ABSTRACT
In his poignant autobiography, Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez recalled his life as
“a bilingual child, a certain kind-socially disadvantaged-the son of working class
parents, both Mexican immigrants” (Rodriguez, 1982, p. 12). In this book, Rodriguez
described the joys and struggles of learning the English language and the inevitable
conflicts that developed between his own Hispanic traditions and the culture of the
United States. What Rodriguez experienced in his schooling is more and more familiar to
educators as the population of second-language students in postsecondary institutions
increases rapidly.
