Both texts, Tomas Rivera’s And The Earth Did Not Devour Him and Richard Rodriguez’ “Aria”, share many similaries and many different takes on the same idea. Both texts have to do with trying to keep hold of their Mexican Heritage while still trying to fit in without assimilating. Both pieces have similar ideas of religion, which in Rodriguez’ piece can be explored through the nuns; perceptions on white or gringo society, and the trials of being Mexican. (holding on to your culture without assimilating)
Both Rivera and Rodriguez have a really daunting perception of white society that can be shared across both of the narratives. In Rivera’s novella, he showed the intolerance of differences through how it impacted his Mexican characters, while Rodriguez showed this through more or less straight up criticism of the way they acted around him. Every time Rivera mentioned a white or Anglo person in his story there was always a negative connotation. In “It’s That It Hurts” the Mexican boy was just bullied and attacked by a white boy, and throughout the whole story he thinks on how he was the one being punished and possibly expelled because the Mexican boys who were blamed for it. In the vignette on p. 129, a white woman had been drinking and driving and killed sixteen people when she crashed into a truck. Rivera has also very strong imagery of the choppy English of the migrant workers be a very real obstacle in obtaining any respect. In Rodriguez’ memoir he views white society by their language. For him, it seems like the language is a very real almost malicious thing out to get and assimilate him. It was foreign and bad to him, much like how the gringo community around him viewed him. For him the white society was a necessary evil that he learned to live with later on, and early on it was a mold he struggled to fit. He also saw a lot of white society in the way they treated his parents, who were not very good or confident English speakers. Still, much like Rivera’s, it held a very negative connotation.
A big theme throughout both narratives was the idea of the trials of being Mexican. Alienation was also a big thing because not only did Rodriguez personally receive this, but as did every character in Rivera’s novella. However, both authors explore these trials in different ways. In Rivera’s novel, he was more like receiving alienation and discrimination from the white society. They didn’t want him apart of their culture, but he wanted in as a way to make it places in the world. The characters in Rivera’s novella, much like Rodriguez, struggled to maintain their Mexican culture and views while still trying to be accepted and fit into American society. There was almost a shame of being Mexican there because not only did they have to deal with being different but they had to deal with the stereotypes of their culture, and the discrimination. In Rodriguez’ memoir, he, towards the middle/end of the story, was being alienated from the Mexican culture, and being assimilated into the English one, while his parents were doing the reverse. Once his parents started speaking English to him at home, he learned it much quicker, but also forgot how to speak Spanish, though he still understood it. All this was happening while he was being accepted more and more into the English culture. His family friends and relatives would start calling him ‘Poncho’ meaning ‘colorless’. Just because he became more assimilated in American culture he became more detached from his own, which is where his struggle lay. He wanted to still have that close family unit and didn’t want to assimilate, but didn’t have a choice, and once he did he was punished for it.
