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Hunger Of Memory Sandra Cisneros Analysis

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Richard Rodriguez’s memoir, Hunger of Memory, and Sandra Cisneros semi-autobiographical collection of short stories, House on Mango Street, encompass juxtaposing perspectives with regards to space. Rodriguez’s expresses the purging of one’s past ethnic roots, including his association with the Chicano/x community. He develops his public voice through his mastery of English and his astute scholarship. Cisneros and Rodriquez alike expose the bleak realities of their experiences with regards to their affiliations with their ethnicity. Cisneros proclaims authority by embracing her cultural hybridity. Rodriquez’s acculturates within the bounds of Western practices, which enables his public voice to be heard. Hunger of Memory and House on Mango Street …show more content…

Rodriquez expresses a deep nostalgia for his loss of his private life. He encapsulates the private sphere with the Spanish language, familial relations, ethnicity, and the Chicano identity. Spanish becomes an intimate and romanticized notion of his culture, he fears the meaning is lost in translation, “The problem was ... that though I knew how to translate exactly what she had told me, I realized that any translation would distort the deepest meaning of her message: It had been directed only to me. This message of intimacy could never be translated because it was not in the words she had used but passed through them” (31). Rodriguez’s inability to distinguish between ethnicity and race is problematic. He lump-sums race and ethnicity without identifying their incongruences because race is a social construct in contrast to ethnicity that is based on choice. Furthermore, ethnicity can be used as a resource for identity formation, Cisneros in her short story “My Name” she expresses her encounter with the foreignness of English and illuminates the beauty of Spanish, "At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish, my name is made out of a softer something, like silver" (13). Thus, ethnicity is not a corrective measure in relation to race, but rather a tool that augments cultural

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