I agree with Riane, I expected something completely different from this essay. I expected the routine essay from the Christian viewpoint about how to control what we say. Needless to say, I was wrong.
The opening of the essay was phenomenal. In the opening she even leads the reader, at least me, to believe that the essay will follow the tradition it's title foreshadows. She basically quotes scripture and than directs the essay a completely different way. Her technique at the beginning was very effective.
As I read further into the essay I became confused and frustrated with her method of writing. She lost me in her switch of dialect between Spanish and English. In a few paragraphs I could barely understand what she was trying to say. When she stopped explaining all the different types of Spanish she speaks I slowly began to see the point she was trying to make. What she has to say, is great, if the reader continues to make themselves read the essay. In my opinion she has shut her self off to a whole group of readers who may pick up her material.
What is so ironic to me, is that the point of the essay is to express her frustrations with those who don't appreciate and respect her language. This would mainly include full blooded Americans. But the essay is not written so they can understand, it is written in a way that only those who speak her language(s) and agree with her viewpoints can understand. This would be fine, but she just lost the audience she was trying to reach. Most full blooded American won't read far enough to understand what she is saying.
She does have a point, Americans need to respect her language and the culture she comes from. But if her aspirations are to become a writer within the American culture, than she has to adapt to her audience. We don't understand her dialect and writing technique, so how can we understand her and believe what she has to say? It would be just like me, moving to Mexico, trying to get Mexicans to understand and respect my culture, and writing with many confusing English transitions. I would make a fool out of myself and no one would understand what I was saying.
She has undertaken a huge job, but I believe she could be effective, if she wrote to Americans in a way that we understood. Once she has established that ground and gained respect, maybe then she could switch back and forth between her Spanish and English roots. Maybe then her readers would listen.
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This essay was hard for me to read as well, as I do not speak or read Spanish. You are right about her audience. She has valid points to make, but will probably not reach her intended audience.
I wanted to smack the teacher that could not even take the time to learn her name, but was quick to judge her ethnicity.
Granted, it would be ideal for all in America to speak English, as should all US citizens, but reality is not that way.
Won't it be great when we get to heaven and won't have need to deal with this pettiness?
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