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Heavenlee Almonte

Professor Coy

English 125: DC1

September 22, 2018

Your language is you

Think about how one expresses who one is and how we go about it. For most people

language is a way of expressing one’s individuality and everyone has a right to their individuality.

In the text How to tame a wild tongue by Gloria Anzaldúa, the author explains the difficult time

she had grown up having to be pressured to choose a language, Spanish or English. To her both Commented [G1]: Deleted:i
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were comfortable. Language can help in the workplace and informal education by unifying people,

giving each person their right, and can characterize a person.

The way a person identifies is through the way they express themselves, especially through

the language they speak. Being able to express yourself will allow you to help others express

themselves in both formal education and in the workplace. To control the way a person talks is to

control their tongue. A person’s tongue is the main form of expression and through expression is

how a person identifies. Anzaldua wonders how a person’s tongue could be tamed or controlled

and says in the text, "And I think, how do you tame a wild tongue, train it to be quiet, how do your

bridle and saddle it? How do you make it lie down?” (33-34). The author uses the words; wild, Commented [G3]: Inserted: r

bridle, and saddle to demonstrate the way Americans try to restrain non-English speakers. The

definition of wild means “to not be domesticated”. A bridle is “a headgear to restrain horses" and

a saddle is "a seat fastened on a horseback". The author compares restraining a tongue to restraining

an animal. To Anzaldúa this is how Americans look at people who don’t speak English or don’t
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speak “proper English”. The diction chosen by the author shows the ignorance of Americans who

judge non-English speakers. A women’s identity is also raided by the very language that they

speak. There are many words that only have a masculine plural in the Spanish language, for

example, Anzaldúa writes “We are robbed of our female being by the masculine plural. Language Commented [G4]: Inserted: ,

is a male discourse” (35). In the Hispanic culture, men dictate most if not everything a woman

does. Language is a good example of the dictatorship men have over women in the Hispanic culture

because women don’t have the feminine plural. It’s like men took the right of a woman to own

anything, even in something so simple as language. To many, this may seem like it’s not much, Commented [G5]: Inserted: ,

however, language is the way one expresses themselves. By not allowing someone to express

themselves you are taking away their identity and their being. If this isn't the main form of Commented [G6]: Inserted: ,

controlling a person's tongue then I'm not sure what is? This language is taught from a young age

to many little girls and to tell them that they can do anything that a man can do and then teach

them to speak a man dominated language is counterintuitive. This is especially important to be Commented [G7]: Inserted: the
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discussed at schools and the workplace to fight back on the male plurals and open the eyes of

everyone that females are being subjected to. Everyone tries to speak the language that is the most

comfortable to them and Anzaldúa feels the most comfortable with Chicano Spanish and she

explains by saying "A language which they can connect their identity too, one capable of

communicating the realities and values true to themselves – a language with terms that are neither

Espanol ni ingles" (35-36). The way we communicate has a lot to do with what we are comfortable Commented [G8]: Inserted: E
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with. Chicano Spanish for most is a balance of both Spanish and English. This is what these group
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of people are most comfortable with and to say that this language is wrong or not accepted is very

ignorant. Some people, like Anzaldua, feel like she doesn't speak perfect Spanish or perfect English

and that's why her balance is Chicano Spanish. Who are we to tell someone who identifies with Commented [G10]: Inserted: ,
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Chicano Spanish that their language is wrong? It is like telling them that they can longer identify

as their true selves. Commented [G11]: Inserted: i

A person right to language, to accent, to anything is their right from birth and to tell

someone that they no longer have that right is rejecting them to who they are and where they come

from. A person has the right to their name and how their name should be pronounced. Anzaldua

felt a direct attack on her language, on herself and on her accent when the Anglo teacher said “If

you want to be American, speak ‘American’. If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you

belong” (34). When telling someone that they can’t correct one on their own name is taking one

right. Everyone has the right to pronounce their name the way they desire because it belongs to

them. Its what they own. The Anglo teacher was taking her right of Anzaldúa’s to say her name

the way she prefers. Of course, not everyone can pronounce some names the way we may want to

but to completely disregard a person because that’s what the Anglo teacher did to Anzaldúa, which

is wrong. If Anzaldúa would have stood up against this injustice this could have opened up the

eyes of people in formal education to not negate someone’s right to their accent that is caused by

their language, this could have been the push in the right direction to open up.

Anzaldua is constantly set apart from both the Spanish speaking community and the

English speaking community and this has affected the way she sees both communities. Anzaldua Commented [G14]: Inserted: E
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knows both the English and the Spanish language but has always been pressured to pick a side.

Anzaldua mother has pushed her from a young age to be able to get a good job you must speak a

certain way, for example, Anzaldúa's mother said “Pa’hallar buen trabajo tienes que saber hablar Commented [G15]: Inserted: ,

el ingles bien. Que vale toda tu educacion si todavia hablas ingles con un ‘accent’” (34).

Translation of the line “To find a good job you have to know how to speak good English. Your
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education is worth nothing if you speak English with an accent”. Anzaldúa not only has to deal

with Americans talking bad about her English but also her mother puts pressure on her to speak

“English without an accent”. Her mother in a way is setting Anzaldua apart from other English

speakers. She doesn’t have faith that if her daughter doesn’t speak proper English then it will

become a problem. But by Anzaldúa being able to speak English and Spanish is a very good thing

because she can use both to her advantage when at school or at work. Both can help her

communicate, not only with one group of people but two groups of people. From other people in

her Spanish speaking community she feels this pressure from them to speak only Spanish and to

abandon her English community even though she feels comfortable speaking both, for example,

Spanish speakers usually say this to her “Pocho, cultural traitor, you’re speaking the oppressor’s Commented [G16]: Inserted: ,
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language by speaking English, you are ruining the Spanish language” (35). The oppressors are
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Americans. The people who say this are Hispanics and are then oppressing Anzaldúa because they

are calling her a cultural traitor because she speaks Spanish. they are setting her apart rather than

supporting her and fighting back against oppressors. Commented [G18]: Inserted: a
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To conclude, in the world of education and a workplace language is a person right, a way to unite

people, and to identify and shouldn't be annihilated by any kind of oppressor. To Anzaldúa there

were two different kinds of oppressors, one was the English speakers who wanted her to speak

"proper English” and the Spanish speakers who didn’t want her to speak the “oppressors’ Commented [G22]: Inserted: E
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language”. Anzaldua identifies as an individual that speaks both. Just like Anzaldua many identify
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the same way and should and can use their language at work and informal education to connect, Commented [G25]: Deleted:the
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identify because it is their right to.
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Work cited

Anzaldua, Gloria. How To Tame A Wild Tongue.1987.

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