A Single Life Reinvented: Personal Writing as the Negotiation of Identity in Richard Rodriguez’s Autobiographical Trilogy

Abstract

Through ongoing circulation and discussion, personal narratives are continually resituated among different social bodies and institutions. The cultural impact of these stories then extends well beyond their initial publication. They perpetually renegotiate both the authors’ individual identities as well as their communal alliances. As an example, this essay considers how Richard Rodriguez’s autobiographical trilogy and its critical reception shifted not only his own self-description but also the boundaries of Chicano, Mexican-American, and queer communities. Personal writing becomes not a mere reflection of self, but a becoming—a way to write ourselves into other worlds and communities.