Sunday, February 20, 2011

"Aria"

When I was reading "Aria," I began to think about my family and my boy friend's family. Both of us come from strong families who still speak their native language. My family is full blooded Italian and we still speak Italian on and off when we are all together. When my great grandmother came to America, she had to learn English to help understand the people she was working with and the people she had to interact with. However, just because she became bilingual, she never let go of speaking Italian. Now that the family has grown, I have noticed that we speak less Italian but it is still present. I never wonder what to call my grandparents or my aunts and uncles. We have adapted to our surroundings but we still try to hold on to where we came from. On the other hand, this reading made me look at my boy friends family. I spent the entire day with them today (hence why I am writing this blog so late), and by doing so I was able to connect some of the things that Rodiriguez was saying. My boy friend is Portugese and his family speaks very very little English, in fact, the only thing that his grand parents can say is "Hi" and "Thank-you". This to me was very annoying because I couldn't handle the language barrier, I felt like I was being rude by not speaking to them. All day I had wished that I knew one maybe two words of Portugese. But as I sat there and listened to them speak, I realized that it was amazing that they could live in America for so long and still speak next to no English. I also that it was amazing that they kept their family so close together. It is refreshing to see a family that holds onto its past. To them, family and religion are the two most important things and if holding onto their native language helps to keep those bonds close than more power to them. They have refused to change and let go of what they know so that they could bring a piece of their old home to their new home. I loved being able to read "Aria" and being able to spend a day with another family who believed in speaking their own language. It definitley helped me to understand where Rodriguez was coming from.

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