Cortes1

Alexis Cortes
Professor Rosales
English 100 STACC
September 1, 2014
RR1 Rodriguez's "Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood"
In the text Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood, Author Richard Rodriguez refers to
Spanish as his family's language. He makes it appear as a comforting sound that makes him feel
welcome and safe. It helps the author distinguish the difference between when he's out in the
"public life" and in his comfort zone. Author Richard Rodriguez ends the essay with the scene of
his grandmother dying followed by a glimpse of her corpse because it relates to the distinction of
the "public language" and "his family language". He described the face of his grandmother as
being her public face, a face she would when she was talked to in English and needed translation
from Rodriguez. When Rodriguez brings up the ghetto black teenagers on the city bus and how
they speak he uses his persuasive style. He informs us how black political activist have argued in
favor of using black English in public schools. He also gives us his point of view on how a
language can be dangerous when it reinforces feelings of public separateness. In the beginning of
the text Rodriguez tells us about his personal drama with English. He describes moments of
when English made him feel scared and isolated of others. The divergent tactics reinforce each
other due to the fact that they both favor the same perspective on the English language. Both
tactics explain how as a child English was an eerie language to Rodriguez therefore reinforcing
each others argument towards the topic. The purpose of the exclamation points at the beginning
of paragraph 33 is to demonstrate the impact that language has made in his life. It helps indicate
that it was a tremendous issue Rodriguez had encountered. After reading THE TROUBLE WITH

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DIVERSITY by author Walter Benn Michaels I would say that he would agree with Rodriguez's
proposition about bilingual education, but to a certain extent. I find Rodriguez's more persuasive
because he gives his point of view and he uses personal experiences to help the reader visualize
and connect more to the text.