Richard Rodriguez is a writer and public intellectual and an expert on minorities in education, affirmative action, and class. He studied at the doctoral level in English literature at Berkeley. Rodriguez grew up in a middle-class, Mexican-American household. Though neither of his parents spoke English fluently, they were steadily employed. When Rodriguez began attending a Catholic school, he was forced to learn English fluently in order to participate in school. Becoming fluent in English changed his life. Not only did he pursue studying language and literature academically and privately, he also distanced himself from his parents and his home, where they only spoke Spanish. Rodriguez eloquently commands English as both a writer and a speaker.

Catholicism was a major influence on Rodriguez’s life. He was raised in a Catholic home and attended Catholic primary and secondary school. He was also an altar boy and was particularly interested in liturgy. Rodriguez would continue to identify with Catholicism into adulthood, though he realized he was more of a liberal Catholic than he had once believed. He was only truly an orthodox Catholic when it came to liturgy.

Rodriguez’s coming of age happened at a time of great change in education.