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?