Blog #8

  A reflection on Richard Rodriguez's 'Aria'

Rodriguez in “Aria” talks about that one's identity as well as their  assimilation is often associated with the languages they use: Spanish, a "private language," being used inside the home for comfort whereas the outside world requires English as a "public language." This was however the turning point for him, as public confidence when speaking Spanish to English, but the result was that his home quarters were left distant.

In his home, Rodriguez's parents insisted they speak English but were encouraged by the teachers and nuns. It turned upside down what initially seemed a very well-intentioned bit of effort. "Father," that figure, who spoke Spanish, once the man to whom silence was unsafe, now didn't speak English. Rodriguez has stopped his affectionate Spanish words toward his parents simply because he couldn't find equally meaningful English equivalents. The warmth of his language was lost to him, and an emotional void stepped in without the family being aware of it.

While Rodriguez believes in that, he denies the truth that bilingual education keeps one's identity intact: "I lost my private individuality with the adopting of English, but there is more: the larger public individuality." For this, he learnt to use English "to fully belong" within the society, the cost was high. Yet Spanish remained the sound of past tinkling memories that could surface as only longings of the language, and that too could be heard in tongs of strangers.

He talks about the painful and inevitable transformation that is done by the process of assimilation. It shares that much of a plight of immigrant families in Rodriguez's experience-would-be. The struggles of holding one's culture while opening a world of new doors. This is then put in the very context which allows one to learn that language is much more than words-it really is a bridge and a barrier between all that has been and all that is.