Sanderson holds a master of fine arts degree in fiction writing and is an independent writer. In this essay, she looks at the universality of Rodriguez's experiences growing up.

Many critics have long considered Rodriguez's memoir Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez a confession and apology for his apparent rejection of his Mexican-American roots. For example, Carlos Hortas writes in Harvard Educational Review that Rodriguez wrote his autobiography as "an act of contrition, a confession through which he seeks the forgiveness of Chicanos and other members of 'minority' groups."

Some of these commentators, Hortas included, base their "apology" argument on the perception that Rodriguez seems happiest when he is a very young child, at home, speaking Spanish before the nuns have the talk with his parents that sets his life firmly on the English-speaking road. In a sense, these critics see Rodriguez as a sort...