In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” the author, Gloria Anzaldua illustrates her life; growing up in two completely different cultures. While in American school, Anzaldua is discouraged from speaking Spanish and is expected to speak clear, concise American English. In her Chicano Spanish culture, Anzaldua must live up to certain cultural expectations. Throughout this story, there are many images including language, culture, identity, pride, perseverance and oppression. Gloria Anzaldua’s story is centered around language and how two different cultures’ languages effected her upbringing. She explains each type of language that she has come into contact with over the duration of her life: Standard English, working class and slang English, Standard Spanish, Standard Mexican …show more content…
As Ray Gwyn Smith once said, “Who is to say that robbing people of its language is less violent than war?” The image that is illuminated by culture is that a society cannot live without it. Culture fuels community and tradition. Anzaldua explains the importance of language and how it gives a sense of identity to a group of people. “Chicano Spanish sprung out of the Chicano’s need to identify ourselves as distinct people. We needed a language with which we could communicate with ourselves…For some of us, language is a homeland…” Anzaldua reveals. Chicano Spanish gave Anzaldua’s people a sense of being and center when they felt as if they didn’t belong anywhere. Because of Anzaldua’s distinct and unique language, she was given a sense of pride and perseverance . When Anzaldua discovered a sense of pride for her Spanish culture, she realized she was a part of something bigger: she was a part of a new future where she can accept both American and Spanish cultures. Anzaldua proudly proclaims, “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my
“Se Habla Español,” is written by a Latin author, Tanya Barrientos; and Amy Tan, a Chinese author, wrote “Mother Tongue”. In both literate narratives the authors write about their experiences with language and how it impacted their lives. In This essay we will be discussing the similarities as well as the differences in the stories and the authors of “Se Habla Español” and “Mother Tongue”. We will discuss how both authors use a play on words in their titles, how language has impacted their lives, how struggling with language has made them feel emotionally, and how both authors dealt with these issues.
While Anzaldúa makes great points about the struggles of a Chicana women in America, her arguments imply that Mexican people are the only people that have to adapt to American culture. While Mexican people should feel free to express their cultures freely, language is a much more complex issue; it is not simply solved by not accommodating to English speakers. English speakers must strive to embrace other cultures and languages, and understand that they do not necessarily have to speak that language to accept
Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong somewhere? Do you know what it feels like to be told you don’t belong in the place of your birth? People experience this quite frequently, because they may not be the stereotypical American citizen, and are told and convinced they don’t belong in the only place they see as home. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Anzaldúa gives the reader an inside look at the struggles of an American citizen who experiences this in their life, due to their heritage. She uses rhetorical appeals to help get her messages across on the subliminal level and show her perspective’s importance. These rhetorical appeals deal with the emotion, logic and credibility of the statements made by the author. Anzaldúa
Language is an important part of who we are. It influences the way we think and behave on a great scale. However, sometimes it is forced upon us to go in different directions just so we can physically and mentally feel as if we belong to the society in which we live in. Just as we see in Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” and Richard Rodriguez’s “A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, both authors faced some challenges along the way by coping with two different languages, while still trying to achieve the social position which they desired.
All in all Anzaldua's essay is very motivating and “colorful”, due to her utilization of metaphors she uses give the reader gains insight into her writing process, most of all into the process of connecting images and building ideas. However Anzaldua's use of language and style, the transition from English to Spanish and back again in particular, may create confusion for certain readers, who are not familiar with the different
By providing those words, Anzaldua confirms that a new variant of Spanish has appeared. One possible purpose Anzaldua may have in mind is protecting their language from the Anglo Americans, by doing this she is fighting the idea that there is only one sole language to learn. Anzaldua provides a list of a few variant languages spoken to offer as proof. For example, she listed “standard English, working class and slang English, standard Spanish, standard Mexican Spanish”. When Anzaldua mentioned “standard English and slang English”, she was referring to how we speak differently towards people, there’s a difference to the way someone speaks at work and with their buddies, and Anzaldua emphasized this to show that everyone has a variant language. By providing a list complied of English and Spanish sub-languages, it’s clear that Anzaldua is targeting – those who speak the sub-languages – as her audience. I agree with the direction she is taking regarding the viewership, because the issue mainly concerns those who speak a variant language. Anzaldua’s use of her variant language reinforces how much she really understands concerning the alienation of the language. At the end, Anzaldua states “…yet possessing a malleability that renders us unbreakable, we, the mestizas and mestizos will
Language is more than just a means of communication; it is part of one's culture, self-expression, and identity. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” is a chapter from the book ,Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza ,written by Gloria E. Anzaldua. In this chapter, Anzaldua talks about her Chicana life in a period full of immigrant controversies where Latinos living in the United States were struggling to find their national identity and a language to speak freely without feeling any shame and fear from others. She expresses the dilemma she had to face about her own language in which she was often criticized and scolded for her improper Spanish accent. From these experiences she labeled these attacks on languages as “Linguistic Terrorism”. Anzaldúa
Anzaldua grew up in the United States but spoke mostly Spanish, however, her essay discusses how the elements of language began to define her identity and culture. She was living in an English speaking environment, but was not White. She describes the difficulty of straddling the delicate changing language of Chicano Spanish. Chicano Spanish can even differ from state to state; these variations as well as and the whole Chicano language, is considered a lesser form of Spanish, which is where Anzaldua has a problem. The language a person speaks is a part...
