Summary: Gloria Anzaldua’s How to Tame a Wild Tongue surrounds the topic of the many languages she speaks and their importance to her. She refers to 8 different languages she speaks, “1. Standard English 2. Working class and slang English 3. Standard Spanish 4. Standard Mexican Spanish 5. North Mexican Spanish Dialect 6. Chicano Spanish (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California have regional variations) 7. Tex-Mex 8. Pachuco (called caló)” the language she speaks depends on the person she is talking to. She informs us of which language she uses when talking to a certain person. She goes through each of her languages, describing and giving examples of each one. Chicano Spanish seems to be the most important to Anzaldua of the languages she speaks. This language was looked down on by others, and was referred to as a “poor language”. Anzaldua fights this stereotype by teaching with works by Chicano’s in secret and fought with her advisor in graduate school to make Chicano literature an area of focus.
Response: The part of How to Tame a Wild Tongue that i found most inspiring is when she includes how hard she fought to make Chicano literature an area of focus. To others, it was looked down on and others felt embarrassed to speak it and so Anzaldua decided she wanted to change the way Chicano Spanish was viewed. Anzaldua embraces her languages and where she comes from and feels anyone can do the same. She tries to defeat the stereotypes that come with her languages. This text relates well to John Swales The Concept of a Discourse Community as it references how different communities use different forms of communicate. Although Swales defines a discourse community as a community brought together by a common goal and Anzaldua does not refer to any goals, both texts discuss the importance of having a specific language or form of communicating that brings a community together.I feel that although it was helpful adding words and translations, there was a lot of translations that did not seem necessary and i ended up skipping a couple of sections.
Reflection: Since this texts includes a lot of anecdotes and introduces you to the life of the writer, i plan to use a similar approach so that the reader can relate more to my point. When I read a text and it is all fact, it’s hard to really get into what I’m reading and take away from it, but when the writer includes examples or stories to explain what they’re trying to say, it makes it easier to stay interested.