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

How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua is a story about a struggle made by many people living in America, known as Chicanos, who are neither American nor Mexican. Anzaldua describes the Chicano’s struggle of identifying a language called Chicano Spanish. She talks about the struggle of identity and nationality of Chicanos. The question of identity through language is vivid, as author explores the idea of a ‘non-existing’ language being the identity one has; Chicanos expressing themselves through Chicano Spanish. If Anzaldua believes language to be used as identity, then a multi-lingual individual is identified by the languages exposed to them.

Anzaldua states, “My “home” tongues are the languages I speak with my sisters and brothers, with my friends.”(Anzaldua 167) I will apply that example to my own life. I speak Russian with my family and I speak English with my friends not including the Ukrainian which I struggle to remember and use since moving to the US.

Russian and Ukrainian are the two languages spoken in Ukraine, my birthplace. Ukrainian was made the national language after the fall of the Soviet Union. The national language during the union was Russian, and since after the fall in 1991, almost everyone in Ukraine knows Russian. Although I was born two years before the Soviet Union’s fall, Russian still played a big role in my childhood. This was the language that I spoke at home and Ukrainian was the language I spoke at school with the teachers or during class, during lunch and recess everyone spoke Russian to each other. The two languages from my childhood are the languages inherited from my country’s history.

My parents are proficient in both Russian and Ukrainian, but have the thickest ascents while speaking English. I on the on the other hand do not have an ascent in Russian or English, but can no longer remember Ukrainian but still I am able to comprehend. I speak Russian with my parents, but find myself talking in a mix of Russian and English with my 21 year old sister, who is like my parents, proficient in both languages but has a slight ascent in English.

So far my life has been written in three different languages, none of them I am best at. “A language which they connect their identity to, one capable of communicating the realities and values true to themselves – a language with terms that are neither español ni ingles, but both.” (166) Anzaldua is talking about Chicano Spanish that is a combination of both English and Spanish to identify Chicanos. Although Chicano Spanish is not considered to be an actual language, there are Chicanos that are able to exercise their language in their own comfort. They have a language that identifies them, but this language is looked down upon by many people.

I struggle to express myself in both English and Russian. Both of the languages are difficult for me to write in, and completely express my thoughts in. Since I was young when I moved here I lost my ascent within two years and sounded American. There are many days I wish I still confused Vs with all Ws, a common mistake made by Russian/Ukrainian speakers, and sounded like I did when I moved here. I take pride in the country I came from, but at what point am I no longer Ukrainian? Does the fact that I no longer sound Ukrainian make me still one?

“Yet the struggle of identities continues, the struggle of borders is our reality still. One day the inner struggle will cease and a true integration take place.” (Anzaldua 173) This struggle Anzaldua talks about is similar in Chicanos and people from the countries from the Soviet Union. The national language of the former Soviet Union countries were denied and forced to speak Russian. The people’s identities were taken away by the government and then after the fall these identities were given back. My parents were born during this period and have multiple languages as their identity, both Russian and Ukrainian. Chicanos have their own language to back up their identity although many do consider this to be an invalid language; Anzaldua disagrees, “Chicano Spanish is not incorrect, it is a living language.” (166) this is the language created by this unique group of people in order to understand each other and to communicate. Me and my sister speak a mix of Russian and English and that may upset my parents, but that is the language that is easiest for me and my sister to communicate in. We speak this language to understand each other, like Anzaldua says, “a living language.”

Chicanos struggle to define themselves within borders. “Deep in our hearts we believe that being Mexican has nothing to do with which country one lives in. Being Mexican is a state of soul – not one of mind, not one of citizenship. Neither eagle nor serpent, but both. And like the ocean, neither animal respects borders.” (Anzaldua 172) Having been raised in one country part-time and then being exposed to another does give me borders but does it give me the right to pick one over the other? I want to say I am Ukrainian, but that does not seem valid since I spent the last seven years in the US. Am I considered Russian since that is the language I speak with my parents?

“I have so internalized the borderland conflict that sometimes I feel like one cancels out the other and we are zero, nothing, no one.” (173) I am no longer Ukrainian neither American; there is not enough credibility for me to be either Ukrainian or American or even Russian. Is Anzaldua right, are we then just a zero. If we are a mix and can’t identify, then are we a zero? No, I am a product of all the languages I know. “So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I can not take pride in myself.” (Anzaldua 170) Although I do not have one language, I have three to form the identity that I am. One part of me is Russian, another part of me is Ukrainian and the third is American. Although I am not proficient in either one, all three of them complete me as an individual.

I am all my languages.

I am Russian.

I am Ukrainian.

I am American.