Richard Rodriguez Summary Paper Language is a psycho-social thought process by which we communicate and interpret the people and community around us. Richard Rodriguez demonstrates his childhood relationship with language in his essay “Private Language, Public Language“. The essay is filled with numerous characteristics of language as seen through the eyes of a grown man reflecting on his childhood thoughts. While as a grown man he embraces English as his new private language, Rodriguez considered Spanish as private and personal to him as a child.
To Rodriguez Spanish is a family language to be used at home or in the comforts of his own people. Meanwhile he viewed English as a language of “the gringos”, only to be spoken publicly. Family, community, sound and syntax are characteristics Rodriguez uses to define his psycho-social relationship with language. Rodriguez describes family as a characteristic of language that has an intimate nature that is unique among one’s family.
In the latter part of the fifth paragraph Rodriguez states “It is not possible for a child - any child - ever to use his family’s language in school” He describes his family language of Spanish and his family’s household practices such as raising chickens and painting the house yellow as things that made his family stand apart from the community he grew up in. In the community he grew up in Rodriguez was surrounded by “Gringos”. The community was filled with “gringos“ that he looked at as belonging in society.This made him feel like an outsider because his most familiar tongue was not being spoken in a country where English dominates. Instantly he felt like a foreigner in his own country. Eventually he got over this stigma and was embarrassed by his childhood fears of not being accepted.
The very sounds and syntax of the English and Spanish languages characterize how Rodriguez perceived whether the conversation to be public or private. In paragraph nine, speaking of his parents he says “ In public, my father and mother spoke a hesitant, accented, not always grammatical English. Since the English he and his family spoke was not spoken in a confident manner he deemed it as a language that is formal and only to be used publicly. Any stumbles or hesitations was looked at with a certain uncomfortable embarrassment because of his perception of the “gringo” language.
In paragraph thirteen Rodriguez writes “The accent of los gringos was never pleasing”. The harshness and firmness that Americans speak with assured Rodriguez the speaker was gringo and belonged in society. Making him feel less significant because of his lack of diction and American vernacular.Meanwhile the Spanish language came to him with ease and was less harsh and more soft spoken.
Speaking Spanish was within his comfort zone of language because it was spoken by those in his home and native community. In paragraph nine Rodriguez writes “ At home they spoke Spanish. The language of their Mexican past sounded in counterpoint to the English of public society. ” Family plays an important role in Rodriguez’s interpretation of the language. It signified to him that when Spanish was spoken to him that he was among loved ones.
In paragraph twenty one Rodriguez writes “ Smiling, I’d hear my mother call out, saying in Spanish (words): “Is that you, Richard? All the while her sounds would assure me: You are home now” From a community stance, this translated into him hearing Spanish in the streets from others and feeling an instant bond. Even though he was in a public setting, he felt a relationship to other Spanish speakers. He illustrates this in paragraph seventeen of his essay stating “ I’d hear strangers on the radio and in the Mexican Catholic church across town speaking in Spanish, but I couldn’t really believe that Spanish was a public language, like English.Spanish speakers, rather, seemed related to me, for I sensed that we shared through our language the experience of feeling apart from los gringos. ”.
According to Rodriguez, family, community, sound and syntax are key components that defined his early relationship with language. The harsh sounds of the American language made him uncomfortable publicly. Conversely, the softer spoken Spanish, no matter where it was spoken made him feel as if he were at home.
