Richard Rodriguez

6 Pages 1466 Words

Richard Rodriguez is one of America’s most celebrated essayist and journalist. For the last two decades, Rodriguez has been examining the meaning of class, ethnicity and race in America and in his life. He has written various books and essays such as “Days of Obligation” which is regarding on what does it mean to be Mexican American? Also Hunger of Memory which talks about his own experience as a “minority” and shares his provocative views on bilingual education. Richard is also an editor at Pacific News Service, contributing editor for Harper’s magazine, US News, World Report, and the Sunday “Opinion” section of the Los Angeles Times. And a commentator on public television’s Mac/Neil/News Hour. Rodriguez has a lot going on in his life, now let us find out more about this vast essayist/journalist.
Now, Richard Rodriguez was born in 1944 a native of San Francisco, California. Rodriguez is the son of Mexican immigrants, and is the third of four children. He entered first grade at the age of six at a Catholic School named Sacred Heart School in Sacramento, California, his English vocabulary consisted of barely fifty words. All his class mates were white. He kept quiet, listening to the sounds of middle-class American speech, feeling alone. After school he would return to Spanish, to the pleasing soothing sounds of his family language.
When his English showed few signs of improvement, the nuns at school called upon Rodriguez’s parents to speak more English at home. Eager to help out their son, they complied. Rodriguez attended a daily tutoring session to help the progress of his
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Jennefer Hernandez
English. Well since Rodriguez’s parents pushed him to speak English, his English was improving but he felt that he was a victim of a disabling confusion. As he grew fluent in English, He no longer could speak Spanish with confidence. He continued to understand spoken Spanish. And in high school, he ...