Most students at Reedley College who are currently taking English, or have taken English within the past year or so, know very well who Richard Rodriguez is. They have been assigned either one of his essays or his books – Hunger of Memory being his most notable piece – to read and write a paper on, and given the subject matter, it is no wonder why: language, race, ethnicity, family, religion, and governmental programs are just some of the topics and issues Rodriguez discusses upon in Hunger of Memory. Rodriguez’s work is articulate, thought provoking, and polarizing, to say the least, among admires and critics – and now students. A current student of Mr. Borofka’s English 1A class, Andrea, said that although she was able to relate to Rodriguez in a way – like Rodriguez, her parents were also from Mexico – and although she understood that you have to make sacrifices in order to be successful, she didn’t understand why Rodriguez seemingly pushed away his parents and family. “I would never have …show more content…
Garza’s English 1A class and is also reading Hunger of Memory, and, like Andrea, she didn’t agree with Rodriguez distancing himself away from his family. “It really bugged me how he stopped speaking Spanish and how he would talk about his family,” she said. A former student of Mr. Garza’s class and current tutor at the Reading and Writing Center, Isaiah, had similar remarks: “It seems like [Richard Rodriguez] wants to be called anything but Mexican, which I suppose is fine, but you can’t just erase your roots.” Some students didn’t mind the touchy issues or themes that were being discussed in Hunger of Memory, but took a more literary approach in their criticisms. Jamie, a student in her fourth semester at Reedley College, read part of the book just to see what the fuzz was about. “But after getting through the first few chapters, I had to put it down,” Jamie says, “I actually liked some of themes he discussed – but still, it just wasn’t my