Spanish Becomes a Secret; Language of the Dead
After reading “Spanish Becomes a Secret; Language of the Dead” from the book My Broken Language by Quiara Alegria Hudes, I was struck by how eloquent yet tragic this personal story was. Looking at the context of this excerpt, it is difficult to determine if this is autobiographical, if the author is the young girl in the story. Like most authors, I am sure Hudes is using a good amount of personal experience to craft her tale. Even if some of the details are not exactly fact, it is clear that the emotion coming through is genuine. Socially, it is fascinating to observe the interactions of people who are close to each other. The love the author feels for her mother is almost a tangible, solid thing. The minute detail she uses to describe the way her mother works her garden shows an amazing attention to detail. It is as if Hudes knows she is the caretaker of her mother’s hard work. She must watch it attentively and scribe the details metic...