America is considered a melting pot of both cultural and ethnic identities; accepting the diverse languages and religions of the world. In the argumentative essay about bilingualism “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” in the book Fields of Reading: Motives for Writing, Gloria Anzaldúa writes, “So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity - I am language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself” (172). Anzaldúa believes that her ethnicity is the very thing that makes her who she is, her language. Therefore by insulting her language, you are insulting her. Her identity is “twin skin” with how the she speaks. Linguistic identity is the ability for a person
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However, by “unifying” the nation we are also robbing immigrants the freedom they were promised. In recent news, possible presidential republican candidate Donald Trump has stated that as a nation we should put all the Mexicans back across the border and have them build a wall to divide us. However, he forgot crucial facts to this whole predicament. He lumped together all the Spanish speaking Americans as Mexicans even though they might not be Mexican. Also, this is not a small group of people that he is talking about but a group of millions. In addition, most of the land that America has in the west coast once belonged to Mexico. Finally, he not only robbed the other Spanish speaking Americans of their identity by calling them all Mexicans but also is just expressing what happens every day on a larger scale. People do not really see the difference between Spanish speaking countries but Anzaldúa shows that there are differences, “The first time I heard two woman, a Puerto Rican and a Cuban, say the word ‘nosotras’, I was shocked. I had not known the word existed. Chicanos use ‘nosotros’ whether we’re male or female” (168). This quote shows that not all Spanish speaking countries are the same so they should not all be lumped together as Mexican because that is robbing millions of their identity, linguistically and ethnically. This quote is also evidence that different languages do show differences in cultures and upbringings. Here Anzaldúa, a Chicano, overhears two other Hispanic women speaking but she becomes aware that they use slightly altered words and a pronunciation compared to what she has learned her whole
However, by “unifying” the nation we are also robbing immigrants the freedom they were promised. In recent news, possible presidential republican candidate Donald Trump has stated that as a nation we should put all the Mexicans back across the border and have them build a wall to divide us. However, he forgot crucial facts to this whole predicament. He lumped together all the Spanish speaking Americans as Mexicans even though they might not be Mexican. Also, this is not a small group of people that he is talking about but a group of millions. In addition, most of the land that America has in the west coast once belonged to Mexico. Finally, he not only robbed the other Spanish speaking Americans of their identity by calling them all Mexicans but also is just expressing what happens every day on a larger scale. People do not really see the difference between Spanish speaking countries but Anzaldúa shows that there are differences, “The first time I heard two woman, a Puerto Rican and a Cuban, say the word ‘nosotras’, I was shocked. I had not known the word existed. Chicanos use ‘nosotros’ whether we’re male or female” (168). This quote shows that not all Spanish speaking countries are the same so they should not all be lumped together as Mexican because that is robbing millions of their identity, linguistically and ethnically. This quote is also evidence that different languages do show differences in cultures and upbringings. Here Anzaldúa, a Chicano, overhears two other Hispanic women speaking but she becomes aware that they use slightly altered words and a pronunciation compared to what she has learned her whole