Aria Rodriguez, Richard. "Aria: A Memoir of

Aria Rodriguez, Richard. "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood," an excerpt from. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez: an Autobiography. Boston, Mass: D.R. Godine, 1982. Print. Bilingual education is one of the issues that have been hotly debated in the last few decades. Though proposed by Hispanic-Americans in the 1970s and '80s, many second- and third-generation immigrants from the south of the United States now have mixed feelings about bilingualism.

Some support it as a policy that would help Spanish-speaking and other ethnic American children maintain their cultural heritage and individualism, while others criticize it as something that may block their assimilation and integration into the American mainstream. Richard Rodriguez, the son of Mexican immigrants to the United States, is among the latter group, arguing that children of Spanish-speaking and ethnic immigrants must opt for education in English only; for that is the best way of becoming a full-fledged citizen and a member of the mainstream American public.

In his autobiography, Rodriguez proposes interesting and valid arguments to support his position, but his points remain unconvincing because of his tendency to base all his arguments on his personal experiences as well as his clearly expressed biases that render the objectivity of his analysis questionable. There is no doubt that Rodriguez has valid points.

The poignant and difficult childhood he experienced as a child of immigrant parents convinced him that his education in the English language was the key to his integration into the American mainstream and his academic success. When he and his family spoke in Spanish at home, Rodriguez could not feel himself a part of the American society. He was embarrassed to listen to his parents speak in broken English to strangers. He was shy in his class, unable to participate in class discussions.

After his family began to embrace English as the primary medium of conversation, Rodriguez eventually began to realize his dreams. He became fluent in English, learned to befriend Americans, and began to believe that he finally "belonged in public" (Rodriguez 658; italics original). Rodriguez has only fond memories of his childhood times when he spoke to his family in Spanish, suggesting that it was a loss and describing it as the "golden age of my childhood," but he came to a realization that his loss "implie[d] gain" (660, 661).

Rodriguez's personal life shows that monolingual education in the public language may be a better option for some immigrant children. Rodriguez's experience, however, cannot be generalized and used as an example for everyone. Immigrants and their children live in different environments, under different conditions. But Rodriguez ignores this reality and bases all of his arguments on his own life, assuming at times that some of his childhood difficulties were specific to bilingual immigrant children only.

For example, discussing the changes following the adoption of English as the only language of communication at home, Rodriguez notes: "Neither my older brother nor my sisters rushed home after school anymore. Nor did I" (658). But such behavior is typical for most American children. At a certain age, children stop rushing home because they become more intimate with their friends and school. In another instance, talking about the changes in the interaction with his mother, he says: "She'd join conversations she overheard, but her intrusions often stopped her children's talking" (659).

Again, this is typical for most children. After reaching a certain age, siblings tend to have many secrets from their parents or feel uncomfortable discussing their issues with parents but not with siblings. Rodriguez brings up these examples as if they are exclusive to immigrant families. While Rodriguez's focus on his own life as the locus of his examples is a flaw that weakens his position, the biases he expresses in criticizing his opponents make his arguments even less convincing.

Consider the following passage: "These middle-class ethnics who scorn assimilation seem to me filled with decadent self-pity, obsessed by the burden of separateness and trivialize the dilemma of those who are truly socially disadvantaged" (661). In an otherwise objective analysis, Rodriguez would have most likely replaced the words "scorn," "decadent," "self-pity," "obsessed," and "trivialize" with less biased and more sympathetic.