Aria by: Richard Rodriguez

What does Aria mean? This was the first question that emerged in my head when reading this article. I found many different definitions that usually had to do with music and opera. The explanation that I liked best discussed how arias are usually a solo that involves personal reflection and intense emotion. Richard was discussing how while struggling to acquire his public identity in America, he lost his private and unique Spanish identity at home. His audience was arguably all of those who do not live in bilingual and multilingual families.

I thought it was very upsetting how difficult his transition into the classroom was. The fact that he sat there and felt confused and indifferent must have been extremely difficult. He did not feel comfortable with his voice and his identity and therefore could not participate. The nuns even intervened in his family life telling his parents to start speaking the English language at home. This obviously had repercussions but it was more unsettling that the school did not embrace his culture. They basically made him feel like it was wrong to be bilingual.

In the article he discusses how “In an instant, [his parents] agreed to give up the language (the sounds) that had revealed and accentuated our families closeness”. When he said closeness it sounds very sad because this family had to entirely give up who they were and all they had known just to fit in with the rest of society. It is detrimental to make multicultural students think that the way that they are brought up is incorrect. There is evidence of this when he talks about how his family life has lost the cohesiveness that they once had. When he says “but the special feeling of closeness at home was diminished by then. Gone was the desperate, urgent, intense feeling of being at home; rare was the experience of feeling myself individualized by family intimates” it made me think about myself. How many times have I come home so excited about my experiences in school that I cannot wait to discuss them with my family? The simple answer to that is, all the time. What if there was a communication block? I feel as though I would be emotionally and mentally incomplete. For most of us our family is our identity. Richard and his parents grew more and more distant because the way they communicated was ever changing. The children were speaking more English while the parents lagged behind. Richard also speaks of how he was confused in how to address his mom and dad. The Spanish words of affection he used to use were no longer appropriate. It seemed extremely frustrating.

There was a lot of talk about identity in this piece. Richard thought he was finding his identity because he was becoming more acquainted with public society. However, there were people like his father who were losing their identity because there was still a communication as well as a culture block preventing them from advancing. People viewed him as shy but Richard says “my father was not shy, I realized, when I’d watch him speaking Spanish with relatives. Using Spanish, he was quickly effusive”. The author then goes on to say that …” children lose a degree of individuality by becoming assimilated into public society”. This makes it also difficult for someone to find there “public individuality” because they only know what everyone else wants them to but in turn does not reflect who they truly are. When I say everyone I am talking about anyone who has a separate culture from the majority. It is the job of the majority to embrace others differences so that they may make the culture of America more diverse and unique. Why else would we call it the nation of immigrants?

Jonathan Kozol, Amazing Grace

I want to start of by saying how shocking this article was to read. The sheer magnitude of these writers’ words gave the reader a very surreal image of what life was like in the South Bronx. Throughout the entire reading I could picture what Kozol was talking about. It was absolutely horrifying because most of us have no idea that some of this goes on in our country and those that do seem to want to ignore it.
There were many things that the writer paid close attention to when giving facts and statistics about this area. He talked about AIDS, homicides, drugs and health care among other things. In just the first paragraphs he mentions that "virtually every child at St. Ann's knows someone, a relative or neighbor, who has died of AIDS, and most children here know many others who are dying now of the disease". The reason most of these people have AIDS is because of inter venous drug use. The kids there even have names for it. There are murders that happen all the time in the area as well. A pregnant woman was murdered along with; a minister, parishioner, child, and a resident who was decapitated in his bathtub. This all happened around the same time and there are no words to describe how I felt when I was reading through all of this. There was even mention of a girl who was fifteen and died of a drug overdose. Another thing that also blew my mind was when the mother was talking about the medical care around the area. That some people had to clean there own room in the hospital and proceeded to wait days to be treated. The tombstones in the area had numbers on them because no one could afford to put names of their loved ones. One hospital even had a reputation for killing people so no one wanted to go there for care. There are so many other things that Kozol described that are embedded in my mind and give me an awful feeling in my stomach.
There was also a whole section when he was speaking with a child named Cliffie from the area. This was a young boy who had been brought up around all of these things and encountered everything on a day to day basis. I wonder what happens to a child psychologically when they are exposed to these things. This boy seemed extremely aware of the things around him pointing to a place and saying “they’re burning bodies there" and he was somewhat right. They burn undesirable parts of human bodies. The boy seems completely unbothered by this concept and that makes me think that he is completely used to the prospects of the area. It is interesting how the child knows who Oprah is but has no idea about George Washington. He also knows what crack containers look like and how they are used. One of the things that hit me the hardest was when Cliffie pointed out the teddy bears in the park. Kozol then says "Volunteers arrive here twice a week to give out condoms and clean needles to addicted men and women, some of whom bring their children with them. The children play near the bears or on a jungle gym while their mothers wait for needles".
I think it is somewhat clear why the author wrote this article. I think he wanted to address an audience that ignored the fact that this was going on in our country. He was probably focused on the wealthy people as well as the government so that something might be done. I think he wanted people to become more aware of the poor and oppressed as well as the children that have to cope with this everyday life. At the end of the article Kozol is speaking to someone whose mother is dying and still does not qualify for health care. The son says “somebody has power. Pretending that they don't so they don't need to use it to help people--that is my idea of evil". We all see this happening around us but no one does anything about it. Some people simply cannot help, but drawing more attention to problems such as this may influence those who have the ability to fix it.

About Me!

For a little bit of background My name is Alicia M. Lardaro, I was born in Warwick Rhode Island. I went to South Kingstown High School. Along with my parents I have an older sister and brother. Don't forget my yellow lab or my two cats who are pretty much part of the family. My major at Rhode Island College is secondary education with a concentration in social studies and history.
I have played sports for pretty much my entire life and I also love being a spectator as well. In high school I was involved in soccer, softball, and indoor track. I am now a member of the soccer team at Rhode Island college which is extremely fun for me. I absolutely love watching the Patriots and the Red Sox play.
One thing that I could not live without is my music. I love listening to my iPod while I work out or do my homework. I could not live without my John Mayer CDs. I love acoustic music the most but I will pretty much listen to anything from 50 cent to Kenny Chesney.
I am new to this whole blogging concept so hopefully I will get something out of this experience. I am very excited to finally start my education classes. Teaching is definately something I have been interested in for such a long time. I am recently involved in volunteering as a Confirmation teacher at my church. I really enjoy working with the older kids and I feel like I connect with them on an intellectual level while having fun at the same time. I feel confident speaking in front of people as well as working with others. I think F.N.E.D. will be a very good experience!