Gloria Anzaldua's How To Tame A Wild Tongue

. In How to tame a wild tongue, Gloria Anzaldua talks about her Chicana life growing up and the way this affects speaking comfortably around other Latino’s and some Chicano speakers. People around her constantly make her believe that the way she speaks is wrong. She finds herself mentally isolated from the English and Spanish speakers and later this complicates the person she thinks she is. Anzaldua is a Latina who lives in a society where if she speaks Spanish, she isn’t Chicana enough or if she speaks English she is not American enough. Although Anzaldua shows her connection between language and culture, the article illustrates that society uses these two things to grow apart into different social groups. Anzaldua defines her identity through …show more content…
Since she is both American and Mexican, she also carries two different personalities. In the beginning of her essay, she says “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess, that was good enough for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler.” In the American culture, she was taught that you have to speak English if you're going to a school in America. If you don't, you will be told to go back to your country. In order to fit these rules, she has to play a different character role around different people or she will not be accepted. Anzaldua shows that once you're forced to speak English properly and fluently, you also start to change a part of yourself. We have to make these changes in order to move up in life. Anzaldua gives the message that she doesn't see herself as a certain type of individual or a part of certain "group", but rather she see's herself as mixture of everyone. The world she lives in makes people believe that they have to choose one …show more content…
Language has a greater meaning than just words. It's no longer about insults and words women use to attack each other. Now, we will mentally torture someone because of their pronunciation. Latina's and Chicanas are at war with who is the better Spanish speakers. Anzaldua says, "A monolingual Chicana whose first language is English or Spanish is just as much a Chicana as one who speaks variants of Spanish.” We used think low of women who swear a lot. Now, we change our opinion about a women once she opens her mouth and mispronounces something. To not be criticized, Anzaldua states, “even among Chicanas we tend to speak English at parties or conferences”. This is done to avoid the competition of who is better. They speak English to give off equality. A century where Spanish has evolved to be a competition between each other, and English became the dominant speaking language. Anzaldua and other Chicanas talk to Latina's in English, so no shame is felt. No criticism given. Spanish the minority. If people continue to attack each with their own language, the language will soon be