28th, October: How to stop being an immigrant

‘Hunger of Memory’ is a detailed explanation of immigrant children’s curious situation in a foreign language environment, and also a quite one-sided, decided essay against affirmative action. Rodriguez examines an old dilemma – sticking to tradition or adapting to the environment. He points out that a child of an immigrant family cannot be socialised in both American culture and their family’s at the same time, and there’s no way being successful or well-educated with the second.one. His explanation isn’t uninteresting either: he describes how the confrontation of the two cultures molds a child’s still developing concepts of language and intimacy. It’s an amazing example of how human mind develops itself according to its environment during infancy and childhood, rather than following a fixed pattern; Spanish and English appears as a ‘private language’ and a ‘public language’ in his mind. His lack of English skills defines his social skills, and since it’s his ‘public language’, it doesn’t only make him feel like he shouldn’t speak English, but also like he shouldn’t go public at all – and we are close again to environment-induced quasi-insanity which is usually nothing but a healthy (yet sometimes disadvantageous) adjustment to the circumstances. Rodriguez concludes that such a situation is already too difficult for a child, so it doesn’t worth concentrating in bilingual or bicultural education or anything like that; he exclusively advises to sacrifice family tradition and relationships to any extent it’s necessary, or else there’s no way escaping being an underrepresented immigrant for a lifetime, no matter how the government might try to help – if you want a good life in the States, then you’ll want to be an American.

On the other hand, he’s not shy to admit how it all may end up: he details his complete alienation from his relatives, his loss of intimacy (as well as loss of general intimacy within his family), and his embarrassing moments at his grandmother’s death bed, as well as a hunger of memory.