The Eagle and the Serpent: A Bi-Literacy Autobiography

This work describes the author's experiences in both Spanish and English literacy development. It illustrates the bilingual/bicultural experience of acculturation and assimilation, a process of change, both culturally and linguistically. The Eagle and the Serpent does so in three levels: autobiographical narratives in bi-literacy acquisition, expository reflections from the viewpoint of a bilingual/bicultural Mexican-American adult, and finally an analysis of the process evident in the author's experience. Interspersed in the autobiographical elements, Palacios reflects on his spiritual journey of religious conversion, from Mexican Catholicism to American Evangelicalism. After discussing immigration, acculturation, and literacy, the story ends with an appended poem that reflects many immigrant children's lives of metamorphosis.