Review Of Ari A Memoir Of A Bilingual Childhood By Richard Rodriguez

Most individuals are apprehensive about changes, but there may be no reason. Changes can bring benefits to those who experience them. In the essay “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” Richard Rodriguez explores his life as a bilingual child. He discusses the many changes he experiences as he goes from being fluent in Spanish to being fluent in English. Rodriguez dissuades the reader against bilingual education which is the education of nonnative English speakers in their native language. Rodriguez begins his life as Spanish speaker at home and an English speaker in public. A profound change occurs in his life after the nuns from his school visit his parents. They insist that English be spoken at home. He writes, “The moment after the

He believes that in order to fully thrive in American society a person must have both types of identities. Those for bilingual education advocate more towards private identity, but public identity is just as important. Rodriguez makes his point clear when he says, “They[those for bilingual education] do not seem to realize that a person is individualized in two ways. So they do not realize that, while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by being assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality” (457). A loss leads to a gain, and in this case the gain is more significant than the loss. Essentially, the gain of public individuality will result in fitting in. Rodriguez states, “In public, by contrast, full individuality is achieved, paradoxically, by those who are able to consider themselves members of the crowd” (457). In order to thrive and be considered ‘normal’ in today’s society a person must have developed a strong public individuality. Bilingual education can deter the development of a public identity in child whose native language is not

After he had become fluent in English, Rodriguez began to see that communication is more than just language. Following the struggle of trying to translate his grandmother’s words Rodriguez begins to understand how intimacy and communication are related. . He writes, “The problem was, however, that though I knew how to translate exactly what she had told me, I realized that any translation would distort the deepest meaning of her message: It had been directed only to me. This message of intimacy could never be translated because it was not in the words she had used but passed through them. So any translation would have seemed wrong; her words would have been stripped of an essential mean¬ing” (460). He realized that a person’s words are not dependent on what language they are being said in. They are dependent on their meaning. People are brought together by the ideas themselves, not the language the ideas are being said in. Rodriguez notes how intimacy cannot be confined by language as his grandmother spoke to him one last time before her death. He expresses, “I can tell you some of the things she said to me as I stood by her bed, but I cannot quote the message of intimacy conveyed with her voice” (465). It is not possible to replicate another person’s intimacy. It is not traded through language, but, instead with intimates. People for bilingual education do not