Hunger of Memory
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Hunger of Memory is the story of Mexican-American Richard Rodriguez, who begins his schooling in Sacramento, California, knowing just 50 words of English, and concludes his university studies in the stately quiet of the reading room of the British Museum. Here is the poignant journey of a "minority student" who pays the cost of his social assimilation and academic success with a painful alienation -- from his past, his parents, his culture -- and so describes the high price of "making it" in middle-class America. Provocative in its positions on affirmative action and bilingual education, Hunger of Memory is a powerful political statement, a profound study of the importance of language ... and the moving, intimate portrait of a boy struggling to become a man.From the Paperback edition.
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Dr. Rodriguez is a first generation Mexican American. His parents did not speak much English, and in the first essay in the book, Dr. Rodriguez talks about how in the 1950s, his parents were told to start speaking only English at home (due to Dr. Rodriguez's hesitance to speak English at school).
As Dr. Rodriguez starts to learn more and more English, and starts to emulate his teachers at the school, he starts to feel separated from the culture at his own house (as he loses his ability to speak Spanish, to the point he has to re-take it later on, and as his parents lose the ability to talk to their children as their children's English grows by leaps and bounds).
Dr. Rodriguez makes an interesting point about the downsides of how education can cause people to change and grow in a way that can separate them from their loved ones in their lives. He is anti-affirmative action because he correctly denotes affirmative action only looks at skin tone, and not income level of the parents. He also points out the reason for the lack of diversity in the colleges during the 1960s/1970s has to do with the quality (or lack thereof) of education at the lower levels.
Dr. Rodriguez's own parents spent money they could not afford to ensure Dr. Rodriquez and his siblings all went to a private Catholic college, to ensure they got the best education that could be offered.
Dr. Rodriguez himself did not like the idea of bilingual education, as he personally felt like Spanish was a language for “at home” and English was a language for “the public.” He himself also did not like being considered a “minority student,” as it was yet another way he felt like he was different from everyone else.
The version I read was copy written in 1982, and some parts of that show. Dr. Rodriguez is unsure how he'd be more “qualified” to mentor minority students than the white teachers/professors who educated him are. Dr. Rodriguez does not see how having diversity in leadership does anything for the next generation.
I would be interested in reading what Dr. Rodriguez's views are today, now that we talk much more about how important representation is. I'd be interested to know if his views of bilingual education or affirmative action have changed. I would also be interested to know if he still feels “othered,” much the way he had throughout most of his boyhood, based on the writing of this book.
All in all, this was a very good read and gave me food for thought about education that I had not considered before. I had not considered someone may not want to become educated because it could mean losing the ties they have to loved ones who are unable to journey with them on their path towards knowledge.
