in one form or another are easily recognized in Richard

Rodriguez's autobiographical excerpt from Hunger of Memory.

Rodriguez's childhood was particularly unique given the fact

that while he was born and raised in the United States, he

was strongly influenced in the ethnic environment of a

Spanish family. Although the reader is introduced to only a

short excerpt from the autobiography, he learns a great deal

about Rodriguez's family and his relationship to it, his

conflict of speaking English versus Spanish, and the

paradox that became evident as he used English as his

primary language. Furthermore, the reader learns that

Rodriguez's experiences have contributed to his beliefs that

First of all, Richard Rodriguez came from a family

where his parents had been born and raised in Mexico. After

moving and settling in America, Rodriguez's parents gave

birth to him and his siblings. Rodriguez refers many times

to "los gringos" , a colloquial, derogatory name charged

with "bitterness and distrust" with which his father

described English speaking Americans. This evidence made it

home life considerably changed, Rodriguez's life at school

allowing the reader to make his or her own personal

setting, he would not have confronted the same obstacles

Finally, it was the contrast between the home and the

bilingual education today imply that students like me miss a

the fact that he used to feel a "desperate, urgent, intense"

conversations became strained and less frequent. While his

become independent, he had to assimilate into another way of

one suffers a diminished sense of private individualism by

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1069
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)