hidden reactions

I found these two reactions in the comments section of my Anzualdua post. Please post long comments to the blog itself. Here goes, by Jennifer and Christine:

1. Since I do not read Spanish, my first thought was to have my sister, who reads and speaks Spanish, explain the words to me. Anzaldua does not translate many of these words because these words represent who she is as a Chicana.

2. Anzaldua speaks many of these languages in order to properly represent her various ethnic backgrounds. Robbing people of their language is effectively annihilating part of a culture. Essentially, this act is as violent as war, because it is the forceful changing of a way of life that is unwarranted and completely uncalled for.

3. Anzaldua uses a Chicana style of writing, a “TexMex” style of writing, and a standard “Mexican Spanish” style of writing, among others. She employs all of these styles to not only represent her various backgrounds, but to also show the difficulty of being from all of these backgrounds. “With Mexicans I’ll try to speak either Standard Mexican Spanish or the North Mexican dialect… I picked up Chicano Texas Spanish… With Chicanas from Nuevo Mexico or Arizona I will speak Chicano Spanish a little, but often they don’t understand what I’m saying” (Anzaldua 79). She also makes another good point: “Chicanas feel uncomfortable talking in Spanish to Latinas, afraid of their censure… if a person, Chicana or Latina, has a low estimation of my native tongue, she also has a low estimation of me. Often with mexicanas y latinas we’ll speak English as a neutral language. Even among Chicanas we tend to speak English… Yet, at the same time, we’re afraid the other will think we’re agringadas because we don’t speak Chicano Spanish… There is no one Chicano language just as there is no one Chicano experience” (Anzaldua 81).

4. I believe Anzaldua’s greatest point is “Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity -- I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself… I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent’s tongue -- my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence” (Anzaldua 82). No one should be ashamed of their ethnic identity, even if it may not be popular. As soon as other people in your ethnic group see that you are proud to be who you are, then they too may feel empowered to be proud of their ethnic identity.

12:16 AM

Christine Lim said...

I wasn't sure if we were supposed to put up a new blog or leave the responses as a comment. I'm sorry if I'm wasn't supposed to do it like this.


Response to "How to Tame a Wild Tongue"

1. I only studied Spanish in high school, so I barely understood what was written here. However I did recognize some words from class and those that are similar to English, so I was able to read some of the phrases. Anzualdua doesn’t translate Spanish in order to keep her identity. Also, the intonation and what the author truly means to write tend to get lost when sentences are translated from one language to another.

2. The languages are significant because although they share the same root, Standard English or Spanish, and yet it is almost like a different tongue. Unless one is familiar with the region or group that speaks it they cannot understand it, giving a strong sense of character.
Through the phrase Anzualdua reflects her experiences with what she spoke. Because the school taught in English she was forbidden to speak Spanish in any way. By this, an important part of her was taken away. This is also true for the quote Anzualdua chose for her head note. When a language is taken away from the people, a vital part of their culture has also been stolen. Without a culture, what can the people say they are? For that reason, no one say that robbing a language is less violent than war.

3. Anzualdua uses Standard English, Chicano Spanish, and Tex-Mex, although I’m not exactly sure of the types of Spanish she uses. She applies the different ways to present her background and experiences that allowed her to pick up certain tongues. Anzualdua writes that she uses different dialects towards different audiences. It is possible she wrote in different ways so an audience who has gone through what she has can relate to her. For readers who do not understand, she illustrates the complexity to handle all these languages.

4. Throughout this whole essay she stresses the value of tongue to any ethnicity. Therefore, language is crucial when describing one’s ethnic identity. She asserts this best, “Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language… my tongue will be illegitimate.” (Anzualdua 81)

2:00 AM