Aria - Quotes

Rodriguez writes an eye opener about our society. While his entire piece can be quoted and great points made from it I'm only going to address a few.

"Of course, my parents complied. What would they not do for their children's well-being? And how could they have questioned the Church's authority which those women represented? In an instant, they agreed to give up the language (the sounds) that had revealed and accentuated our family's closeness."

This quote almost saddens me. It makes a great connection back to Delpit and power. The church has power and is using it to make the children fit into our society. Who are the parents to question the power of the church, which to them may be questioning the power of God. The parents, which can be guessed to be immigrants, know they hold no power or very little power that they know better than to question someone's authority. Especially if it is being portrayed as their child's best interest, what parent would say no?

"(Stripped of any emotional content, the word simply became a name for those Americans not of Hispanic decent.)"

By his language being taken away from him so is the emotion and feeling that comes with it. Now, Spanish words are just words. He may still understand them, for now, but their meanings are gone. Their memories of the words are gone.

"Today I hear bilingual educators say that children lose a degree of 'individuality' by becoming assimilated into public society. )Bilingual schooling was popularized in the seventies, that decade where middle-class ethnics began to resist the process of assimilation- the American melting pot.)"

I couldn't agree more. I think it is important for children to have a sense of individuality, especially if it can come in the form of another language or culture. I feel it is important for children to be able to have a sense of selfness while in a group of others that are all trying to be made the same.

"Supporters of bilingual education today imply that students like me miss a great deal by not being taught in their family's language."

"After English became my primary language, I no longer knew what words to use in addressing my parents."

These two quotes together truly sum up what Rodriguez is trying to say in the reading. Keeping the family's language alive is so much more important than to just be able to speak two languages. It keeps everyone connected by what they have in common; their culture, their background, their family.  After he was forced to make English his primary language he lost one of the biggest connections he could, the connection with his parents. He no longer had a to call them. The ones he used before became painful and unfamiliar. And the ones associated with our society just didn't feel right.


I truly believe it is important to keep a culture alive. While it is beneficial to be able to speak English and speak it affectively, it is important to keep one's identity as well. Rodriguez makes this point by saying, "I would have felt much less afraid." Because he wasn't being addressed in a language he was familiar with, and he was the one being forced to accommodate to something else he felt afraid, as we can imagine many children being forced into assimilation are.