Aria
By Richard Rodriguez
(reflection)
After reading Aria by Richard Rodriguez, I was able to make so many connections and realizations about my own experience with the English language. Firstly, as I was reading, I couldn't help but think about my own experience. My parents, at one point, only knew Spanish, so I grew up speaking Spanish. I was fortunate enough that my parents did not force me to learn English or to speak English only at home. My parents always encouraged me to speak Spanish at home and to never be ashamed of my heritage. My parents, unlike Rodriguez’s parents, allowed me to stay with my private language. To this day, I only speak Spanish at home, including with my brother, who speaks English as well. However, this is not the case in many immigrant families. Many children in today’s day still go through the same process as Richard Rodriguez went through. My cousins, for example, only spoke English at home and their parents would answer back in Spanish, never really implementing the English or Spanish language. Today, they feel disconnected from their culture, and some of them are even embarrassed for not being able to speak proper Spanish. Similar to Richard Rodriguez. I believe that a lot of children who come from immigrant families go through the same experience as Richard Rodriguez's, causing them to lose that part of themselves that they later on in life wish for. I think it is important for teachers to allow students to express themselves freely in any language that they are comfortable with because language is personal and it is important to them. Taking away language from any individual is like taking away their identity. I like this quote from Nelson Mandela, which aligns perfectly with this blog, which is "to lose a language is to lose yourself."
https://www.edutopia.org/article/benefits-being-bilingual/ 
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