Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Mexico's Children
Richard Rodriguez does a wonderful job of tugging on the heartstrings in his essay. His piece is a callback to a time in the past that isn't so different from the present. The most powerful pieces, in my opinion, stem from the treatment of the children in school. Rodriguez makes it very clear that it didn't matter that the Mexican children would show up, make no friends and fail their tests. He states the people didn't care because "come November, they would be gone to some bright world that smelled like the cafeteria on Thursdays -- Bean Days." This thought process is all to common in our world. Yet, at the same time, Rodriguez makes it clear how proud some of them were. I thoroughly enjoyed that he used his father as an example of someone who kept his application for American citizenship secret as not to let anyone know he was "betraying" Mexico and "sinning" against memory. Rodriguez writes that one day, his father "slipped away," which evokes the image of a fleeting memory itself.
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Ok. Yeah. I like the reading of "slipped away."
ReplyDeleteAre you being clear enough about the fact that the "Bean days" thing is probably the kind of opinion the teachers would have about the kids? Meaning, they don't really understand the culture beyond the American representation of it?
This seems 80% summary, 20 % analysis. Those could switch, I think.
DW