In “How To Tame a Wild Tongue” Gloria Anzaldua portrays that someone’s identity comes from the language they speak. A lot can be assumed by what language someone speaks. But the language that you speak is apart of your culture, it is who you truly are and it is what defines you the most, more than any other thing, as a person. Anzaldua repeatedly expresses how speaking her language and being frowned down on is very frustrating to deal with. The treatment she receives from people when she speaks makes her feel like she is being robbed from whom she is. Later Anzaldua realizes that rather than her satisfying English speakers she will always speak her language regardless of anyone’s feelings. She comes to a conclusion that no language could ever …show more content…
be wrong because at the end of the day someone’s language is his or hers identity. Anzaldua uses diction, personal stories, and quotes to successfully argue that in order for one to have a sense of happiness with in them they must accept the illegitimacy of their wild tongue. Despite the clash of two power struggling cultures Anzaldua is able to see beyond the negatives of diversity in both Chicano and Anglo cultures and take pride in her identity. Anzaldua speaks “Spanglish” throughout her essay.
For readers that consider Spanish a foreign language, reading her essay could have been frustrating. In her essay she writes, “I want you to speak English. “Pa’ hallar buen trabajo tienes que saber hablar el inlges bien. Que vale toda tu educacion si todavia hablas ingles con un ‘accent’,” mortified I spoke English like a Mexican.” Anzaldua uses this kind of diction very creatively giving the readers who don’t speak Spanish and English is their native tongue, a little taste of how she feels all the time. “Humildes yet proud, quietos yet wild, nosotros los mexicanos Chicanos will walk by the crumbling ashes as we go about our business” No matter how hard the struggle of two clashing identities is, Chicanos will always have their head up high, speaking their language. “Tenemos que hacer la …show more content…
lucha.” It is very apparent that Anzaldua is frustrated with the treatment she receives due to English being a second language.
She uses small stories that are personal to her to appeal to the reader’s emotions. She writes, “If you want to be American, Speak American. If not go back to Mexico.” This is a very powerful and derogatory statement to her personally. Anzaldua tells a short story about how she was told this in school by her Anglo teacher and how it made her feel attacked and humiliated. Being multi-cultural and living in an Anglo Saxon country can be difficult at times. Being apart of two diverse cultures, Anzaldua realized that someone’s language is just something they can connect with, their form of identity. She says, “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, White.” She has self-validated herself and she is completely okay with it. “Chicano Spanish is not incorrect, it is a living language.” People should not judge based on what they speak. A person’s identity should not be made any less of just because of their language. It should be
embraced. Because of Anzaldua’s native language, she is grouped with a certain identity, and feels it is very unfair. “Were going to have to control your tongue.” “ Were going to have to do something about your tongue.” Anzaldua is constantly being attacked and criticized about her tongue. She feels she is being robbed from who she is because she can not speak “At Pan American University, I and all Chicanos were required to take two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of our accents.” Through out many
The excerpt from “First muse” by Julia Alvarez is a story about her Dominican cultural background. Alvarez has been looked different based on her ability to speak English. Due to Alvarez not have a “Dominican education and her ability to speak English” bullied and teased. As a child Alvarez had told her mom that she does not want to just be the stay home wife who just cooks and cleans like every other wife she wants she does to be different, she wants to be more than just a stay home wife when she get older. It’s ok to know more than one language, but at the same time to should always stay truth to your cultural background/inherent. Just because Alvarez knows English does not make her a different Dominican girl because she knows Spanish too.
Preceding her youth, in 1977, Anzaldua became a High School English teacher to Chicano students. She had requested to buy Chicano texts, but was rejected to do so. The principal of the school she worked for told her, in Anzaldua’s words: “He claimed that I was supposed to teach “American” and English literature.” She then taught the text at the risk of being fired. Anzaldua described, “Being Mexican is a state of soul – not on of mind.” All in all, the reprimanding she had to endure only made her stronger: “Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself.” It led to Anzaldua embracing her Mexican culture even more, contrary to shoving it aside. Anzaldua transformed her beliefs into something both cultures can applaud, and be honored
Rodriguez views the same as a public and private language. He explains that the term “private” relates to Spanish language, while the term “public” is the kind of English language he speaks outside home. As he writes “… I wrongly imagined that English was intrinsically a public language and Spanish an intrinsically private one…” (513). In addition, Rodriguez’s reference to the English language as a gringo sound gives an impression of a child’s resentment towards said language. The term gringo in Spanish means los gringos which is a “derogatory term for English-speaking Americans” (512). When Rodriguez parents stopped communicating at home in Spanish, the laughter at home faded along with his private language. This further supports Rodriguez’s statement that “… as we learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents” (515). Thus the end of a once full of laughter home, yet the beginning of Rodriguez’s mastery of the English language. Similar to Tan’s experience, the writer’s rebellious nature challenged her critics by proving that Asian’s skills are not limited to Math and Science. Thus, the decision behind to shift from pre-med to English major. As Tan writes, “I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made about me” (510). Hence Tan’s strong conviction to resist the convention of
“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.