Tan’s essay does more than just illuminate the trouble with language variations; her essay features a story of perseverance, a story of making a “problem” harmonize into a “normal” life. Almost like a how-to, Tan’s essay describes an obstacle and what it takes to go above and beyond. Mirroring Tan, I have been able to assimilate “the [world] that helped shape the way I saw things” and the world that I had to conform to (Tan 129). Life is a struggle, but what makes it worth it is the climb, not what is on the other side.
According to Anzaldua, “ Chicano Spanish is considered by the purist and by most Latinos deficient, a mutilation of Spanish”(Anzaldua 32). The Chicano Spanish versus Spanish conflict that occurs in Latino society is a prime example of people considering themselves to be right in a situation where there is not a right answer. The Latino’s who speak Spanish that they believe to be normal are disturbed by the Spanish language changing. They believe that their own views are being challenged, they believe that they are correct, and they believe that anyone who challenges their views is inferior. The people who view all other views are, in reality, just trying to make themselves look more powerful. Like in Tan’s essay, people demeaned others in order to promote their own views, therefore, gaining power over the others who they demeaned. According to Tan, “ She said they would not give her any more information(...) And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect english-- lo and behold-- we had assurances the CAT scan would be found”(Tan 2). The doctors treated Tan’s mother differently due to her use of what they considered “broken language”, leading to her being treated inadequately. People have an image of what they consider to be the right English, anyone who does not speak the right English is usually considered to be uneducated. In both Tan’s and Anzaldua’s essays, the lack of open-mindedness is one of the reasons that people want to become more powerful than others. People fail to realize that what they believe in is not always the right answer, like with stereotypes, the people are trying to gain power over others in order to make themselves seem more
Anzaldua point out that a person’s identity is through her culture and their native language. In this text, Anzaldua emphasizes that many people especially teachers and her family encourage her to lose her language and perfect English because that is the way for them to be successful. However, Anzaldua states that, “Until I take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself...I will overcome the tradition of silence” (21). Anzaldua points out that if she can’t take pride of her own culture and her background then how can she identify herself? I feel like education cannot be the only factor that contribute to how individual view life. For example, For Anzaldua, her family and her community always criticize her for either not knowing Spanish or because she knows English and does not embrace her culture. In addition, she is constantly in a battle between what she should follow or what her family and her teachers tell her to. I think on this point, Anzaldua knows that if she can’t take pride in her own language then how can she think about English when she can’t even embrace her own culture. Her family 's influence on her on becoming a “certain one” greatly impacted her thinking about her surrounding. Her perspective on learning different language also stem from the feel of wanting to feel acceptance or to fill
“Se habla Espanol” wrote by Tanya Maria Barrientos. She is growing up in Texas, but she was born in Guatemala. That causes she cannot speak Spanish like Latina. In the article, she talked about what the feeling as a Lantana without the ability to speak Spanish so well. Her parents give her a few of knowledge about speaking Spanish. Because, she grew up in a special era, which Mexican Americans were considered dangerous radical. Nowadays, this theory is politically incorrect. The author wants to find some people that like her, does not fit in Spanish culture and help them, giving them a big mental supporting. I’m from China, growing and living in different places, which have different language and culture habit.
Like many Chicanos, she developed a strong sense of cultural belonging. This is primarily due to discrimination amongst neighboring Mexicans, whites, and anyone in between. Latinos and latinas would attack her, saying “...cultural traitor, you’re speaking the oppressor’s language, you’re ruining the Spanish language” (Anzaldua 412). It was this ethnic struggle that drove her to latch onto her cultural background so strongly. In the personal narrative “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua, Anzaldua states “When other races have given up their tongue, we’ve kept ours. We know what it is to live under the hammer blow of the dominant norteamericano culture” (Anzaldua 419) when referring to the resilience of her native people. She states this in response to other cultural groups having abandoned their language, meanwhile they retained theirs. The Chicanos are aware of the harsh standards of North American society. By saying “When other races have given up their tongue, we’ve kept ours,” she means that even when other ethnicities have been pushed to eliminate their languages, her ethnicity stayed strong; they refused to cave in. Likewise, when Anzaldua states “We know what it is to live under the hammer blow of the dominant norteamericano culture,” she draws pride from her culture’s ability to fend off even the most suffocating adversities. In this way, Anzaldua conveys
How to tame a wild tongue is an essay by Gloria Anzaldua. This essay focuses on the different types of Spanish people spoke, and in this case, Anzaldua focuses on losing an accent to adjust to the environment she was living in. The issue that was applied in this essay was that the Spanish she spoke wasn’t exactly considered “Spanish”. The essay was divided into different sections as where the author tries to let people know, her Spanish speaking language should be considered valid just like every other Spanish speaking language out there.
In the essay “Mother Tongue” Amy Tan, the author, gives a different, a more upbeat outlook on the various forms of English that immigrants speak as they adapt to the American culture. Using simple language to develop her argument, she casually communicates to the audience rather than informing which helps the audience understand what is being presented at ease. Her mother plays an important role in her outlook of language, because she helps her realize that language not only allows one to be a part of a culture but create one’s identity in society. Amy Tan shares her real life stories about cultural racism and the struggle to survive in America as an immigrant without showing any emotions, which is a wonderful epiphany for the audience in realizing