Hunger Of Unlike Espada, By Richard Rodriguez

Every four years my family gathers together downstairs in our living room and turns on the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Hearing all the different languages. Seeing all the different flags. All of the world coming together in harmony. Different cultures celebrated. The love and pride for my country, culture, and identity courses through my veins every time I watch the Olympics. I love watching all the different countries come out with their flags and display their customs and heritage with such pride. Martin Espada, a mexican-american lawyer and author of The New Bathroom Policy At English High School, agrees with me. He believes that the Spanish’plkculture, identity, and pride should be protected. Richard Rodriguez, author of Hunger of

One component he elucidates in his essay is that speaking SPanish will earn you a sense of belonging. He begins this excerpt from his book by telling his story of being forced to speak English in school when he only knew spanish. At first as a child he didn't realize that he needed to learn english. He learned that it was a good thing to be forced to speak it because in the edn, it would help him in his career, education, and in this case, his public belonging. When he gathered the courage, one day Rodrigues raised his hand to answer a question. He says, “I spoke in a loud voice. And I did not think is remarkable when the entire class understood. That day, I moved very far from the disadvantaged child I had been only days earlier. The believer, the calming assurance that I belonged to the public, had at last taken hold.” (95-100) Rodriguez’s confidence grew the more he spoke the language. Only speaking SPanish made him a “disadvantaged child.” He expanded from that to become one of the public. He then goes on to say that his conversations accelerated, sounds formed sentences, and hello what’s your name, turned into new friends. Rodriguez uses the term “disadvantaged child” once more in the essay. This time he uses it to claim that Spanish is a private language and English is a public one and that people have an obligation to speak the English in AMerica. Rodriguez uses the public vs private analogy multiple times in his essay. Spanish being the private language meaning that fewer people speak and know it, and that because it is private, people who speak it are at a disadvantage. He says, “What I needed to learn in school was that I had the right- and the obligation- to speak the public language of los gringos.”(6-8) In the first grade, Rodruguez had to alter his personal life and individuality because English had to no