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Showing posts with the label Richard Rodriguez

Days of Obligation: An Argument With My Mexican Father (audiobook) by Richard Rodriguez

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Rodriguez writes a rambling, insightful and interesting work Published by Blackstone Audio in 2008 Duration: 8 hours, 14 minutes I first learned of Richard Rodriguez on C-Span's Booknotes program. He was an invited guest of First Lady Laura Bush to speak at an author's fair that she started hosting in Texas while she was the First Lady of Texas. Rodriguez was promoting his book Brown at the the time and I thought his observations were wonderful. Days of Obligations is in a similar vein, but not nearly as focused. He does (primarily) focus on the differences between Mexico and the United States Two interesting observations from Mexicans about America include: 1) "America is 'Organized'. Passive voice. Rodriguez notes that there seems to be no connection that actual Americans do the organizing. Rather it's almost like it is fate that America is organized. 2) Americans have too much freedom. Rodriguez digresses from his Mexico/America discu...

Brown: The Last Discovery of America by Richard Rodriguez

Great. Thought-provoking. Richard Rodriguez is a San Francisco-based writer who was asked to write a book about being Hispanic in America. I doubt Brown: The Last Discovery of America was the book that the publisher had in mind when they asked. Rodriguez is a true political maverick whose thesis is that America is becoming "Brown" - a mixture of Anglo, Hispanic, Black, Asian and whatever else you want to throw in. America can embrace this future (and probably will) or it can reject it and deny the reality that surrounds us all (and does it matter if you deny reality - it is still there). I first heard of Rodriguez on C-Span. He was giving a speech at the Texas Book Fair created by Laura Bush. His speech was truly wonderful and I just had to find his book. I could go into detail on his observations, but you would much prefer if you would read it the way he put them in his book - his writing style is so fluid that he sneaks major concepts into your thoughts before you ev...