Yo hablo espanol.
Awkward. That was my day in Spanish yesterday. Mrs. Ward asked what we did during the weekend. I said it was my “name day”. The room went silent. No one had any idea what a “name day” was. I felt like a total idiot. Once again, Nicole is shouting to the whole world that she is Greek. How cliché. While that is true, I also know the value of culture.
This OpEd describes the life of a woman who was Irish but brought up by her Puerto Rican aunt and grandmother. The author, Suzanne Vega effectively uses rhetorical strategy and argumentation to talk about her race. She says, “I learned that my birth father was actually English-Scottish-Irish. Or white, as we used to say in my old neighborhood.” She uses the term “old neighborhood” to give the reader an idea of where she grew up. This demonstrates who the author is and the lens we should view her opinion through when the reader examines the article.
Vega further uses dialogue to illustrate her point. However, her dialogue acts as an ad homonym in a unique way. Instead of having quoting something she said, she quotes her daugheter saying, “Mom! Why are you wearing all black?” Vega’s original point is that she wears black because that’s the way she was raised; it became apart of her culture to dress in black. However, when Vega uses this quote she also highlights her relationship between her and her daughter. She isn’t offended by her daughters question, rather she embraces it and explains the cultural relevance to her daughter. Vega also laughs at herself for wearing all black, humanizing her and showing that her article isn’t a social commentary, but a personal opinion.
This makes me question whether or not I should have been embarrassed when the entire Spanish classroom went silent. The tradition of a “name day” is just celebrating the name of your patron saint, or who you were named after. Vega just laughed at everyone, including herself. So maybe I should come into school wearing all black. We can see if the whole room goes silent again. Or maybe like Vega, I should laugh at how much we, as people, stil don’t know about each other.
http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/which-side-are-you-on/?ref=opinion
Posted in: on Monday, December 15, 2008 at at 8:46 PM