Talking Point # 2

Aria by, Richard Rodriguez

Premise
- Socially disadvantaged
- Wealth = better education
- Public/private language
- Teachers responsibility
- Lost identities
- English vs. Spanish
- Public acceptance
- Distanced family
- Individualism
- Loss of expression
- Loss of culture
- Public/private society

Argument
- Rodriguez argues that each person has two lives. They have their private individuality and their public individuality and each person must find a way to stay true to both lives.

Evidence
- Rogriguez states that he once loved to hear people speak Spanish, it used to bring him joy, but because he was forced to be part of the public language it no longer did.
- He says that teachers were unsentimental to his needs as a student and he decided that he needed to change because nobody would help him.
- He was disappointed that his parents changed who they were and began to speak English, forgetting who they were or where they came from.

Questions/Comments/Points to share
- I thought this article was very easy to read. The fact that it was a personal story made it more interesting and much easier to get through. I thought that this was a very sad story. At first it seemed as though Rodriguez had a really good idea of who he was and he was proud of that. I feel like the education system made him ashamed to be Hispanic and he began to forget who he was. I did not like that his parents had to change who they were and how they conducted themselves because their children did not receive the help they needed. The article just made me sad for that family and sad that they lost who they were because they felt like they had to be like everyone else.