Aria

    Aria by Richard Rodriguez is a reflection on his experiences while growing up in a Spanish-speaking household but being forced to learn English in the U.S. Struggling with identity and language, Richard shared his personal experiences of the harsh transitions from his private family language, Spanish, to the very public language of society, English. I enjoyed this excerpt and thought Richard was brave enough to share his story even though it was a really trying time in his life. Even though these were challenging years for him personally and within his family dynamic, his family and he persevered and overcame this. Unfortunately, this change led to even bigger changes at home, which created a distance within the family, which is heartbreaking. I feel so awful that at such a young age, Richard was able to realize such significant changes within the family and their personalities. His parents encouraged the children to speak English to help them assimilate better, but it impacted the way it felt to speak Spanish at home. Speaking Spanish was always welcoming and comforting, but he became more confident speaking English over time. However, speaking English will never compare to how he felt when speaking Spanish. However, to be able to advance in school and continue to evolve in society, Richard needed to, unfortunately, lose some of that private individuality to gain a public identity with his ability to be bilingual. Being bilingual is an asset, and I wish I could speak another language. At work, a lot of my coworkers only speak Spanish. Sometimes, it is very hard to communicate with them, and I wish I could get to know them better, but I cannot due to my lack of Spanish. 

    I am volunteering at Alfred Lima Elementary School with a kindergarten class. I have noticed some of them can speak both Spanish and English and understand it better than a few students who are only Spanish speaking. The teacher and the TA are both bilingual and are able to help the students, but the default is always English. I cannot help but notice that when the teachers speak Spanish, it is almost a reprimand, or they want to be firm with the students about what they want them to do. The students are visibly upset because the teacher's voice is very noticeably passive-aggressive. I never thought about it through the lens of Richard and his experiences, but my heart breaks for these students, and I hope that they do not feel scared to learn English due to bad experiences. I hope that they never feel like they have to lose their private identity to be able to better assimilate into the English language in the classroom.