Hunger of Memory

2046 Words9 Pages
Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodríguez Hunger of Memory is an autobiography of the writer Richard Rodríguez and his transition from youth to manhood told through a series of recollected stories. The premise of his writing was centered mainly on his struggle to maintain both his Mexican heritage and closeness to his Spanish-speaking family, while at the same time being assimilated into American culture and obtaining an advanced education. Within the book Richard Rodríguez illustrates his contempt for affirmative action and bilingual education, two practices that had directly burdened his life while growing up. One of his main conflicts was grounded in his own family unintentionally being pulled away from him by losing the most important medium of relation, their language. Through his narrative, Richard Rodríguez makes a convincing argument against the implementation of affirmative action, even as one who stood to benefit from the program. When he was very young, Richard Rodríguez immigrated to the United States with his family to live in a predominantly white-Anglo, middle class neighborhood in Sacramento, California. Rodríguez’s parents were poor, but what money they could scrape together they used to send their children to the local Roman Catholic elementary school, Sacred Heart. Rodríguez knew less than 50 words of English at the start of his attendance in school, leading him to be introverted and shy in class. He rarely spoke, and finally, after 6 months had passed with no improvement, the nuns from his school came to his home, asking his parents to speak English with their children around the house. The parents obliged and carried out this instruction, eager to help their children advance in school. When starting a discussion in Spanish, Richard Rodríguez would quickly be interrupted by his parents, only to hear
Open Document