How to Tame a Wild Tongue Essay

The writer dialogue within relation to a dilemma she faced about her own language and how she represents herself through her language. Gloria Anzaldua who is a Chicano talks about how Chicanas have problems expressing their feelings. Since they lack a native language, instead it is a product of several languages. And their language Chicano Spanish has incorporated bits and pieces of several versions of Spanish. The author speaks about people who are neither Spanish nor live in a country in which Spanish is the first language; for a people who live in a country in which English is the reigning tongue but who are not Anglo; for a people who cannot entirely identify with either standard Spanish no standard English. So she emphasizes the importance to have their owned language. A language which they can connect their identity to , one capable of communicating the realities and values true to themselves- a language that comprises a variation of two languages. I knew after reading the first few paragraphs of Anzaldua’s â€Å"How to Tame a Wild Tongue† (1987) that she was going to have a lot to say. In this passage Anzaldua expresses the challenges she faced growing up in America as a Chicano. She gives a brief breakdown of who she is, where she comes from and which languages she prefers to speak. Her argument starts off explaining how she was made to be ashamed of existing. She then walks us through how she overcame the tradition of silence. Inspired by Mexican movies since her childhood, it was the shock of reading a published Chicano novel that gave her the strength to bite back. She wrote† When I saw poetry written in Tex-Mex for the first time, a feeling of pure joy flashed through me. I felt like we really existed as people† (pg40). As a child she was told by the dentist that he had never seen anything as strong and stubborn as her tongue. It would push out wads of cotton, drills and needles. It was her tongue that would got her three licks on the knuckles at recess if she was caught speaking Spanish in school. She writes† I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for â€Å"talking back† to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name. †If you want to be American†, speak American. If you don’t like it, then go back to Mexico where you belong† (pg34). Language cannot be separated from the culture as an independent aspect. Any language is a culture itself and there is no language in the world which does not express the heart and spirit of people who speak this language. Gloria Anzaldua is famous for her books written in an amusing blend of English and all possible Spanish dialects; she wrote about the numerous layers that could be found when studying thoroughly any language, and she also used Spanglish as it is impossible to stop the assimilation of the cultures and languages. She also argues that there is a linguistic terrorism makes her language constantly change. I totally agree with her and firmly believe that this mimicry is not positive assimilation but a gradual wiping off the limits holding connection between people and their history, traditions and roots. It seems to me, people have stopped appreciating the non-material values, such as language. This issue is widely discussed but does not seem to be altered though. I think we start losing our genuine culture because of unwilling to read classical literature or have any particular interest in the way the language is built. When reading Anzaldua I thought about how stubborn she was in her intention to sharpen everything she did. I admired her skill to listen and to her, she taught me to be attentive to what people actually say. I felt deeply sorry about â€Å"linguistic terrorism† happening with Chicano language and I hope for better.