressed in Spanish, I couldn 't respond with any success. I’d know the word I want to say but could say them.” (Rodriguez 458) Richard tells us that as his native language began to shift from Spanish to English he would not be able to communicate with his community of family, and friend’s due to his loss of his native Spanish