Richard Rodriguez is a Mexican American author born in 1944 in San Francisco. He received degrees from Stanford University and Columbia University. His 1981 autobiography and 1983 book The Hunger of Memory were both well received. Rodriguez advocates against bilingual education, believing it was implemented prematurely without understanding how to properly teach it. He viewed Spanish as a private language used at home, while English was needed for public life and education. Rodriguez defines diversity as what is found through conflict, not as a value in itself, and finds encountering differences between himself and others unpleasant.

1. Richard RodriguezThe Hunger of Memory Stephanie Hurt

2. Richard RodriguezJuly 31, 1944-

4. Background Information Born July 31, 1944 in San Francisco, California to Mexican immigrant parents.

5. Background Information Literature degree from Stanford University and Columbia University Published his autobiography in 1981, which was very well received by critics. In 1983 his book, The Hunger of Memory, won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and a Christopher Award

6. Advocate on Bilingual Education Wrote the essay “Bilingual Education: Outdated and Unrealistic.” He believed that bilingual education was passed prematurely, and at a time where not many people knew about the subject, much less how to teach it.

7. Interview with Scott London Scott London: In Hunger of Memory, you suggest that supporters of bilingual education are misguided. You write, "What they don't seem to recognize is that, as a socially disadvantaged child, I considered Spanish to be a private language." In what way was Spanish a private language for you?

8. Interview with Scott London Richard Rodriguez: In some countries, of course, Spanish is the language spoken in public. But for many American children whose families speak Spanish at home, it becomes a private language. They use it to keep the English-speaking world at bay. Bilingual-education advocates say it's important to teach a child in his or her family's language. I say you can't use family language in the classroom — the very nature of the classroom requires that you use language publicly. When the Irish nun said to me, "Speak your name loud and clear so that all the boys and girls can hear you," she was asking me to use language publicly, with strangers. That's the appropriate instruction for a teacher to give. If she were to say to me, "We are going to speak now in Spanish, just like you do at home. You can whisper anything you want to me, and I am going to call you by a nickname, just like your mother does," that would be inappropriate. Intimacy is not what classrooms are about

9. Definition of Diversity London: So how would you define diversity? Rodriguez: For me, diversity is not a value. Diversity is what you find in Northern Ireland. Diversity is Beirut. Diversity is brother killing brother. Where diversity is shared — where I share with you my difference — that can be valuable. But the simple fact that we are unlike each other is a terrifying notion. I have often found myself in foreign settings where I became suddenly aware that I was not like the people around me. That, to me, is not a pleasant discovery

10. Hunger of Memory: Quote about his Essay "The drama of the essay is the way the public life intersects with my personal and private life. It's in that intersection that I find the energy of the essay."

11. Quotes from the Book ‘‘Optimism and ambition led them to a house (our home) many blocks from the Mexican side of town ... It never occurred to my parents that they couldn’t live wherever they chose,’’ “What they don't seem to recognize is that, as a socially disadvantaged child, I considered Spanish to be a private language."

13. Other Works

14. Other Books: Argument with his Mexican Father (Audio Book)

15. Richard Rodriguez Advocate for showing the difference between the private language (spoken at home) and the public language (spoken at school). Says that students need to learn the public language in order to succeed in life. Even if bilingual education was to be in elementary schools the student would suffer when they entered college.