Richard Rodriguez: Hunger of Memory


While I read this autobiography of Richard Rodriguez all I could think of was myself. I am from first generation immigrant parents and so my parents both only knew Spanish when I was a little kid, so my first language is Spanish. But as I started school I started losing it little by little. Till I had to travel to my parents country no one knew English, so I wouldn't speak too much. Till one day the Spanish just seemed to kick a little in me. So know I speak both English and Spanish but I don't feel comfortable speaking either language in front of people because I might just start speaking Spanglish.

The reason why I lost my Spanish when in school was because of all of my cousins and siblings, not because I was told to by a nun. And so there's the difference between my story and Richard Rodriguez’s. But I do feel ashamed when i think about the possibility of having both languages fluently it I had the chance to go back in time and change the part where I lost my Spanish. Knowing more than one language is great when looking for job opportunities bilingualism help out a lot.

"An Indians Father's Plea"


“It takes a long time to absorb and reflect on these kinds of experiences, so maybe that is why you think my Indian child is a slow learner.”

This piece in the article reminded me of a student that i worked with while i was at my elementary school internship in high school. The little girl came from Mexico but the part of Mexico that she came from was the native parts of Mexico where it was similar to Wind Wolfs family. She was a recent newcomer to this country and spoke no English, but how she was taught in Spanish was very different they the ways schools teach. She would struggle learning how to learn the way that the school teacher’s taught. She was the student with the lowest grades. But she soon started to pick up and out of no where she was at the same levels as most of her classmates. The reason why she struggles at first was because she was used to learning things the way that her heritage taught.

This made me think about things and wonder about the many different ways in which people all around the world teach their children important subjects such as math, science, literacy etc.

“So I realize he may be slow in grasping the methods and tools that you are now using in your classroom, ones quite familiar to his white peers, but I hope you will be patient with him. It takes time to adjust to a new cultural system and learn new things.”

You should not judge a student because you never know their history for being the way they are and learning at whatever pace they are learning. We are all different people and its not fair to judge especially children, because it will affect the way in which they think about themselves and will affect their confidence to keep striving. In the end we don't know how their living why, were, when neither how.

“As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege which puts me at an advantage.”

As a Spanish person with mildly light skin I have realized that after reading the article of White Privilege by McIntosh, that I also have been taught about racism and its disadvantages. If I go over to my parents home country the Dominican Republic a light skinned individual is favored over the more darker skin individual. There was once a President in that country that wanted to whiten the country by getting rid of all the dark skinned people. Every country has its favored skin color. But in a lot of cases gets worse depending in the country, city, or state in which you are living in.

What I'm trying to say by this is that every race is taught about privileges that there particular skin color have.

I also thought back to a time in which not being a white was a disadvantage. About two years ago I went out to eat dinner at an Apple bee’s in MA, I was with my boyfriend. We walk into the restaurant and get seated at a table which was not cleaned, our waiter was acting as if she had never seen people of our race. When we finally got our food the waiter threw it on the table very rudely. I was so shocked and embarrassed that we just sat there and looked at each other. What was the saddest part was the way it made both of us feel. They practically told us that we were trash by doing what they did.

I believe its true about the privileges that the white people receive but don't understand why. The color of someones skin should not be a problem to anyone.

Who am I

Hi my name is Mindy, I'm from 21 and from Providence. I am this semester started off in a great note but seems to be turning on me. I am a special education major hoping to become a Teacher of students visually impaired. When I'm not in school I care for my newborn son. I hope on learning a lot from this course and hope that I do well in it.