Both "Aria" by Richard Rodriguez and "...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him" by Tomas Rivera narrates a story about Mexican-American life in a gringo (non-Spanish people) society. However, while both stories have the same theme, they have two very different ways of going about the story. In "Aria," the readers see the narrator and his family slowly changing themselves and their lifestyles, trying to adapt to gringo society (and overall trying to become more accepted as "Americans"). On the other hand in “…And the Earth Did Not Devour Him,” the story follows a Mexican-American family fighting against gringo society and trying to maintain their traditional Mexican cultures.
There are many reasons why this distinction occurs. First, there is the timeline to consider. In “…And the Earth Did Not Devour Him,” the span of the entire story does not go ever one year. This is hinted at in the last chapter of the story, where the little boy recounts all the happenings of the past year in quick notations. Every chapter of this story could represent a “month” and an outstanding event that took place during it. However, in “Aria,” the story spans over multiple years, transitioning from childhood to teenage years, and even going into partial adulthood. The readers understand that months and years go by from the diction the narrator uses. Also, with passing years, comes a changing perspective and growing maturity and the narrator, Rodriguez, slowly integrates into gringo society. Because “Aria” continues for a much longer time than “…And the Earth Did Not Devour Him,” the narrator of “Aria” has time to develop and change—as both the little boy from “…And the Earth…” and Rodriguez from “Aria” had similar mindsets (traditionally cultured) when they were of the same age.
Another reason for the different reactions to gringo society could be the respective families’ location. While the little boy from “…And the Earth…” and his family lived working on farms and in very small crowded locations (the typical and expected poor working conditions for the Mexican farming community), Rodriguez and his family are (seemingly) upper-middle class folk and like in an all-white community. The difference between their wealth, location, and neighborhood-interaction all changes the path that both narrators are most likely to take. In “…And the Earth…,” the little boy is surrounded by Mexican workers, unable to afford proper schooling, bullied upon, discriminated upon, and overall in poor living conditions. The only thing he has to himself is his culture and his family. It is predictable under these conditions that that boy to continue keeping his culture close and relying fully upon it as part of his identity. On the other hand, Rodriguez from “Aria” lives in an upper-middle class society, attends school with white children, is targeted for his Spanish background, and pressured to speaking more English and fully integrating himself into the gringo society. As he repetitively states in the story, Spanish becomes his “second-language.” As he integrates more into a white, American life, he pushes (and eventually forgets) about his Mexican one.
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As a first-generation Asian-American, I have also been through the difficulties Rodriguez went through in “Aria.” And I too transformed the way he did when he was integrating into the American lifestyle. I filtered out my Korean and adopted English, my relatives weren’t happy but I hadn’t cared. This situation of having to choose one culture over the other is damaging to the child that has to choose. To have to choose from family and tradition or friends and society is difficult and hard to differentiate.
Is it possible that two cultures can merge? And by merge I don’t mean taking a few rules and traditional traits from each culture. Does the story from “Aria” have to relate to real life and make a decision for all second-language students and children? Are different cultures truly so incompatible that one must be inferior to the other?
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