Victim of two cultures. Richard Rodriguez

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Richard Rodriguez, the son of Mexican immigrants, calls himself "a comic victim of two cultures. He started out speaking nothing but Spanish, and now argues for education in nothing but English. A Fulbright scholar with degrees from Stanford and Columbia, he suddenly walked away from a promising career in academia; despite his ambition to teach, he rebelled against job offers that, he says, came to him just because of his Hispanic surname. Condemned by some for having forsaken his roots and for his negative views of affirmative action and bilingual education, he has been praised by many others for his intimate understanding of the impact of language on life. In this program with Bill Moyers, Rodriguez explains his opposition to bilingual education and talks about his experience growing up in America as the son of immigrants; he also discusses the differences between Mexican and American cultures.