Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father [Paperback]

Richard Rodriguez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1993

Rodriguez's acclaimed first book, Hunger of Memory raised a fierce controversy with its views on bilingualism and alternative action. Now, in a series of intelligent and candid essays, Rodriguez ranges over five centuries to consider the moral and spiritual landscapes of Mexico and the US and their impact on his soul.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Luminous essays on the cultural identity of Californians of Mexican descent. Author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (November 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140096221
• ISBN-13: 978-0140096224
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #520,551 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A controversial voice that deserves to be heard, August 1, 2002

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father (Paperback)

In this and his other collection of personal essays, "Hunger of Memory," Richard Rodriguez describes how becoming an American has been an experience much like Alice's trip through the looking glass. It has distanced him from his Mexican-born parents and separated him almost entirely from his Mexican roots. The central idea running through many of these thoughtful, earnest essays is a heightened awareness of the differences between our public and private lives. They also focus on the impact of education on himself and his siblings as children of Spanish-speaking immigrants.

After reading his books, nothing about becoming American seems as simple as it's often represented in popular fiction and movies. You see, for example, how learning English and the way Americans use it immediately create cultural conflicts. Rodriguez' parents had valued education as a way to get ahead in America. Ironically, the greater success he experienced in school, the further he became removed from the world of his parents.

Still a boy, he lost the ability to converse in Spanish. Becoming a public figure in the English-speaking world, he seemed to betray his ethnic background, which valued privacy and separateness from the English-speaking (gringo) world. Ironically, for all his achievements as an "American," Rodriguez learns that because of his background, he remains in many ways an outsider. Lacking a middle class upbringing, he has passed through the educational system as a "scholarship boy." This term, borrowed from Richard Hoggart's book "The Uses of Literacy," describes the son of working class parents who is granted the privilege of a middle class education, but while rising above his humble origins, never fully transcends them.

The political positions Rodreguez takes as an adult flow as a logical extension from the experiences that shaped him -- especially the benefits of the education he received in a private school. Later there were the benefits that came to him as a "minority student" -- advantages he considered unwarranted. Concerned by poverty in America and the underfunding of schools that would help end poverty, he takes positions that have been unpopular among many educators. In these essays, he challenges the assumptions underlying both affirmative action and bilingual education.

Rodriguez writes with great clarity, and his sentences seem crafted with considerable care. He wants very much to say precisely what he means. And this cannot have been always easy, as many of his ideas grapple with both irony and paradox. Often you read paragraphs that seem to have been thought through deeply, then carefully written and rewritten. The care that he takes in writing these essays reflects a wish to be read carefully. Those who have found reason to be offended, angered, or "bored" by his ideas are evidence that he touches on a great many sensitive issues.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A MESMERIZING PASSIONATE DIALOGUE, March 4, 2001

By 

Dorothy Weiss (ORLANDO, FLORIDA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father (Paperback)

This book is more of a dialogue rather than an argument. A passionate mesmerizing dialogue with the past and present perceived realities of the author's cultural heritage. I saw Richard Rodriguez at a televised University presentation. His ability to respond to questions from the students and faculty with relaxed patience and stunning oratory was impressive. That is why I purchased this book. A man of knowledge and accomplishment, who has something to say, and knows how to say it. I wanted to learn more from him. That same quality of knowledge permeates this book which is filled with unsurpassed images of Mexico, Spain and California. Mr Rodriguez revisits this historical blend of cultures that produced him and invites us to also participate in this dialogue of perceptions. He bares his inner most thoughts, his agony and his pride. Well worth reading. Take your time, and savor the sights, sounds and existence of a beautiful people; then and now.

24 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hit and Miss, March 2, 2000

By 

John Cardenas "opera nut" (Ontario, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father (Paperback)

Rodriguez' previous book, Hunger of Memory, was a valuable account of the cultural schizophrenia many Latinos go through--i.e., Spanish vs English, Catholic vs Protestant, Old World vs New World. What was so damn infuriating about that book was Rodriguez' closeted, timid tone. Every word was carefully weighed, the tone as dead, as academic as the world he kissed up to and was, hence, rewarded by. He was so careful not to be vulgar or hasty in his judgments that he came off stiff and ponderous. Anyone put off by his arguments could have rejected them on the basis of his style alone. If this is what kowtowing to the Protestant academic establishment does to you, I'll gladly remain a backward, brash Latino any day. In Days of Obligation, Rodriguez has loosened up considerably but not always with the best of results. His fondness for colorful adjectives and adverbs makes his writing here frequently dense and knotty. One thinks, "Hmmm, what a beautiful description--what it means, I haven't the vaguest idea." He amplifies his cultural survey here with mixed results: his description of Mexican society is rich and meaty; however, I could have done without yet another breezy dismissal of superficial L.A. in a subsequent chapter. And his unwillingness in the chapter on San Francisco to address his own sexuality is rather tiresome; he seems rather an old-fashioned nelly in his reluctance to state the obvious. And the book's organization is a mess--nothing holds together; it all seems rather disconnected. And what exactly the argument with his father is is unclear since he ends up coming to the same conclusions. He's an odd mixture of a writer: raised with the progressive optimism of the U.S. but by temperament more attuned to the cynicism and resignation of Latin culture. Still, this book shows him to be far more human and interesting a writer than the dry, careful prose of Hunger of Memory suggests. In Days of Obligation, the hunger is at least partially sated.