RRR: "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" By: Gloria Anzaldua

   

Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” (1987) is a narrative essay that blends the author’s personal experience, history, and poems in a fascinating way to show how the Spanish language has evolved and transformed into many sub-languages based on the area one grew up in. The author vividly expressed through personal anecdotes and history how many Spanish-speaking people feel ostracized by both their own peers as well as English-speaking Americans. Anzaldua’s purpose for this essay is to depict how one can feel when they don’t culturally fit into either group, which can lead to an identity crisis. The audience who would gain the most insight from this passage would be Spanish and English-speaking people of all ages, so they can understand both sides to being of Latin or Mexican descent in America and hopefully change the way they treat each other.

            After reading this essay, we were able to learn how diverse the Spanish speaking population is in America and how much the language, dialects, and vocabulary varies in different regions. Within a single Spanish community, there could be several dialects, attitudes, and ways they deal with each other. The English language is difficult for anyone to learn as a second language, so we have a better understanding of how and why Spanish communities develop their own combined vocabulary and vernacular based on the area where they grew up. Many Spanish-speaking within the same area discriminate on each other because of their varying dialects and cultural differences. A person from South Central LA may not speak the same Spanish as someone from San Francisco or Arizona. Most Spanish-speaking people also feel segregated from their English-speaking counterparts due to their limited English and cultural backgrounds. Many end up speaking what we refer to as “Spanglish”, a merged language that combines English and Spanish. While there are many dialects and attitudes within the Spanish community, the one thing they all have in common is their struggles with self-identity while trying to fit in with an English-speaking America. When one listens to a Spanish person flawlessly using English and Spanish interchangeably in one conversation, it can be very fascinating but also throw you off. If only we all could understand and appreciate the uniqueness of the blended language that flows through the Spanish community, they could possible feel more accepted of themselves and their culture.

            Gloria Anzaldua shows in "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" her internal and external struggle for freedom to create her own Chicano and feminist voice without being constrained by stereotypes and discrimination. Anzaldua states that, "Wild tongues can't be tamed, only can be cut out," (Anzaldua par 6) but also argues as to why tongues should be tamed at all. Instead, all dialects, accents, and vernacular should be combined to create one unique language. Anzaldua recalls her experiences as a young lady growing up in the United States, where she was discriminated against by both her cultural group and Americans. Anzaldua's passage focuses on the impact of language and the impact it could have on one's identity. “For a 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 (formal, Castilian) Spanish or standard English, what recourse is left to them but to create their own language?” (Anzaldua par 12). This quote perfectly summarizes the entire passage. It shows how difficult her life was at times; like how her Spanish friends did not like her because she was Chicano Spanish and how she also had to hide her Spanish roots to succeed in school in America. She expertly portrayed how she successfully defied both American and Spanish ideals at times to become a true version of herself, not simply Spanish or American, but both. 

 

Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Press, 1987).

Herencia: The Anthology of Hispanic Literature of the United States, edited by Nicolas Kanellos, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2001. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/claytonstate/detail.action?docID=5746814.