Now Anzaldua is not completely oblivious to the fact that one has to, assimilate. This is proven by how well known and respected she is. In order to get to where she is she had to assimilate, just as Rodriguez did. However the difference is that while she was assimilating under duress, Rodriguez leapt at the chance to assimilate. Anzaldua while putting on a mask that matched the majority culture was still the same culture underneath. Rodriguez, on the other hand, changed the very culture he identified with. While she still identified with the culture that had managed to survive under oppression for hundreds of years, he flung off the culture of his immigrant parents and accepted the majority culture of Am...
In the beginning of the essay, Anzaldua speaks about a time when she was in class and was trying to give her teacher an explanation about something, but instead, she immediately got punished in which they considered her “talking back”. The teacher then proceeded to tell her, if she wanted to live in America, she will have to speak American, and if she didn’t like it, she could go back to Mexico where she belongs. From a very young age, young girls are taught not to talk back and not ask too many questions as where the adults would take this as a f...
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...
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
While reading this article one of the most shocking sections were when the students were talking to Monzó and sharing their outlook on their place and their language’s place in society. These students even at this early age are feeling how devalued their first language has been. They feel like they have to speak the right* English, only use English in public places, never their first language, and that they must assimilate to the American culture as much as possible. This reminded me of a chapter in Lippi-Green (2012)’s text. Within this chapter Lippi-Green (2012) discusses how in the United States Spanish speakers are not only expected to learn English but they are expected to learn and utilize the right* English determined by the majority and assimilate entirely to American culture. Throughout Monzó and Rueda (2009)’s text the children in conversations expressed their observation of the social order in relation to language and race. This was surprising to me since they are only in 5th grade. During a conversation with one of the children Monzó and Rueda (2009) recorded an alarming statement, “He said that his mother could not be considered American because she did not...
At the beginning of the essay, Anzaldúa recounts a time when she was at the dentist. He told her, “We’re going to have to control your tongue” (33). Although he was referring to her physical tongue, Anzaldúa uses this example as a metaphor for language. The dentist, who is trying to cap her tooth, symbolizes the U.S. who is similarly seeking to restrict the rights of minority groups. Nevertheless, the tongue is preventing the dentist from doing his job. Likewise, there are several minority groups who refuse to abide to the laws of dominant cultures and are fighting back. Anzaldúa also touches on a personal story that happened at school. When she was younger, she was sent to the corner because apparently, she spoke back to her Anglo teacher. The author argues that she was unfairly scolded because she was only telling her teacher how to pronounce her name. Her teacher warned her, “If you want to be American, speak American. If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong.” This short story provides an understanding of what Anzaldúa’s life was like. It demonstrates how even at a young age, she was continually pressured because of where comes
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
The author began the story by using a metaphor, she compares the process of acculturation to a painful dentist visit where the dentist is trying to control and hold down her tongue, which is a representation of her language (Anzaldua 8). She appeals to the readers by using a clever metaphor comparing her tongue to freedom of speech or language, and the dentist to the oppressors of her culture and language the people who are apart of the dominant culture. Anzaldua also discusses how different cultures and influences determine which language people use to speak to one another. Anzaldua herself writes, “ Often with Mexicanas and Latinas we’ll speak English as a neutral language” (Anzaldua 8). Anzaldua’s point is that it is difficult to know which language to speak when feeling afraid or ashamed of what others may think. Moreover, Anzaldua discusses problems such as not being allowed to speak her native language. She writes about remembering as a child how during school speaking Spanish was forbidden and being caught speaking it would mean you would be reprimanded. Anzaldua writes “ I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess--that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler” (Anzaldua 5). In making this comment she is showing us that throughout the school day you’re
The contrast between the Mexican world versus the Anglo world has led Anzaldua to a new form of self and consciousness in which she calls the “New Mestiza” (one that recognizes and understands her duality of race). Anzaldua lives in a constant place of duality where she is on the opposite end of a border that is home to those that are considered “the queer, the troublesome, the mongrel and the mulato” (25). It is the inevitable and grueling clash of two very distinct cultures that produces the fear of the “unknown”; ultimately resulting in alienation and social hierarchy. Anzaldua, as an undocumented woman, is at the bottom of the hierarchy. Not only is she a woman that is openly queer, she is also carrying the burden of being “undocumented”. Women of the borderlands are forced to carry two degrading labels: their gender that makes them seem nothing more than a body and their “legal” status in this world. Many of these women only have two options due to their lack of English speaking abilities: either leave their homeland – or submit themselves to the constant objectification and oppression. According to Anzaldua, Mestizo culture was created by men because many of its traditions encourage women to become “subservient to males” (39). Although Coatlicue is a powerful Aztec figure, in a male-dominated society, she was still seen
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
As he comments later on, “neither was as much a creature of free will as a human being ought to be,” C.R. p. 69) but the promise of fitting in, wooing girls, and etiquette lead him down the path to being an atypical Asian.... ... middle of paper ... ... Mastering a second language allows her to articulate her and her mother’s thoughts; it is a foundation for her pride and a foundation to express herself. For Gloria Anzaldua, instead of choosing one language over the other, she chose a mix of the two and fought for it.