Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” confronts the restrictive borders of language that she has faced throughout her life. Growing up as a Chicano, Anzaldua found a sense of self within multiple cultures and often spoke a blend of English and Spanish. Chicano Spanish is a blend of languages and it “sprang out of the Chicanos’ need to identify [themselves] as a distinct people”. Obviously, language and identify are interconnected, especially for the Chicano people. Discourse helps the Chicano people feel connected to each other. For Anzaldua, speaking Chicano is her way of distinguishing herself from others and embracing her bilingualism. However, she has struggled with finding a sense of belonging in the Chicano culture because she was constantly reminded that “Chicano” does not fit a national identity.
“Chicana feminists often skirt around each other with suspicion and hesitation. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure it out. Then it dawned on me. To be close to another Chicana is like looking into the mirror. We are afraid of what we’ll see there. Pena. Shame. Low estimation of self”.
Here, Anzaldua is admitting that Chicanos are afraid to see their own reflections in fear of perceiving the illegitimacy of Chicano culture. Their beliefs about language come from others who fit into a specific culture identity. Similarly to Min-Zhan Lu, Anzaldua feels silenced by society. Although Anzaldua feels ashamed in public, she has an intrinsic sense of pride in her “synergy of two cultures” that no one can take away from her. Obviously, Anzaldua cannot disguise her Chicano pride when she describes how the “corridos” songs make her feel:
“Yet I couldn’t stop my feet from thumping to the music, could not stop humming the words, nor hide from myself the exhilaration I felt when I heard it”.
This internal conflict between shame and pride, identity and invalidation, shows the power of language and the control it has over a group of people.
“How to Tame a Wild Tongue” is a symbolic piece illustrating the role language plays in Anzaldua’s identity. She fully embraces her Chicano culture and refutes dominant culture through her usage of “Spanglish” throughout the essay. Anzaldua’s contribution to the discussion about language and identity gives us a new perspective, that advances the conversation in a unique way. Anzaldua feels that as long as she is conforming to dominant culture by suppressing her ability to “switch codes”, she cannot take pride in herself because she believes “I am my language”. Everyone has a right to discourse and a right to their sense of belonging, regardless of these fabricated borders.
E367: Writing and Diversity 
Amanda, I like that you brought up the internal conflict Anzaldua struggles with, somewhere between English and Spanish. She allows this conflict to define her identity. By speaking this “patois, a forked tongue” that we call Spanglish, she tries to find a place in both worlds. She truly loves her language that she speaks, stating, “if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language.” Anzaldua does a wonderful job expressing how important this topic is to her. Through her strong tone she demands the reader to sit back and feel her struggle with her. I enjoyed this piece and think you did a great job tying in key terms from previous writings.
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Amanda,
I really like how you discuss the blend of language and identities in your response post. I feel like the past few readings have focused heavily upon the idea of conflicting identities, so it is interesting to see the other side of things. What really stands out to me is when you mention the connection between language and identity. Your point about the intersection of the two makes me wonder if it is possible to have the same identity in different languages or if there is a switch. That also begs the question of whether it is ok or not to have more than one identity. Perhaps having more than one is something positive. I’m not so sure I know the answer but your post gives me a lot to think about.
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Hey Amanda!
I thought your response did a really nice job of summarizing Anzaldua’s main points. While many people have a discourse that connects them to others within that same discourse, Anzaldua’s is slightly different. Her Chicano discourse allows her to be apart of both Spanish and English cultures, however, the Chicano discourse also creates a struggle in order for her to find an identity within this discourse. In other classes we have had similar discussions to this idea and refer to it as “within-group stigma”, meaning that people within one group meant to unify a specific culture or commonality, there still remains stigma such as not being dark enough or not being female enough, or in Anzaldua’s case, not being Spanish enough. I find it really interesting that you mentioned this point early on in your response because it is definitely one that stuck with me throughout the reading.
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Amanda,
I’m intrigued buy the two passages you quote from Anzaldua, since they both speak of conflicts that are not only imposed upon her by others but that she herself has internalized—a self-doubt that, in the first passage, she tries to hide from other Chicanas by speaking English, and an “exhilaration”, in the second passage, that she tries, unsuccessfully, to “hide from myself”. Kyle finds the solution, a Chicano political identity, that Anazaldua proposes to this struggle to be unsatisfying. Do you see her as offering any other ways of moving past this conflict?
Joe
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Amanda,
I was particularly fascinated by the way you stated “This internal conflict between shame and pride, identity and invalidation, shows the power of language and the control it has over a group of people,” because this idea is something that can translate into all of the other readings that we’ve previously done in class. Anzaldua didn’t feel comfortable speaking Chicano because “it is illegitimate… and because
we internalize how our language has been used against us by the dominant culture, we use our language differences against each other. ” She’s describing how her language is being used as a weapon against her. I think that this adds to your point about language being apart of our identity because language also impacts how you are view in the eyes of others. She goes on to talk about if someone has a negative view of the language that she chooses to speak, then they will have a negative view of her. This can tie into the reasoning behind the shame or pride one might feel about their language.
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Amanda,
I liked your post, especially the quotations that you choose to focus on. The shame that you identified her feeling is especially troubling. I like how you drew the connection between language and identity. It is definetly interesting how Anzaldua’s identity was somewhat rooted in what she referred to as “spanglish”. It must be very strange to have your language pulling on your identity in different directions. When, as we have learned through recent readings, just how connected language is to our identity as a whole.
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