Thanks to the COM352 students for contributing a bunch of new pages! I'll be moving these pages into the main area of the wiki soon.

From UMassWiki

“Las Diferencias Son Hermosas” (Differences are beautiful)

The world’s population is estimated to be 6,525,170,264 people. Each person has their own ideas, beliefs, and opinions. These 6,525,170,264 people are dispersed among the world in seven continents, in approximately two-hundred countries. Naturally people are going to unite, forming cultures and societies and speaking different languages to communicate. Each culture or society has different practices, ideas, beliefs and variation of languages. The success of our world as a whole depends on everyone’s different ideas and opinions and synthesizing them together. Gloria Anzaldua’s piece titled, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” discusses her experiences of people not permitting her do so. Gloria was forced by others to try to hide her Chicano culture and either identify herself as an American or a Mexican. Gloria was not able to be proud of she was or the culture she identified with because the society she was living in wanted her to hide it. The sad part was Gloria at first tried to change herself. She was shunned in school for speaking in Spanish. Her mother would also reprimand her for doing so too. Her mother wanted Gloria to assimilate into American culture because her mother was taught by society that Gloria wouldn’t be able to be successful if she did not do so. However, people who were one-hundred percent Spanish also out-casted Gloria for her being a Chicano and giving into the American way. Gloria was stuck between a rock and hard place simply because of her language, culture, and geographical location. Gloria identified herself as Spanish and American. As did many people living near her. Thus they called themselves Chicanos. The Chicanos were a culture created because of two boarder lands. These two cultures were the Spanish and the English. Here two different cultures collide. Many geographical places in the world where borderlands exist create a new group of people with a new culture. They combine cultures from other groups surrounding them and use ideas and practices to form something new. Naturally the Chicanos were geographically located in an area where they could identify with both cultures. They had traits from both cultures as well. They even formed a Chicano language which is similar to “Tex-Mex” or “Spanglish.” Language is a vital part on one’s culture, and culture is a vital part of everyone’s identity. Trying to manipulate one’s identity is like stealing someone’s soul away. “Who is to say that robbing a people of its language is less violent than war?” This quote was said by Ray Gwyn Smith. This perfectly illustrates how severe and horrific trying to change a person, language, or identity is. The biggest minority in the United States right now are Spanish speakers. However Gloria states that,”…a country where students in and high school are encouraged to take French classes because French is considered more ‘cultured.’ But for a language to remain alive it must be used. By the end of this century English, and not Spanish, will be the mother tongue of most Chicanos and Latinos.” This quote is unbelievable. Spanish, after English, is the most commonly spoken language in the United States. Yet, instead of encouraging pupils to learn Spanish where they would be able to communicate with many more people, schools encourage students to take French or German because as stated before, it is more “cultured.” This is very dangerous in my opinion. The Chicanos, as well as many other minority groups in this country are at risk of loosing their culture and language. Language is much more that something which helps people in the same geographical location communicate. It defines people. Language helps people identify who they are and who they can identify with. It helps people realize who is different from them and who they can relate to. For example, even in the United States, there are numerous different ways of how people communicate. People from the south have different accents than people from Boston, or Boston people have different accents than people in New York. Hearing how other people communicate tells somebody where they are from and a lot about their personality. People also communicate differently depending on who they speaking to. For example, a grandchild is going to communicate with her grandmother much differently than she would with her best friend or her boyfriend. It has been taught that depending where one is or who one is speaking to requires different ways of communicating. How people use language shows where they are from, how comfortable they are in a situation, the relationship between the people communicating, the formality of the conversation, and many other things. “Identity is the essential core of who we are as individuals, the conscious experience of the self inside,” stated by Gershan Kaufman. The last month this course has been trying to help establish and write about our own personal identities. Having doing so, we are now at the position to look at other people’s identities. As previously stated our identity is who are. It is what makes each one of us different. Language is a vital to establishing identity. In conclusion. It is so essential not to force the majority ways on the minorities, or try to assimilate others with difference. Because in doing so, we are robbing people of their inherent right to have an identity, “an experience of the self inside.”