In the first story, Anthony Lewis describes his experience from
discussing with, and hearing an immigrant's story. Lewis shares a story of a
Vietnamese boy that arrived as a refugee, his name is Viet Dinh. Viet traveled
with his mother, four sisters and one of his brothers. The way Lewis tells
about Viet's story is in a very compassionate way. "There is no country
that has taken so many people from so many places and cultures, and gained so
much in the process."(Lewis, p.125). Lewis writes about how he got the
first letter from Viet, and how he still receives letters now, keeping Lewis
updated on how Viet is continuing to make so much progress, since he arrived
from Vietnam. In one of Viet's most recent letters, he mentioned that he had
already graduated from Harvard. "I graduated from the Harvard Law in June
and am now a law clerk for Judge Lawrence H. Silberman of the U.S Court of
Appeals in Washington. Next year I clerk for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor at the
Supreme Court."(Lewis,p.155). It is inspiring to hear that a person that
had to face so many obstacles got so far and is continuing to succeed.
As for the second story, Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez is talking
about how he personally had to face immigration; he based this story off of his
life story.
As a boy he saw he’d always see his parents finding
difficulties when speaking English because it was a foreign language to them.
For Rodriguez living a life with immigrant parents was kind of tough because he
wished that his parents would sound like “los gringos”, or fluent when they had
to speak the foreign language.