Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez
    Unavailable
    Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez
    Unavailable
    Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez
    Ebook207 pages

    Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez

    By Richard Rodriguez

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    Hunger of Memory is the story of Mexican-American Richard Rodriguez, who begins his schooling in Sacramento, California, knowing just 50 words of English, and concludes his university studies in the stately quiet of the reading room of the British Museum.

    Here is the poignant journey of a “minority student” who pays the cost of his social assimilation and academic success with a painful alienation — from his past, his parents, his culture — and so describes the high price of “making it” in middle-class America.

    Provocative in its positions on affirmative action and bilingual education, Hunger of Memory is a powerful political statement, a profound study of the importance of language ... and the moving, intimate portrait of a boy struggling to become a man.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateFeb 3, 2004
    ISBN9780553898835

    Related to Hunger of Memory

    Related ebooks

    Personal Memoirs For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: September 2019

      Sep 5, 2019

      Eight new and notable collections you want on your nightstand this month, including work by a lost Catalan master and the latest from our new poet laureate. The post Must-Read Poetry: September 2019 appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      On Giving Up: Its Uses And Benefits In The Writing Life

      Jul 1, 2022

      It reminds me of a moment I used to have in college. I’d put off my term papers every single time till the last minute. So I’d be up at 3 or 4 in the morning working on some damn thesis totally confused, completely exhausted, and I’d have this glorio

      14 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Jonathan Escoffery

      Dec 15, 2021

      This year, perhaps more than any other in my adult life, I’ve yearned for narratives that promise big things will happen in the lives of the characters they feature. The post A Year in Reading: Jonathan Escoffery appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Highly Gifted/ Highly At-Risk

      May 8, 2017

      Highly Gifted/ Highly At-Risk
      15 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Ismail Muhammad

      Dec 22, 2018

      More than anything else that I read this year, those two books made me appreciate the unlikeliness of my black life here in this golden state. The post A Year in Reading: Ismail Muhammad appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Kukuwa Ashun

      Dec 12, 2023

      I read extraordinary books outside of my nine-to-five and devoured these stories in the way I would consume french onion soup on a chilly day. The post A Year in Reading: Kukuwa Ashun appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Kashana Cauley

      Dec 2, 2022

      Kashana Cauley reflects on 2022 through the books she read. The post A Year in Reading: Kashana Cauley appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Flood Is Water

      Aug 16, 2017

      By Kima Jones LATOYA and I have just a few days left in New Orleans before we are to return home to our lives, to our work. We’re here for our annual writing retreat, time we take together each year to work on our novels. We’ve been to Taos, Tuscany,

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Jason R Jimenez

      Dec 10, 2019

      Can you imagine a world without frogs? Or even less of them? What is the night without a symphony of croaks? I want to ask that to everyone. The post A Year in Reading: Jason R Jimenez appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Truth Accuracy Could Never Achieve: The Millions Interviews M. Randal O’Wain

      Nov 11, 2019

      This trauma told me stories of who I was in relation to home and the men who raised me. These memories were so horribly fucking bright I couldn’t turn away. The post A Truth Accuracy Could Never Achieve: The Millions Interviews M. Randal O’Wain appea

      6 min read

    • Article

      Exploring The Boundaries

      Oct 2, 2018

      I have been babysitting my student’s two-year-old boy for the last three hours, while my student and his wife go out for the night. The boy is bubbly. He has the habit of bouncing on his toes when he is excited, and he is excited about everything. He

      8 min read

    • Article

      Where We Write

      Feb 9, 2017

      Where We Write
      9 min read

    • Article

      We Need to Talk

      Dec 24, 2019

      We Need to Talk
      4 min read

    • Article

      Beverly JENKINS

      Aug 31, 2020

      Beverly JENKINS
      12 min read

    • Article

      A Vicarious Encounter with Gregory Pardlo

      Apr 10, 2018

      Digest, Gregory Pardlo’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize winning collection of poems, begins with “Written by Himself”: “I was born still and superstitious; I bore an unexpected burden. / I gave birth, I gave blessing, I gave rise to suspicion.” His lines carry

      7 min read

    Reviews for Hunger of Memory

    3.5/5

    118 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      An internal memoir, more an explanation of who he is instead of a transformative or redemptive memoir. He relates his thoughts and feelings about external events and the external world, as opposed to following a classic character arc of challenge and change. I disagreed with much of what he said, but agreed with just as much. It is a complex, deeply personal autobiography, and overall recommended as an exemplar of its form.
    • 4/5
      A beautifully written book by a sad man alienated from his family, his past, and ultimately, himself. The son of immigrants, Rodríguez believes that the only option for minorities is to "assimilate" (that is, live up to the majority's expectations and standards), and he thinks the only way to do that is by turning away from one's past and heritage. He also seems to think that racism (at least towards brown people) is mostly a matter of class and education. I disagree with all of his conclusions, but I admit that I enjoyed his writing and sympathized with his sorrow.
    • 4/5
      Excellent story of how a man, born Spanish-speaking, excels at education and partly loses his old culture.
    • 4/5
      A study of the psychological weaknesses of American culture and possibilities for growth."It was an account of his journey from being a "socially disadvantaged child" to becoming a fully assimilated American, from the Spanish-speaking world of his family to the wider, presumably freer, public world of English. But the journey was not without costs: his American identity was only achieved after a painful separation from his past, his family, and his culture. "Americans like to talk about the importance of family values," says Rodriguez. "But America isn't a country of family values; Mexico is a country of family values. This is a country of people who leave home." From Wikipedia.
    • 5/5
      One of many exceptional aspects of this book is the author's description of his inner life, especially his reading life. His liberation from the private sphere into the public, where he has become a literary light for others, was made possible in part by his reading life. I found I could identify with this part of his life and his superior prose style did the rest. I would highly recommend this for anyone interested in the development of a humane intellectual.
    • 5/5
      Unlike Richard Rodriguez I'm not a Mexican-American, but I did grow up in a Spanish-speaking household since my mother is Puerto Rican. Of all the books about and by Hispanics I've read before or since, this is the one I most identified with, that really resonated and spoke to me. I could see much about my family reflected in his--attitudes towards education, skin color, religion... This book indeed was assigned reading in a Sociology class, because it does fit into that discipline. But it's also known for Rodriguez' positions within it on Affirmative Action and Bilingual Education--which I agreed with--particularly after reading this. He talks about what he lost with the intimacy built by speaking Spanish, yes--but that to function in America what he needed was a public language--which in this country means English first and foremost. And that to gain that public voice and move into the mainstream of American society such a sacrifice is crucial and necessary. It's also a moving, powerful, and beautifully written biography.
    • 5/5
      This is book well worth reading again for a variety of reasons. The author shares his individuality yet speaks on universal themes . Richard Rodriguez reveals his inner life growing up hungry to learn but saddened by the loss of family intimacy when speaking in Spanish is replaced by English only at home at the suggestion of the Catholic sisters who are his elementary school teachers. Richard longs for the close feelings the familly had when they all shared the same language. With English as his his tool he becomes a scholarship boy and advances in his studies. Because of his academic ahievement he comes to speak out on education policies of affirmative actioon and bilingual education. This should be required reading for all involved in education.
    • 3/5
      Overall: I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves words, or who is an educator. Whether or not you agree with his positions on bilingual education or affirmative action, his account of his own experiences, struggles and successes is a strong argument on its own.
    • 5/5
      This is a poignant book about growing up as a first generation immigrant. it has many insights on the balance between culture and education. Many of the insights are dead on. I found myself underlining many lines in the "Credo" section.