Rodriguez, Anzaldua and the American Dream I find it interesting that although Rodriguez and Anzaldua come from comparable backgrounds, they have very different feelings on similar issues. Rodriguez believes that education should not be bilingual for children from Spanish-speaking homes. Anzaldua, on the other hand, thinks people shouldn't crush these people's culture and should do what they can to help them preserve it. I think in this sense you could compare Anzaldua and Rodriguez to the idea of ​​American culture, because each represents an extreme of how we perceive it. On the one hand we have Anzaldua, the idea that America is a melting pot, combining all the different cultures of the different peoples living here to create a new and different stew, she is the idealized thought of what America is . On the other hand, there is Rodriguez, who thinks that the only way to succeed is to assimilate into the culture that exists and abandon one's old culture, this is the most cynical view and, on the other hand, in some way, the most realistic. Now, Anzaldua is not completely oblivious to the need to assimilate. This is proven by his notoriety and respect. To get where she is, she had to assimilate, just like Rodriguez. However, the difference is that while she was assimilating under duress, Rodriguez jumped at the chance to assimilate. Anzaldua, while wearing a mask that fit the majority culture, was still the same culture underneath. Rodriguez, on the other hand, changed the very culture with which he identified. While she still identified with the culture that had managed to survive under oppression for hundreds of years, she shed the culture of her immigrant parents and accepted the majority culture of Am. .... middle of paper ...... the same underneath and compartmentalizing, it did so by becoming indistinguishable from the majority culture. I find the differences between Anzaldua and Rodriguez interesting. Although they come from similar backgrounds and have gone in similar directions, they are extremely different. They both explain how and why they chose the path they did in their essays, and I believe both of their ideas have merit. While Anzaldua is right that she should be allowed to write however she wants, it's harder to get her point across if readers don't speak the language and have to translate every few sentences. And even if Rodriguez is right and education changes us, I don't think forcing everyone to continue their education the same way he did is the best solution, although it may have worked for him, it will not necessarily work for others in his situation..