Talking Points #2 - Rodriguez

Aria
Richard Rodriguez

Author's Argument: Rodriguez argues that it is important to maintain you private individuality, but at the same time by learning the public individuality makes easier to achieve/acquire the "Culture of Power."

Quotes:
1. "One day in school I raised my hand to volunteer an answer. I spoke out in a loud voice. And I did not think it remarkable when the entire class understood. That day, I moved very far from the disadvantaged child I had been only day earlier."

I compared this quote to Delpit's quote and I think that Dr. Bogad likes too. "Teaching the codes of power help individuals acquired power more easier." Even though, Rodriguez's family was falling apart he learned the "public language"(English) and was able to communicate his thoughts.

2. "My mother! My father! After English became my primary language, I no longer knew what words to use in addressing my parents. The old Spanish words (those tender accents of sound) I had used earlier - mama and papa I couldn't use anymore."

I think what Rodriguez is trying to say is that it is hard sometimes when someone learns a new language to translate, and sometimes when a word is translated it doesn't has the same meaning.

3."I would have been happier about my public success had I not sometimes recalled what it had been like earlier, when my family had conveyed its intimacy through a set of conveniently private sounds."

What I understand by this quote is that althought, Rodriguez was able to learn and communicate in English, he wasn't completely happy because he misses his private language-Spanish. He misses his family.

Comments/Point to share: I really like Rodriguez's article. It was easy to read. It seems to me that in order to acquire the "Culture of Power" we have to give up our own individuality. I don't think that is fair. I thought about the poem we read in class where it says, "The first thing you do is to forget that I'm black. Second, you must never forget that I'm Black." In order words, accept me for whom I am, accept my culture, my language, my race, but don't judge for being who I am.