Gloria Anzaldua's How To Tame A Wild Tongue

America is truly an exemplary example of a melting pot of cultures, and in “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Gloria Anzaldua tells her personal story of the challenges she faced while adapting to a society split between two distinct cultures: American and Spanish Chicano culture. While growing up, the American half of her society dictated her academics, as she was required to leave behind her native Spanish language and replace it with American English language in an effort to achieve success and respect from her peers in school. The Chicano half of her surroundings governed her home life, forming the basis of her personal identity, as she grew up in South Texas as part of a Chicano family. This struggle to identify herself within two distinct cultures

She relays to the reader a time at a dentist’s office when the dentist told her that “we’re going to have to control your tongue”, as her tongue was interfering with his ability to perform the dental work. This anecdote introduces the main subject of her argument – one’s mouth and the language that resonates from it, while also providing a comparable and connecting example to appeal to her audience, as the reader has most likely sat in a dentist’s chair at one point. Furthermore, Anzaldua’s explanation of how she instantly related the doctor’s comment to thoughts of how she must “tame a [her] wild tongue” (Anzaldua 26), meaning her accent, makes it clear to the reader that the judgment that Anzaldua has experienced towards her accent has made her always conscious of how others view her – even in instances such as dental appointments. Anzaldua then initially attracts the attention of the reader by intentionally pointing out the harshness of the judgment she encountered to evoke pathos, as the reader feels sympathy when imagining Anzaldua’s vivid descriptions of how she has been treated in the past. She uses pathos to qualify her assertion that the acculturation process is harsh by referencing the First Amendment, explaining that this Amendment is violated when an individual has his form of expression attacked with intent of censure. Anzaldua’s explanation of a time at school when she was hit on the knuckles with a ruler for being caught speaking Spanish, induces anger in the reader as they see how poorly Anzaldua was treated when she was just a young schoolgirl. In a latter example, Anzaldua shares the story of a time when the teacher accused her of talking back when she was simply just trying to explain how to correctly pronounce her name. The insertion of the teacher’s exact words to her: “If you want to be American, speak