Richard Rodriguez
Richard Rodriguez is an essayist, writer and journalist. He was born on July 31, 1944 in Sacramento, California, United States. He went to a Catholic school named Christian Brothers High School at age six, where he graduated from. He studied in a lot of universities. Rodriguez got a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.A. from Columbia University. A noted prose stylist, Rodriguez has worked as a teacher, international journalist, and educational consultant and has appeared regularly on the PBS show, NewsHour. He is known for opposition to bilingual education and affirmative action. He wrote a lot of books like: Days of Obligation: An Argument With My Mexican Father, Brown: The Last Discovery of America and Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez which made him popular. Harper's Magazine, Mother Jones, and Time published his works.
Rodriguez is a Roman Catholic and homosexual. He came out in his book of essays Days of Obligation. This caused some readers and critics, especially Latinos, to be less critical of his ideas. He is married and his wife’s name is Jim.
He has received several awards like Fulbright Fellowship, 1972-73, National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, 1976-77, and Frankel Medal, Commonwealth Club gold medal, 1982 and etc. At present, Rodriguez is writing a book on Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and the desert. Rodriguez reports that he is "interested in the fact that three great monotheistic religions were experienced within this ecology." A sample of this project appeared in Harper's Magazine (January 2008). In this essay, "The God of the Desert," Rodriguez portrays the desert as a paradoxical temple—its emptiness the requisite for God's elusive presence.
The Lonely, Good Company of Books

"The Lonely, Good Company of Books” describes how the Author Richard Rodriguez as a little boy had undergone a tough childhood, had no friends or anybody he can find comfort from. He is from a poor Spanish speaking family, who resides in America, and who cannot reserve the luxury of reading because of their situation. This family is barely able to put the young Richard through school, but the real story is how he develops a relationship with books. As quoted, “Don’t write in your books,” he heard it from his parents when they refer to as viable income, or through the nuns at his school as they respect and care for their literature. This he understood, but when it came to notes such as “Reading or Learning,” or “Treat a book as friend,” he found difficult to cope with.
He also found reading more of a central activity than leisure a form of comfort. But it took one on one sessions, personally with the teacher so he can develop a better understanding. For six months he gradually processed communication between the reader and the writer through the book. Thereby, when he read, it started to respond to him more personal and so on. It got to the point to that if he reads a book and understands it, it is like friend. If he reads a book and does not understand it, he avoids it as if trouble.
Questions
1. What is the thesis of Rodriguez essay? 2. Rodriguez hoped that reading would fill the hollow inside him. What was the cause of this emptiness?
The cause of this emptiness was illiteracy. 3. Did he succeed in filling the void?
Yes, he did. 4. Why did he find reading a lonely experience at first?
Because he taught that reading in a lonely place would be so effective. 5. Did reading fulfill any of his experience, which ones? 6. How can reading help you in your academic and university success?
Reading books is so helpful because we can learn a lot of things from book and open our mind with. 7. Who was nun? And what sort of arrangement she have with Rodriguez? 8. Why did librarian’s attitude change towards Rodriguez? 9. How did he make moral of the books he read? Give an example. 10. What do you learn from Rodriguez and why?
I learn that we should try. We should to try to read critically because in this way we can realize some thing.