In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” a chapter of the book Borderland/La Frontera, The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa, a claim is made by Anzaldúa that “wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out” (Anzaldúa 2947). This assertion sets up a series of anecdotes revolving around her increasingly frustrating life as a Chicana. Her intent in all of this is to highlight just how important language is to her culture. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” begins in the present day. The author establishes a first-person point-of-view, herself being the patient. “We’re going to have to do something about your tongue,” says the dentist, in a sort of ethereal parallel that is meant to metaphorically symbolize the goal of the essay (2947). This quote from …show more content…
the dentist causes a flashback into her past, beginning with her time in elementary school. She remembers receiving “three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler” for speaking Spanish at recess (2947). Her hometown was never revealed, but it is implied that she grew up in an area of the United States where Spanish speakers are relatively common, since there was extensive effort by the schools to assimilate them into American culture. She never embraced this ideology, which says a lot about her personality as a whole. Growing up in America, her way of speaking naturally evolved. To her, adjusting was done to “communic[ate] with the realities and values true to [her]self” (2948). She states that the Chicanos, a sobriquet for Mexican-Americans, “are a complex, heterogeneous people” (2948). She then lists eight varied languages that Chicanos speak, ranging from Standard English to Pachuco, a language of “rebellion” according to Anzaldúa (2949). Essentially, her purpose for highlighting all of these languages, which are all either derivatives of English or Spanish, is to emphasize that each one is used in different ways. These are ways of communicating that are essential to understanding the life of a Chicano. And that is a huge reason why this chapter was written.
It isn’t merely a love letter to language. It is a passionate first-person account of why language is so much more than a means of communication. Language is part of ourselves. And for some people, language is gradually dying. Anzaldúa refers to the forceful destroying of language as “linguistic terrorism” (2950). A quote by Ray Gwyn Smith, a Welsh painter and art educator, acts an epigraph before later introducing linguistic terrorism. Smith questions “who is to say that robbing a people of its language is less violent than war (2947)? She revisits the reality of her childhood where she was told her language was wrong. “Repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self,” Anzaldúa asserts (2951). This just reaffirms the meaning of the chapter as a whole. Language isn’t just how to communicate with someone; it is someone. It truly makes someone who they are. “If a person, Chicana or Latina, has a low estimation of my native tongue, she also has a low estimation of me,” illustrating her point further. She distinguishes her culture from other cultures, specifically that of Anglo-Americans, by emphasizing that there is “no one Chicano language just as there is no one Chicano experience.” She does this to identify with her fellow Chicanas. This chapter reads kind of like a powerful oration, something that would be given a rally for
equality. Finally, she abandons the anecdotal aspect of the chapter to focus solely on the ideology. “Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity—I am my language” (2951). Rather than beating around the bush, she gets to the meat of her point with this statement. She follows it with another ideological point: “Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself” (2951). This statement better highlights exactly what she is feeling than any other sentence in the chapter. The anecdotes come across kind of metaphorical, if not fable-like. But she does bring up some interesting points, nonetheless. She blasphemies the “copping out” of her culture when it comes to the “predominant Indian genes” (2954). She also demonstrates that, if Chicanos refuse to assimilate into American culture like they are taught, they will suffer economically, along with “other people of color” (2954). So stealing their language has lucidly negative repercussions on their communities, more than just losing a piece of their history. Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” is a passionate essay aimed at fellow Chicanos, hoping to influence them to revive what they can from their culture while also maintaining what they still have. This essay is also written to Americans, hoping to impact us enough to stop forcing assimilation on these people. It is who they are, and this sort of “linguistic terrorism” is nothing less than war based on discrimination.
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
“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.
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.
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
Torres, Hector Avalos. 2007. Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. U.S.: University of New Mexico press, 315-324.
America is a presumptuous country; its citizens don’t feel like learning any other language, so they make everyone else learn English. White Americans are the average human being and act as the standard of living, acting, and nearly all aspects of life. In her essay “White Privilege: The Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh talks about how being white has never been discussed as a race/culture before because that identity has been pushed on everyone else, and being white subsequently carries its own set of advantages. Gloria Anzaldua is a Chicana, a person of mixed identities. In an excerpt titled “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” she discusses how the languages she speaks identify who she is in certain situations and how, throughout her life, she has been pushed to speak and act more “American” like.
Not only were they chastised by their English speaking teachers, but also by their Spanish speaking parents. Chicanos often times speak English to Latinos when conversing. Anzaldua implies this has to do with their linguistic differences of the Spanish Language through dialect, regions, and how they translate/perceive it. Anzaldua was very fortunate to grow up in America and have Mexican descendants. Being bilingual can have many advantages, such as being able to communicate with two different cultures and to make up a subculture or group that has speaks both English and Spanish.
One of his main points and I believe to be one of the central reasons behind him writing the book, is to state his harsh yet rightful opinion on bilingualists. Rodriguez states, "The bilingualists insist that a student should be reminded of his difference from others in mass society, his heritage. But they equate mere separateness with individuality" (27). Because he has personally been through that situation, he wants people to understand and support his opinion and possibly persuade them to have a certain opinion on bilingualists.
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 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
Using both English and Spanish or Spanglish the author Gloria Anzaldua explores the physical, cultural, spiritual, sexual and psychological meaning of borderlands in her book Borderlands/La Frontera: A New Mestiza. As a Chicana lesbian feminist, Anzaldua grew up in an atmosphere of oppression and confusion. Anzaldua illustrates the meaning of being a “mestiza”. In order to define this, she examines herself, her homeland and language. Anzaldúa discusses the complexity of several themes having to do with borderlands, mestizaje, cultural identity, women in the traditional Mexican family, sexual orientation, la facultad and the Coatlicue state. Through these themes, she is able to give her readers a new way of discovering themselves. Anzaldua alerts us to a new understanding of the self and the world around us by using her personal experiences.
...xpressing her Chinese culture. 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 fights for it. She realized the value of her language when she lost it and now treasures it. The kind of Spanish she speaks is neither English nor Spanish, but both. It is overflowing with culture from Medieval Spain, France, Germany, etc., just from the origins of the words. It is her pride and a representation of herself, fighting and living. In conclusion, in addition to Lera Boroditsky’s article proving that the structure of language affects how we think, the articles by Eric Liu, Amy Tan, and Gloria Anzaldua show how language is a foundation for a person’s culture, pride, and self.