Anzaldua Like Our Genes, Our Native Tongues Essay

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Anzaldua

Like our genes, our native tongues are both unique and passed down from generation to generation. Native tongues are integral and inescapable parts of our personal and collective identity, like skin color or gender. Therefore, language can be a stigma, an indicator or race, ethnicity, and culture. In the book Borderlands: La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldua explores expressions of Chicano culture in America through an analysis of the language she calls Chicano Spanish. Chicano Spanish is a by-product of ways Tex-Mex peoples created a unique cultural heritage in the Southwestern United States. The author speaks about Chicano culture, race, and identity all as functions of language. In her essay "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," Gloria Anzaldua shows how language indicates personality, culture, and background more than any other aspect of self-expression. Therefore, we should be proud of our native tongue just as we should be proud of our culture, our skin, and our heritage. Creating wild tongues is a powerful assertion of cultural pride and personal identity.

As Anzaldua's article shows, language and cultural identity are inseparable and it is necessary to allow ourselves to explore the potential of using more than one language at a time. Especially in the United States, where cultures mingle and intermingle, wild tongues are inevitable. Anzaldua's wild tongue is the Chicano tongue, and Chicano Spanish "sprang out of the Chicanos' need to identify ourselves as different people," (77). Her language is "neither espanol ni ingles, but both," (77). Wild tongues are the synthesis of more than one language, culture, and identity. They allow individuals to embrace their heritage and family background while at the same time integrating fully within their adopted culture.

However, Chicano Spanish is viewed negatively by other Spanish speakers as well as English speakers. "Chicano Spanish is considered by the purist and by most Latinos deficient, a mutilation of Spanish," (77). Her choice of the word "mutilation" points to the extent of the prejudice that surrounds the Chicano tongue. Chicanos in the United States have had to overcome such disparaging comments and remember that "Chicano Spanish is not incorrect, it is a living language," (77). As a living language, Chicano Spanish is alive, powerful, persistent, and adaptable.

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For Anzaldua, Chicano Spanish helps Chicanos feel empowered in the United States. By altering formal forms of languages like Spanish and English, Chicanos built a protective wall around their community and insulted themselves from the harsh effects of prejudice. Anzaldua's stubbornness and her rebellious pride illustrate how language can be a source of personal and cultural empowerment. She states, "Wild tongues can't be tamed, they can only be cut out," (76).

However, all languages, even Chicano Spanish, has a downside too. As Anzaldua points out, the Spanish language is gendered and women are "robbed" of being female by the masculine plural forms of pronouns such as "nosotros." Language is, according to the author, a "male discourse," (76). Chicanos and others who speak with "forked tongues" can therefore overcome language's limitations and regain a sense of personal, cultural, or gendered identity (77).

The reason why using more than one language at a time can be so important for immigrants or children of immigrants is that it enables us to preserve our cultural heritage while at the same time fitting into the dominant culture. Anzaldua talks about assimilation as a negative process, calling it a form of "copping out," (84). For Anzaldua, having a wild tongue means resisting assimilation by transforming cultural artifacts such as language, movies, or music. By doing so, the author illustrates that assimilation can have positive effects, as long as people make an effort to maintain some of their customs and their language. For example, Anzaldua is proud of Tex-Mex "Spanglish" because it reminds her of who she is and where she came from. Language connects her to her homeland, her ancestors, and her community and links Chicano people together. She remembers when she first discovered Chicano literature in America. "When I saw poetry written in Tex-Mex for the first time, a feeling of pure joy flashed through me. I felt like we really existed as people," (82). Without poetry or other forms of linguistic expression, the Chicano identity would….....

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