Gloria Anzaldua's How To Tame A Wild Tongue

Social injustice is a problem that take continues everywhere you look, whether its in schools or the work place. It serves as a serious dilemma which is overlooked. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua, she tells the story of how people who speak Chicano Spanish receive these types of oppression in the United States. If you were to leave out her personal narration, it would be more difficult to see her testimony. Her personal accounts help place each reader in her footsteps.
In any story, personal narration plays an important role; it allows readers to see the authors perspective and better understand the issue. Anzaldua describes the attacks she received while growing up coming from a Chicano Spanish background. She tells personal

stories of what she went through, for someone who doesn’t come from the same setting; it makes it clear to see and feel her struggle. Her narration starts from her being a student in kindergarten to her early adult life. She explains when she was a young child, she was hit on the knuckles with a ruler for speaking Spanish at recess. For a reader this makes you realize the harshness she experienced, even as a girl at a very young age. Such stories are influential, because its makes you realize it was a serious matter.
In the beginning of the chapter she includes more personal narration and more later on.

Towards the middle of the chapter she has more of a claim approach. She feeds her personal background which helps to build tension and then makes claims that involves the own Spanish community, then continues to give background into Chicano Spanish and where it originated from. After she makes her final big claim of how the language is being “terrorized”. She tells how she always wondered why Chicana females would be suspicious of each other, and she finally figures it out. “To be close to another Chicana is like looking in the mirror. We are afraid of what we’ll see there. Low estimation of self.” Since they have always been told to stop using their language, it hurts their character. Anzaldua even explains if you really hurt her personally, talk bad about her language. Her language makes her who is she. “I am my language.” If you can’t take pride in your language, you can’t take pride in yourself. She makes a big emphasize on how one’s language plays a big role in themselves. If you take one’s language away, you leave them losing some of their honor they have for it. She also explains how there are other ways to internalize identification, such as music and the food and certain smells. She claims that being Mexican is a state of soul instead of mind. You can’t and try to take away someone’s culture, its always with

them.
The way she places her genre of personal narration plays a key factor in her writing. She’s able to draw in readers with her stories, such as being hit as a kindergarten student and being told not to speak Spanish. She makes the transition from personal narration to why Chicano Spanish shouldn’t be oppressed smooth. Once you are able to see her conflict, you better grasp the message she wants to convey. Once she reaches that point of her purpose, its already backed up with real accounts. Through her personal stories, Anzaldua is able to make her main claim of oppression towards Chicanos in the US. When you read any sort of testimony, if the writer as personal narration involved it’s easier to connect with them. She explains that “for a person who are neither Spanish nor live in a country in which Spanish is the first language; for a people who live in a country in which English is the reigning tongue but who are not Anglo; for a people who cannot entirely identify with either standard Spanish or standard English, what recourse is left to them but to create their own language? A language which they can connect their identity to, one capable of communicating the realities and values to themselves.” Anzaldua just stating this claim makes the reader seeing what she wants fixed, but leaves the reader not seeing her purpose her writing this, which is because she went through the social injustice. Without her personal narration is would make it harder to get that connection which makes the reader completely side with her.
For any story you look to gain support.

Anzaldua easily does this by the use of her claims and arguments along with her personal stories. When you see what an individual like herself has been through, you feel sorrow. She’s able to connect with readers and show that if you were in my footsteps, you would most likely do the same. She easily connects with readers who come from a similar background, and also makes it easier to draw the attention for the ones who don’t have a similar

background.
Anzaldua’s personal narration illustrates her challenges she faced. She describes how
someone’s language contributes to their own personal identity. Their language builds them up and shapes them into the person they are. When you try and oppress someone because of the language they speak you hurt their character. Anzaldua does a good job of showing this with her own life stories. Her personal stories of her being hit as a little kid would appeal to any reader including her almost being fired for teaching English to Chicano students. Anyone who didn’t go through any sort of cruelty can’t really feel her pain. It would encourage people to help and side with her. She engages her audience and tries to gain support by telling her stories. Without her narration, anyone who didn’t have to convert from a Spanish speaking background in order to adapt to the American society would have a tougher time understanding. For people who weren’t born in a Spanish born country or had Spanish as a first language, they didn’t have to adapt to an American society.