Richard Rodriguez
Well, here we are. Another school year down for the record. It seems just like yesterday when I was attending my first grad class at UTA on Monday night last semester with Dr. Rings on Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages. I was a little anxious about what would be expected, yet secure in my ability to take on a graduate degree and work full time in DISD. The class was full of other grad students wondering what would happen on that humid fall evening. I remember Dr. Rings was worried about her mother in the hospital and she told us that if her cell phone went off, that’s why she had to answer it. Even though we did get out early that first night, I remember thinking how different the class was going to be…and it was! We ended the semester with a mini conference presentation of our group projects and a holiday chow down with all kinds of food and I felt a closer “spirit” with the people in that class than I have felt with fellow students since my undergrad years. It was weird but there was a mix that just worked for me and we were in contact with each other in groups and such.
It was last semester in Dr. Seminet’s US Latino Lit class that I unknowingly read a novel and more than that, read the honest, blunt, strightforward writings of someone who truly captivated me because his early life seemed to have so many connections for me to mine. We did not even read the entire book as a class but as I read the parts assigned to us, I thought, “Wait a minute. There’s something else going on here under the surface with this guy. He is not just writing about how hard it was growing up Hispanic and losing his Spanish to English and being called pocho. I felt him surging inside of me…his writing was coming across so clear undernneath the surface. I was identifying with so many scenes in his life. I guess I had that extra sense that this guy was expressing something more. I honestly had no idea until the next class when Dr. Seminet said, Oh, by the way Richard Rodriguez is gay.” I said,”I knew it.”
From then on I became totally enthralled by his way of writing and why he chose to NOT come out point blank in this particular book. I wrote a mini paper on him then but then this semester after devouring Reinaldo Arenas in less than a week and toying with that prospect for my MODL project and graduate symposium paper, I thought, “I already have a great topic for my paper…..I want to know more about Richard Rodriguez and still WHY he didn’t come out then and what led him to that point later. I knew what I wanted to do, so I went for it.” I found so much interesting research, critiques (that pissed me off for being so anti-gay written by straight critics who have no idea……..It’s like a man writing a story from a lady’s point of view…..sure, he can do it, but he doesnt truly know the inner most being and “ser” of a woman because he is a man…the same with those critics..) anyhow……..interviews, etc that my MODL paper came out to be 12 pages and I had to go back and glean out 8 pages so I could read that part for the symposium.
Luis, mi amigo salvadoreno
The main gist of my paper came out to be that in Rodriguez’s life, he achieved sexual identity through literature itself…his own development as a writer over the years and how that parallels his coming out. One of the critics cites Rodriguez using race as a crutch to hide his sexual orientation even though in an interview with Rodriguez directly I find that is the furthest thing from the truth. It is interesting to note also how Rodriguez shows language as a tool of destruction and creation—-destruction in how groups today try to make it as simple reductionism but that it can be creation in what language has done for him. Rodriguez has been severely criticized for not coming out in Hunger of Memory and for not coming out loudly enough afterwards. However, I show that this is a mute point in relation to what Rodriguez has truly achieved over a lifetime of writing, reading, and being the “scholarship boy” that he so aptly calls himself. Come to the symposium on Friday, May 4 to hear the rest!
Luis, de nuevo
Luis y su hermana en una quinceanera
Ronald, mi ex en Bolivia
Well, I guess this is it. In relation to my plans for next year, I decided against a dual major in English also (it’s a good thing because my petition for a graduate assistantship was denied—- am I THAT bad? lol) and opted for a dual one in Humanities with a gender/multicultural focus with a thesis option. I am still hoping the powers that be allow me to go full time in the fall and take a Humanities foundation course, an anthropology course in the cultures of Latin America, a gay/lesbian lit. course from the English dept., and Dr. Seminet’s class while doing an assistantship as a GTA I in the Spanish department AND a little work study. Hopefully, all this will be good preparation for a doctoral program in the future. WISH ME LUCK!!!! I will keep this blog up since Dr. Conway has got me hooked on blogs. I am not for sure what it will turn into but anyone interested enough in my exciting, fun-filled life can keep up.
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I’m glad to see you enjoyed Dr. Ring’s class and style of teaching last semester as well. We did kind of have a little community there since we always worked in groups and got to know each other. The best was the mini conference with all of the good eats!
It sounds like you are really jumping into graduate school with both feet. I am also really enjoying graduate school and have been especially inspired by Dr. Conway and this class. I have a whole new take on interpreting literature, no longer afraid to be wrong.
I hope your presentation at the symposium goes well and I’m glad that you found a book that you really connected with. As a bilingual teacher for 8 years, I taught students that were faced with the same issue that you speak of- their native language is Spanish and they are gradually learning English, but English in most cases actually replaces Spanish over the years. The students have a torn identity on some levels because many times at home the cultural traditions, mostly from Mexico but sometimes others like Argentina, Guatemala, Honduras, are so important. The students often would rather fit in, speak English and have a Nintendo. Of course, it various from person to person, but definitely an aspect of life that sounds interesting to read about.
Good luck on your final paper! We’re almost there!