I think I would say that Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” is my favorite piece we read this semester. The way that she articulated her lack of connection from both English and Spanish speakers was intriguing. She managed to inform her audience that because she spoke a form of “Spanglish,” that she did not feel like she was part of the English-speaking community because she was Spanish, while at the same time she did not feel like part of the Spanish-speaking community because the Spanish she spoke was broken.
My favorite class response was Bridget’s response to Richard Rodriguez’s “The Achievement of Desire: Personal Reflections on Learning ‘Basics.’” I believe her response brought up interesting points about Rodriguez being a good student because he was good at mimicking his teachers.
E367: Writing and Diversity 
Sara,
These are both excellent pieces, but I suspect my instructions were not very clear. Could you identify a 100-word quotation from each of these pieces that you particularly admire? Thanks!
Joe
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“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, Castillian) Spanish nor standard English, what recourse is left to them but to create their own language? A language which they can connect their identity to, one capable of communicating the realities and values true to themselves-a language with terms that are neither espanol ni ingles, but both.”
-Anzaldua
“Rodriguez has a whole different take on it, which I never really considered before. He was scared to succeed rather as well as fail. Rodriguez was a good student (although he highlights he was really only good at mimicking, instead of forming his own ideas), and he felt like he had to hide this from his parents. If he shared his successes with his parents, he felt like they wouldn’t understand, but when he keeps his thoughts to himself, he’s separating himself from his parents.” -Bridget
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