Rivera and Rodriguez

After reading both And the Earth did not devour him, and Aria, I drew an immediate connection that both conveyed the idea of wanting to fit in. To fit in in a public manner, to be accepted. In Aria, the main theme was language and how it defines a person or culture. Parts of it made me really sad because Richard felt like he lost his family connection when he started speaking English at home. Instead of coming home to the warm Spanish he was used his mother and father decided that to help him and his siblings with school that they would also speak English. 

In And the Earth did not devour him, there were some stories where language was also brought up, where dsome were made fun of and rejected to society because of the way they spoke.  

My belief is that language is part of someone. I would love to be able to speak many languages, and maybe one day I will. Richard learned in the end that its okay to speak two languages. At first he was angry with English, then he was intimidated by Spanish. He was confused and angry and didn't know how to identify himself or how to fit in, just like many of the characters in And the Earth did not devour him.

Education is also a major theme in these works. The Chicanos search for a better life, one that is not grueling labor in hot fields, one that only sustains them for a short while. They want jobs like the gringos, jobs that make a living wage so they won't have to live in a hut or chicken coup, so they know that they can buy enough food for the family. In Rivera's novel there are several stories that show the importance of education(It's that is hurts, the anecdote after it, Hand in his pocket,  and the anecdote before Little Burnt Victims), and along with that, those who do go to school are told to speak English, to learn English. It is pushed and pushed in school to learn English, a  foreign tongue.  In Aria the same thing happens with Richard, he is pushed to learn English, to use it as his primary language so he can do better in school and in life, so he will be like the others.

Another interesting thing I noticed with the two texts is that they look back into the past, and and times are ashamed of who they are, and then realize that they know who they are. In Rivera's last story the boy under the house comes to terms and recognizes who he is, and a bit of what his place is in the world. He becomes content. In Rodriguez's, Richard learns who he is through language, he learns about the intimacy and that its not the language that makes it intimate, its the person who does. He realizes that people put on faces for being in public and have faces for at home and work. Things come together for him when he thinks back to his grandmothers open casket and looks at "her public face the mortician had designed with his dubious art".  I thought that was very powerful.

Both authors bring to light what is was like for Mexican-American's to grow up, to be made fun of, to be outcast, to understand acceptance, and to know who their individual self is.

My Question:  Is it still like these stories in today's culture, about the learning and feeling alone and trying to be accepted into society for who they are?