Rodriguez, Richard

Name of author: Richard Rodriquez
Dates of birth and death (if applicable): 1944-
Place of birth: San Francisco
Education: Rodriguez received a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.A. from Columbia University, was a Ph.D. candidate in English Renaissance literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and attended the Warburg Institute in London on a Fulbright fellowship.
Literary movement associated with author: autobiographical essays, books, education, affirmative action.
Nationality: American
Notable award(s) or ideas (s):1997 George Foster Peabody Award.
Books and years when published:
"Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez"
"Days of Obligation"
"Brown"

"Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriquez"
One of the places I was visiting was the Los Angeles area and I ran into a Borders store that was closing for good. Every book in the store was 60% off. One of the quality paperbacks that I grabbed was this one as I have always wanted to read it. I have been a fan of Richard Rodriquez for sometime. I was introduced to him from his verbal essays on the PBS Newshour that he won the George Foster Peabody Award in 1997. I have also made a point of reading his essays that have appeared from time to time in magazines and newspapers. This was his first book that brought him to the attention to the public.

"Hunger of Memory" which was published in 1982 was considered a narrative about his intellectual development from the time he was a boy in Sacramento to that of an adult. It also explained some of the ideas that brought him criticism from many because of his opposition to affirmative action and bilingual education in the schools. Those ideas are fully explained in this book.

He was called a coconut, brown on the outside and white on the inside by many in the Mexican-American Community. All of these matters were unknown to me. I just liked what he said on the Newshour and what he wrote about in the essays that were published. They were humane and dealt with people as people and not as labels. He comes across this way in his book. He also does not consider himself as a minority as he had an excellent education in Sacramento in the Roman Catholic School System which made him uncomfortable to be treated as a minority during the time of affirmative action. Again, I do not agree with him here, but I don't think it detracts from enjoying and learning from this book.

I especially liked his descriptions of his family life which were close and loving. He wrote about how education separated the cultural identify of himself and the position that he enjoyed in his family. He is still close to his family, but they do not understand what it is he does. This book was before he came out with his sexual orientation which must have been a further strain. The description of his parents are sharp and sorrowful in parts as Rodriguez grew in his education away from his family. He had no one to relate to during that time and it must have driven him within himself.

The book contains anger which is understandable but channeled into words which have become so important to the author. That was one of the things that drew me to Rodriquez in the first place. He seemed so sad without feeling sorry for himself. He has an acceptance of self and place in the community he lives in, one foot in the culture at large and one in the Hispanic Culture and not at home in either one. I have a feeling that is what makes him such an outstanding reporter of the American Culture as a whole.





"Brown: The Last Discovery of America" Viking: 2002

In a review of this book, The New Yorker stated that Richard Rodriguez was a writer of unusual grace and clarity and in fact he writes as he speaks simply and elegantly. Reading Rodriguez one is amazed at the simple style he has and it is easy to hear his voice speaking softly and clearly as he often does on the PBS Newshour but it is deceptive. His thoughts are complex and his subject matter deep and resounding. To me, Rodriguez has to be one of the best American essayist writing today.
In this book, "Brown", Rodriguez writes about being Brown in America today, but he uses his brush to include more than just a people in in his first sentence in his preface:

"I write of a color that is not a singular color, not a strict recipe, not an expected result, but a color produced by careless desire, even by accident; by two or sever. I write of blood that is blended. I write of brown as complete freedom of substance and narrative. I extol impurity."

Reading Rodriguez is like taking a ride, a wild ride through his mind and seeing things and people you would never have seen otherwise. It is a trip that includes not only the mind but of the heart of a writer and what he sees and feels; and he sees and feels a lot. The reader will react along with the writer and see a part of America that he or she may not have seen before or understand better what was seen before but not understood.

This is a writer who is angry, but not one that feels sorry for himself. He is aware of the feelings he feels and the thoughts he has. There is no self-deception here. The reader is safe in Rodriguez's hands. He is also well-read and blends what he has read into what he has experienced into a taprestry of colorful threads and presents a wonderful picture of what it is to be Brown.