Wild Tongue

Superior Essays
Most people today know more than one language, no matter where they originated from. Language is learned to make communication with others much easier and to know more. People who are bilingual learned the language from their families and while some identify with the culture in which the language is from, others do not. When someone learns a language they also learn about the culture and race. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua, her language is her cultural identity and even though it’s not taken as a serious language, she doesn’t give up on her belief that her language is what makes her who she is. An essay that is contrasting to what Anzaldua believes is entitled “Aria,” by Richard Rodriguez, which thinks that ones race doesn’t determine their linguistic identity because one has to be a public language and one has to be a private language therefore are not made to fit any specific identity. Language determines ones racial identity since it comes from a culture that not everybody identitfies with. They are elements to your identity. In Anzaldua’s essay, she identitifies herself as a Chicana, she considers herself American and also Mexican but doesn’t speak either language properly. She grew up identitifying as a Chicana so she takes it as her lingustic identity. Her lingustic identity is not her racial identity nor her cultural identity, they are all separate catergories in her view, but they all are combined to make her who she is and what makes her. Anzaldua may identitfy with her language and everything else can be combined to make her identify with a certain culture, but for Rodriguez it’s not the same. He grew up speaking Spanish and identifying himself as Mexican. Once his family imposed the English language on him, he began to drift away from his Hispanic identity. He only spoke in English and began to grow apart from the understanding of the Spanish language. Rodriguez realized that one language was enough so he could identify as. Language is something that comes from cultures, and it all depends on how much someone takes that culture into themselves and it’s all up to them on how much they want the culture in them. Most people identify with their culture because of the lauguage, not necessarily because of the race. Yes, race is a big part in of identity but it shouldn’t be as long as ones identity doesn’t revolve around only race. Anzaldua identifies as a Chicana because of the language she speaks. Her race is what makes her realize that she is a Chicana. If her ancestors’ weren’t Mexicans, her linguistic identity would not be what she seems to identify herself as. Her race is a huge part of her identity because only with her race is …show more content…
Rodriguez’s experience with language causes his family “to be quiet, due to the fact that as the children learned more English, they shared fewer and fewer words with their parents (Rodriguez, 408).” That experience made him reject the possibility that two linguistic identities are possible since the interaction amongst family was decreasing. Since his experience with language among his family had a bad outcome, he lost comfort with his primary language and began to believe that two linguistic identities are not necessary since one is more dominant than the …show more content…
This article is most meant for an English audience but she doesn’t take the time to provide a translation for phrases because she’s incorporating her linguistic identity in her writing and her cultural identity. In contrast to Rodriguez, his article is entirely in English because he considers it to be his only identity, both linguistic and cultural. A perfect example that being bilingual is very beneficial is the movie, Born in East L.A by Cheech Marin in 1987. It’s about Ruby Robles (Marin) that gets deported because he didn’t have anything to prove that he was an American citizen. He’s deported to Tijuana, Mexico and barely knows any actual Spanish, so ends up having a hard time communicating that he doesn’t belong in Mexico.He makes two friends, Dolores and Jimmy who help him cross back over. He is able to get back to Los Angeles after working to make money to be brought back and marries Dolores so she isn’t

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