Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood

Blog post 2

Richard Rodriguez

“Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” was written by Richard Rodriguez, a famous American writer whose native language was Spanish.  With his essay, he wrote to American teachers and children who, like him, speak languages other than English at home about the importance of learning English at school.  As a child, he strayed away from English because he wanted to preserve the intimacy felt when he spoke Spanish with his family.  However, he later realized that learning English was imperative because it allowed him to interact with certain people, and forgetting Spanish didn’t kill the intimacy he felt with his family.

He conveys such messages by repeating the word “intimate.”  When Rodriguez has the revelation that words don’t create intimacy but intimacy is delivered through words, he says, “After such moments of intimacy outside the house, I began to trust what I heard intimately conveyed through my family’s English…I’d hear myself addressed intimate – in English…Intimate moments were usually moments of soft sound. My mother would be ironing in the dining room while I did my homework nearby. She would look over at me, smile, and her voice sounded to tell me that I was her son. Richard. Intimacy thus continued at home; intimacy was not stilled by English. Though there were fewer occasions for it – a change in my life that I would never forget – there were also times when I sensed the deep truth about language and intimacy: Intimacy is not created by a particular language; it is created by intimates” (Rodriguez 461).  By constantly reemphasizing the word intimate, he shows that intimacy can be communicated with whichever language and whichever medium, and that it’s almost omnipresent if one constantly thinks about it.

By writing his own experience as a bilingual child growing from his family’s nest to the public, Richard Rodriguez was successful in delivering his message.

Unconditional Love
Rodriguez realized that when in a loving family or any sort of relationship, intimacy is not determined by words but rather the personal connection and the actions. His family's strongest connection was their common language, but when that was replaced with a language barrier, Rodriguez felt a weight of guilt. However, they overcame that barrier at the end of the day because his family didn't love each other because they spoke Spanish; they loved each other because they were family.

multilingualliving.com