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

[edit] Rewrite

How to tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua brought up some important points such as her life as a Chicano woman and how she introduces herself to the world. Whereever she goes, she always has a different nationality because she is confused. She knows that she is Chicano only when she’s around her family and friends but everywhere else, Gloria is just Hispanic/Mexicana. “Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut (p.165).” The author preffers to hide behing the borders of Mexico since everybody besides Chicanos wants her tongue to be tamed so she will not be able to speak her home language. Meaning getting rid of her spanish and replacing it with English, the American language. Now as an adult, she is determine to make up for the lost times by first of all being published in the Text Wrestling Book by Donna LeCourt and second of all by striving after what she believes which is to tell everybody that she is a proud Chicano now that noone can punish her. She has become a fight with her words “In graduate school, while working toward a Ph.D., I had to “argue” with one advisor after the other, semester after semester, before I was allowed to make Chicano literature an area of focus (p.170).” Winning that arguement show how dedicated and courageous Anzaldua is to make things happen.

The essay is about how the author portrays herself as a Chicana. She speaks her mind out loud regarding what the people around thinks. The author tries to convince the reader(s) how she is proud to be who she is but at the same time struggles to prove her identity to her own race, Hispanic. She abandons a part of her nationality because it never comes up in a conversation often. “We are 70-80 percent Indian (p.173).” This is evidence that she and as well as other Chicanos are more Indian than Hispanic but they do not relate that part of race, they prefer their Spanish side. Before, I had no idea that the Hispanic people were I always wonder how they look so much like some Indians but that reason never popped up in my head. It is interesting to see how Hispanic never mentions that they are Indians at least my friends. Thanks to Anzaldua I now know the answer to my question.

Gloria mentioned “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess—that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp rule (P.165).” Her whole life is based on hiding her race at school in the unimaginable ways by beating her up to stop her from speaking her own language. How amazing was that? Actually, some of my peers including me went to a similar situation at my old elementary school in Haiti where they would punish us, students for speaking our native language. In school, the primary language meant to be spoken at all times was French if Creole, you would get punished later which could be beatings or writing thousands of lines saying “I will not speak Creole at recess or school ever again.” As one can say a lot of the author’s acts and problems were caused by her school rules and teachers because they forced her to hide herself to get the respect the deserves.

As the author grew up she learned to appreciate her nationality and fight for her belief, which is to make “So, if you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language…until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself. Until I can accept ass legitimate Chicano Texas Spanish, Tex-Mex, and all the other languages I speak, I cannot accept the legitimacy of myself (p.170).” She is sick and tired of others making her feel bad about her primary tongue. Yes, “From school, the media, and job situations, I’ve picked up standard and working class English (p.167)”, that was her only way to fit in with the people living around her and and possibly get a job. Any one can say that If you do not speak formal English, it’s harder to find a job that pays a good amount of money.

Not only does the author write about being a Chicana but also she wrote about what identity means to her, which I, as a reader can relate to as a past experience. “For me food and certain smells are tied to my identity, to my homeland. Wood smoke curling up to an immense blue sky; wood smoke perfuming my grandmother’s clothes, her skin (p.172).” The author reminds me of my own childhood when I used to sit by the fire outside of my house watching my cousin cooking with the same type of fire that her grandma used to make her food. It’s usually three rocks and the call them “the three sisters without one, the other two are useless” in my country. They put pieces of wood in between them and put the pot on top of the rocks and light the woods so that person can start cooking their food. It was fun watching my cousin and sometimes my mother blowing to spread the fire trough all the woods so the pot can heat up.

The author of How to tame a Wild Tongue and me had a lot in common. I too am bilingual and sometimes when speaking with my friends I would use French, Creole, and English in one sentence. “I may switch back and forth from English to Spanish in the same sentence or in the same word (p.167).” It’s pretty funny because your friends and family actually know what you mean.