In the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa talks about her experience struggling with her identity growing up as a Chicana living in the United States. Her experience also relates to many other Latinos living in the United States who struggled to find their place in society and a language to speak freely without feeling fear and embarrassment afterwards. She talks about how throughout her life the language she used was suppressed in various ways and forms as she was forced to assimilate to the dominant English language. Anzaldúa also discusses some examples of how the Spanish language changed and evolved in since the first Spanish colorizations began in the region. Overall, the main message she is sending is that she is who
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The mix of Spanish terminology entwined with the English vocabulary made it difficult to comprehend at times. However, after focusing less on the strange organization of the essay it made it easier to comprehend this unconventional text. But despite that a passage that I found particularly difficult is when she stated, “Deslenguadas. Somos los del espanol deficiente. We are your linguistic nightmare, your linguistic aberration, your linguistic mestisaje, the subject of your burla. Because we speak with tongues of fire we are culturally crucified. Racially, culturally, and linguistically somos huerfanos – we speak an orphan tongue.” To analyze the root of the passage the first thing to do is translate the Spanish words to English, so the text now translates to: “Deslenguadas. (We are de-tongued.) Somos los del español deficiente. [We are those with deficient Spanish.] We are your linguistic nightmare, your linguistic aberration, your linguistic mestizaje [mixed], the subject of your burla [The subject of your joke]. Because we speak with tongues of fire we are culturally crucified. Racially, culturally and linguistically somos huérfanos [We are orphans]—we speak an orphan tongue.
The mix of Spanish terminology entwined with the English vocabulary made it difficult to comprehend at times. However, after focusing less on the strange organization of the essay it made it easier to comprehend this unconventional text. But despite that a passage that I found particularly difficult is when she stated, “Deslenguadas. Somos los del espanol deficiente. We are your linguistic nightmare, your linguistic aberration, your linguistic mestisaje, the subject of your burla. Because we speak with tongues of fire we are culturally crucified. Racially, culturally, and linguistically somos huerfanos – we speak an orphan tongue.” To analyze the root of the passage the first thing to do is translate the Spanish words to English, so the text now translates to: “Deslenguadas. (We are de-tongued.) Somos los del español deficiente. [We are those with deficient Spanish.] We are your linguistic nightmare, your linguistic aberration, your linguistic mestizaje [mixed], the subject of your burla [The subject of your joke]. Because we speak with tongues of fire we are culturally crucified. Racially, culturally and linguistically somos huérfanos [We are orphans]—we speak an orphan tongue.