Taming A Wild Tongue By Gloria Anzaldúa

Academic Analysis: “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”
In Gloria Anzaldúa’s piece, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” she explores the complex relationship between identity and language. She provides personal vignettes that describe how others have reacted to her use of native language throughout life. Her article illustrates what it is like to be a person who speaks a minority language in a majority population. She introduces the essay by recounting the experience of a dentist capping a tooth and trying in vain to control her tongue. He becomes frustrated as her tongue keeps pushing out the swabs of cotton and instruments. She shares this analogy because to her it represents the role that society plays in systematically pressuring minority language

speakers to adopt the majority language. This social manipulation can be direct, such as shaming someone who speaks a native language or it can be indirect, such as allowing easier access to economic benefits such as a higher-paying job for those who assimilate.
Anzaldúa grew up along the U.S. and Mexican border, and her native language is a mixture of English and Spanish, known as Chicano Spanish. When she leaves home, she finds that those who speak Standard English and Standard Spanish look down on her when she speaks Spanglish because they view it as a bastardized version of a “pure” language. On the surface, influencing someone to assimilate may seem inoffensive, but the consequences are profound. Anzaldúa says that language is identity, and the process of language assimilation teaches a person that their native tongue is not good enough and by extension, they are not good enough. These lessons become a part of self-identity and are hard to unlearn.
In virtually all areas of her life, Anzaldúa finds that people consider her native language invalid, including peers, family members, and authority figures. “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess-that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler. I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for ‘talking back’ to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name” (Anzaldúa 15). Her parents encourage her to speak English in order to have a better future. Spanish speakers accuse her of using the “oppressor’s language” when she mixes English words in Spanish conversation. Administrators oppose her request to add Spanish language resources to an English class geared toward Chicano students. Both Spanish and English speakers view Chicano Spanish as illegitimate, and a lifetime of enduring others’ oppressive attitudes reinforces negative feelings of self-worth.
In response to these experiences, Anzaldúa uses her essay to expose society’s efforts to manipulate minority speakers by sending negative feedback.

In her opening analogy, the dentist who tries to control her tongue represents the institutions and individuals who insist that she abandon her native tongue. They show disapproval when she speaks Spanish instead of English, or when she speaks Chicano Spanish instead of Standard Spanish or when she speaks English with an accent. Their voices echo in her head, “If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong” (Anzaldúa 15). To them, Anzaldúa, and others like her, represent a problem without a solution. They do not know what to do with tongues that break the rules of language and society’s

expectations.
Even within the realm of Spanish speakers, Anzaldúa finds prejudice. Hispanic and Latin groups perpetuate unspoken rules that dictate a language hierarchy. “Chicanos who grew up speaking Chicano Spanish have internalized the belief that we speak poor Spanish. It is illegitimate, a bastard language” (Anzaldúa 19). Because of this cultural mindset, Chicanos do not feel comfortable speaking their language for fear that it will be used against them. So the remedy is finding ways to keep the native language out of conversation. They try to speak pure Spanish though they are not as skilled as those born in Mexico, or they speak English because it is a neutral language which deflects judgment. They are driven to change their language to avoid negative bias. Because of others’ beliefs, they cannot feel pride when speaking their native tongue.
Anzaldúa and those who resist assimilation are trying to preserve who they are.

Their past lives straddle two parallel cultures, and their mixed language reflects this geography. Chicano Spanish springs from their history and enables them to communicate their experiences, realities, and values. The challenges of a desert environment mirror the challenges of retaining language and identity. Like her tongue that pushes out the dentist’s instruments, Anzaldúa rejects those who use shame and other social control to push her toward assimilation. “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, White, I will have my serpent’s tongue-my woman’s voice: my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence” (Anzaldúa 20). Instead of assimilation, she embraces her identity and the idea of integration. She wants to inhabit both cultures without judgment. She wants to teach about both English and Spanish writers, she wants to listen to both rock-and-roll and Tex-Mex music, she wants to watch both American and Mexican film, and she wants to read both English and Spanish works. This is only possible when those around her accept all aspects of her

identity.
In conclusion, Anzaldúa uses her essay, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” to explore the complex relationship between identity and language. She recounts experiences in which the Chicano Spanish that she speaks is not accepted by the larger society. When others react negatively to her native language, their prejudices impact her self-esteem. The future that she envisions includes a world in which she can be proud of the many languages that she speaks. The future that she envisions includes a world in which she can be proud of all of the aspects of her identity, whether female, poet, Indian, white, or Spanish.
Work Cited
Anzaldúa, Gloria. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Readings on Writing, edited by Cactus May, Talitha May, and Mara Holt, 3rd ed., Van-Griner, 2016, pp. 15-24.