Unlike Rodriguez, Anzaldúa didn’t let her voice be controlled by those around her. Throughout her life important figures such as teachers have tried repeatedly to silence her Spanish speaking tongue but she wouldn’t let it happen because it was her identity. For example, when Anzaldúa was in grade school the teachers would “give her three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler” (411) for speaking Spanish. By using the ruler, the teachers wanted to fear and pain to be a reminder for Anzaldúa to not speak in Spanish. When Anzaldúa was teaching high school English, she would try mix in texts that the students could relate to, but the principal threatened to fire her if she kept doing it (416). By using a threat against Anzaldúa the principal
