Home / Quotes / Quote by Richard Rodriguez

Quote by 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.”

Quote by Richard Rodriguez

Author

Richard Rodriguez

Richard Rodriguez is an American writer born on July 31, 1944. His works primarily explore issues of identity, culture, and class, particularly the experiences of Latinos in American society. Rodriguez is known for his profound social commentary and literary talent. more

You May Also Like

“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.”

Children Important Use Language Teach Classroom

Author:Richard Rodriguez

“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.”

“My grandmother would always tell me that I was hers, that I was Mexican. That was her role. It was not my teacher's role to tell me I was Mexican. It was my teacher's role to tell me I was an American.”

Roles Teacher Grandmother My Grandmother Mexican

Author:Richard Rodriguez

“The notion that you go to a public institution in order to learn private information about yourself is absurd. We used to understand that when students went to universities, they would become cosmopolitan. They were leaving their neighborhoods.”

Used Order Information Students Institutions Notion Leaving University Absurd Neighborhood About Yourself

Author:Richard Rodriguez

“Now we have this idea that, not only do you go to first grade to learn your family's language, but you go to a university to learn about the person you were before you left home.”

Firsts Persons Ideas Home Left Language University Grades

Author:Richard Rodriguez

“So, rather than becoming multicultural, rather than becoming a person of several languages, rather than becoming confident in your knowledge of the world, you become just the opposite. You end up in college having to apologize for the fact that you no longer speak your native language.”

World Persons Ends Facts Speak Language College Becoming Opposites Native Apologizing Multicultural Knowledge Of The World Native Language

Author:Richard Rodriguez

“I worry these days that Latinos in California speak neither Spanish nor English very well. They are in a kind of linguistic limbo between the two. They don't really have a language, and are, in some deep sense, homeless.”

Wells Kind Two Speak Language Worry These Days California Homeless Latino Limbo

Author:Richard Rodriguez

“Architecture, in itself, at the end of the day, is a rational profession.”

Ends Profession Architecture Rational The End Of The Day

Author:Jimenez Lai

“It's no surprise that at the same time that American universities have engaged in a serious commitment to diversity, they have been thought-prisons. We are not talking about diversity in any real way. We are talking about brown, black, white versions of the same political ideology.”

“It is very curious that the United States and Canada both assume that diversity means only race and ethnicity. They never assume it might mean more Nazis, or more Southern Baptists. That's diversity too, you know.”

Knows Mean States Might United Race United States Diversity Assuming Curious Canada Southern Nazi Baptists Ethnicity Never Assume Southern Baptist Race And Ethnicity

Author:Richard Rodriguez