Richard Rodriguez has 2 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is Hunger of Memory.
Hunger of Memory
Summary
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.
©1982 Richard Rodriguez (P)2018 Tantor
Days of Obligation
Summary
In a series of 10 essays, spanning five centuries of history, beginning with the conquest of Mexico by Hermán Cortés and ending in 1992 San Francisco, Rodriguez explores the conflicts of race, religion, and cultural identity for Mexican-Americans across the landscape of his beloved California. The book's "argument" poses Mexico and the United States as moral rivals. Mexico wears the mask of tragedy, the United States wears the mask of comedy. By the end of the book, the reader recognizes an historical irony: the United States is becoming a culture of tragedy; Mexico, meanwhile, revels in youthful optimism. Mexico and the United States have changed roles.
©1992 Richard Rodriguez (P)1994 Blackstone Audio Inc.