four paragraphs of "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood,"Richard Rodriguez establishes his ethos by establishing his credentials: his background as someone who had a bilingual childhood and knows how to talk about it.

In the first paragraph, Rodriguez tells how he first entered a classroom "able to understand about 50 stray English words"—showing that English was not his first language and he had scant knowledge of the language.

In the next paragraph, we learn that Rodriguez went to school with mostly white children from educated families, and that, in contrast, he was "fated to be the 'problem student' in class." This shows what can unfortunately happen to many who don't speak English fluently and further establishes his credentials as someone who experienced a bilingual childhood.

In the third paragraph, we learn that he had never heard anyone say his name in English before, and we feel how he feels as he sees his mother's face dissolve "in a watery blur" behind the door. This may be how many children feel on the first day of their bilingual education.

In the fourth paragraph, Rodriguez discusses the term "bilingual education," a term that apparently was not common in his childhood. He introduces an interesting point of view—that "it is not possible for a child, any child, ever to use his family's language in school." Rodriguez's view is that "public schooling" is very different from "intimate life," and while in the preceding paragraphs, he has established his ethos as someone with a bilingual childhood, this fourth paragraph also establishes his credentials as someone with the intellectual ability and ideas necessary to discuss that childhood.

In the first paragraph, Rodriguez does not seem to understate or overstate his limited facility with English as a second language when he began school in Sacramento roughly thirty years before. Additionally, he speaks of how his siblings preferred to speak Spanish and did not pursue English language studies once the school day ended. They speak to each other, which implies that his siblings enjoy a close relationship, which will further his ultimate point that being a bilingual person in a family that is not comes at a cost: familial intimacy.

In the second paragraph, Rodriguez becomes more direct in setting out the problem that his eventual acquisition of a second language will cause for him. He will be a "problem" student at school and a cultural outsider in his own family.

In the third paragraph, Rodriguez uses a bit of symbolic foreshadowing when the teacher Anglicizes the pronunciation of his name as he watches his "mother's face dissolve in a watery blur" in the literal and metaphoric door that separates them.

And finally, in the fourth paragraph, Rodriguez makes his thesis clear: "it is not possible for a child...ever to use his family's language in school." Rodriguez has begun his argument with an anecdote about his own childhood, thus establishing his ethos with firsthand experience. Because he refers to a late 1960s proposal by Hispanic American activists and the subsequent congressional vote, the relevance of his argument is established, deepening the ethos of his argument.

Ethos a rhetorical strategy in which an author establishes their credibility so that they seem like a reliable source. Rodriguez begins "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" speaking about his own experiences learning English in the United States. He writes about how he knew about fifty English words when he entered a classroom in a Roman Catholic school in Sacramento, California. The other kids in the class were white and wealthy, and he immediately felt out of place, as the nun who was teaching the class mispronounced his name.

These first few paragraphs establish his ethos, as he goes on to write about how he disagrees with bilingual education and feels that it can be detrimental to children who are learning English. He believes that the child's first language should be used in the home, while English should be used in school. This way, the child's first language—in his case, Spanish—can be the language of identity and can provide the comfort of family life. Rodriguez has established his credibility on this subject because he learned English in school when he was young.

To begin, on must understand what the term "ethos" means. Ethos is "the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution." What this means is that ethos appears when an author shows the point-of-view from which their text is written from, including the cultural influence, morality, and ideology of the author.

In regards to Richard Rodriguez's essay "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood," Rodriguez establishes his ethos by speaking to the fact that he is entering into an American school, only able to "understand about fifty stray English words." Here, Richard details the feelings of alienation felt because of the other students (all white and well off), the nun (who pronounces his name in a way he has never heard), and the fact that his older siblings have kept their experiences hidden from him.

Therefore, the first three paragraphs allow a reader to see hints as to what life was like for Rodriguez.

The fourth paragraph offers a different view of Rodriguez. Here, he states the problems associated with laws which allowed bilingual children to use their "family language" within the walls of the school. Rodriguez, though, knew the implications and problems that would erupt if he tried to speak his native language in school. Rodriguez states that "it is not possible for a child ever to use his family's language in school."

Therefore, the ethos is established by Rodriguez offering some insight into the life of a Spanish speaking child within the walls of an American school. the ethos is established by the author providing his character (an adult recollecting his youth), his moral nature (deciding against speaking Spanish in school), and his beliefs about his experience.

In “Aria,” the first chapter of his memoir, author Richard Rodriguez examines the impact of his childhood, a period when he became bilingual in Spanish and English after his family moved to the United States. Rodriguez applies logos in the analytical portions, in which he addresses practices that affected children’s bilingualism in terms of classroom education. Ethos is expressed largely through his portrayal of his own experience as a source of insights into the development of bilingualism, thereby encouraging the reader to believe in his positive intentions in writing the memoir. Through the use of pathos, he makes his journey come alive to the reader with his highly personal slant, as he recalls experiences such as the shock of moving to a new community and starting a new school.

Rodriguez developed his unique perspectives on bilingualism and bilingual education through a combination of personal experiences and knowledge of the US educational system and related government policies that formerly supported monolingual classroom education. While logos, the appeal to rationality and logic, is essential to make his arguments convincing, ethos and pathos occupy a larger share of the text because it is his own memoir.

Rodriguez is able to demonstrate ethos by writing from his perspective as a successful adult who credits his achievements in part to the enforced adoption of English at an early age. His use of pathos supports this stance because he does not downplay the traumatic aspects of national and cultural transformations, but also offers the joyful aspects of making new friends and mastering a new language.