Rolando Gonzalez
Writing 001
You Make Me Wonder
After reading your story, “Always Living in Spanish,” I have become fascinated and intrigued by who you came to be. Being born in an unfamiliar country like the
United States and raised in Chile must have been hard especially since you had to flee the country in which you learned to read write and think. It fascinates me how you had the courage to stick to your native tongue and manage to succeed with such a passion for reading and writing. I understand that it was difficult to adjust to a new environment and lifestyle. Living in pain, fear and not being able to live comfortably because it wasn’t any easier living in the United States. If doing what you did made you a happier person then every person foreign or not foreign should follow your example because I am strongly considering it. I also managed to identify your struggle with another essay about a boy who had dyslexia.
Even though you were born here in the United States, being raised in Chile was very hard on you but you managed to fall in love with your native language and maneuver it in ways you thought were unimaginable. It’s very understandable that you left the country due to the fact that rumors where spreading of a military coup to overthrow the Marxist government of Salvatore Allende. Also because of all the disappearances, tortures, and clandestine deaths in your country which drove you to the
United States. I myself was also born here, but I was raised in a Spanish speaking community due to the fact that both my parents were born in Mexico. Thus, Spanish

became my strongest language even though I was going to school to learn English. I also believe that we both express what we see, hear, touch, taste and smell with much more detail and clarity in our native language. It’s almost like you identified who you are by writing in Spanish. By letting your readers know how vivid and genuine you’re poetry is. This to me is very respectable.
Living in the United States forces us to adapt to extremities like learning English and getting a new chance at a new beginning. You went to school and were forced to learn English. You were harassed and bullied because people back then weren’t used to foreign people and had to deal with it by not accepting them. Isolated due to the fact that you were considered an outsider and alone because you had very few people you could count on, you sought for family members but realized they were far away. That just proves that you were strong so you managed to adapt to your environment but made your own rules. You chose to write in Spanish which made you what you are now. “The new and learned English language did not fit with the visceral emotions and themes that my poetry contained, but by writing in Spanish I could recover fragrances, spoken rhythms, and the passion of my own identity.” (Agosin 117) You showed everyone how you chose to write with such passion in Spanish. Then you got one of your poems translated and thus your successful journey began . “And then, one day, a poem of mine was translated and published in the English language. Finally, for the first time since I left Chile, I felt I didn’t have to explain myself.” (Agosin 118) Now everyone else who didn’t understand what you were going through could get lost in your poetry. I myself find more ways to express myself by expressing myself through Spanish. I find more creativity and passion.

Obviously after your poems were translated you were able to adapt to living in the United States. Pressure was definitely eased and started to feel comfortable. You identified yourself as a guardian of memory. “For us, to write in Spanish is to always be in active pursuit of memory. I seek to recapture a world lost to me on that sorrowful afternoon when the blue electric sky and the Andean cordillera bade me farewell.”
(Agosin 118) I also find it to be very sad that most of your relatives past away and grew up not knowing a generation of cousins and nieces and nephews. I really can’t identify myself in that position because I know all my cousins, nieces and nephews. So was it really that hard not being able to rely on them and have their support and presence with you? You also state that “Translators are not traitors…” (Agosin 118) but you gave up on English which would’ve helped you to translate it with more ease. Plus, you would’ve been able to make your creativity rise in three dimensions and not rely on translators to express what you felt.
In this essay “On Being 17, Bright, and Unable to Read” by David Raymond, the author suffers from dyslexia which makes him language challenged. He also had it hard mainly because he didn’t know what was wrong with him and his teachers didn’t understand his condition. Like when he said “No, thank you” (Raymond 48) to his teacher because she wanted him to read aloud, reminded me of how you were also harassed because of your accent. Both of you had the same problem of being language challenged. Then with a blink of an eye both of you climb Mt. Everest and manage the impossible. You for instance got your poems translated from Spanish to
English and David Raymond on the other hand managed to graduate from his high school in Connecticut, get numerous awards, and even managed to graduate from

college. Each one of you lives was dramatically altered for the better. Living in harsh conditions with you believing everyone was against you complicated your success, but you managed to overcome the obstacles and succeeded.
It must’ve been hard being raised in such extremities. Loving your native language and migrating to a foreign country. Well foreign in that you felt out of place and had any relatives in the United States. Your stubbornness to maintain yourself to
Spanish got you the chance to get it translated into English which brought upon you great success and recognition. The only thing that did bother me was that you gave up on English so easily. But everyone has their breaking point. You should really consider reading David Raymond’s essay. You two have similar things in common. Your fight to survive is quite comparable. Both of you managed to succeed and be respected around the world.

References
Agosin, Marjorie. “Always Living in Spanish” Language Awareness. Ed. Paul Eschholz,
Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. 9 th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. 116-
19.
Raymond, David. “On Being 17, Bright, and Unable to Read” Language Awareness.
Ed. Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. 9 th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2004. 48-51.