Identity Essay

Adrianna Colish

ENG1100

13 September 2016

Professor Young

Identity

            Identity describes who you are as a person.  Identity varies from person to person, which makes us all unique.  In Gloria Anzaldúa’s essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” she talks about how her identity reflects on her language.  On the other hand, my identity reflects on my religion.  There are so many different factors that play into someone’s identity but in the end identity is who you are.

            One aspect of identity is language.  Gloria Anzaldúa speaks Chicano, which is part of the Spanish language.  Everyone around her speaks English and tries to convince to her to stop speaking her native language.  Even her mother wants her to stop, “’I want you to speak English’… my mother would say, mortified that I spoke English like a Mexican.  Their purpose: to get rid of our accents.  Wild Tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out”(Anzaldúa 246).  Anzaldúa doesn’t want to give up her language, even when everyone else around her is telling her to she stands strong because, her language describes who she is.  Throughout her whole essay she talks about how she will never stop fighting for her language, because her language is her identity, “So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language.  Ethic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity- I am my language”(Anzaldúa 250).  Being Chicano is what makes Gloria Anzaldúa who she is, and she refuses to change because she doesn’t want to change her identity.

My parents have always played a huge part of my identity.  I look like my dad and I act like my mom.  They influenced most of my identity and that’s why identity is so important to me.  Although, there is one thing they’ve tried to push onto me my whole life, which is the catholic religion.  Ever since I was little my parents forced my sister and me to go to church every Sunday.  They nurtured us to believe in God by telling us that God was great and we should always go to church to pray for the next week.  When my sister finally got her license, my parents said we could go to church Saturday night or Sunday afternoon by ourselves.  Instead of actually going to church, we would go and sit at dunkin instead.  They tried to force this belief on me my whole life.

It has been in my nature to not believe in God.  There is something about him and the religion that makes me not believe.  In my opinion, if God were real bad things wouldn’t happen or happen as much.  Life is so complicated sometimes when it really shouldn’t be and if God were real I believe life would be easier.  I used to pray all the time and my prayers never got answered so I didn’t understand the point of God and religion.  I respect other people’s beliefs but God and religion isn’t in my nature.

When my sister turned 18 and my parents said she didn’t need to go to church anymore.  Since, I’m only a year younger than my sister they didn’t force me to go anymore.  I haven’t been to church in 2 years and even though my parent’s don’t like it, they aren’t trying to force religion onto me anymore.  It’s not apart of my own identity.

In conclusion, there are so many different aspects of identity.  For example, language is Gloria Anzaldúa’s identity where she is from and the language she speaks is what makes Anzaldúa herself. My identity is based off of my beliefs.  I was nurtured to be catholic and believe in God, but it was in my nature to go against my parent’s beliefs and focus on myself.  Anzaldúa and I both went against our parents, her mom wanted her to speak English and my parents wanted me to believe in God.  We didn’t listen to them and that is what makes us unique and individual.  We decided our own identity.

  Works Cited

Anzaldúa, Gloria. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Teaching Developmental Writing.  Ed.  Susan Naomi Bernstein New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s 2013. 245-255. Print.

"How to Tame a Wild Tongue" questions

Adrianna Colish

Professor Young

ENGL 1100

5 September 2016

“How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Questions

1.    Discuss how the opening scene of Anzaldúa in the dentist’s chair connects to the overall point/message of the essay and title.

The opening scene is a metaphor when the author says, “We’re going to have to control your tongue” “My mouth is a mother lode” ‘We’re going to have to do something about your tongue” (Anzaldúa 245-246).  It’s a metaphor because, the dentist is saying that they need to control her tongue, but she means that she needs to watch what she says when she is talking in her fist language or her mother’s language. 

2.    Discuss Anzaldúa’s use of the Spanish throughout her writing.  Did it make sense?  What was her purpose?

Anzaldúa uses Spanish in her writing because; it is a form of her identity.  Spanish is apart of her and she doesn’t want to hide it even when everyone around her is telling her to.  To me personally, the Spanish didn’t make sense because, I don’t understand a lot of Spanish but I did understand her purpose.  Her purpose was to stand up for herself and for where she’s from.

3.    Can Academic English be defined as Spanish (standard) and can Chicano Spanish be described as nonstandard? Why? What inferences, conclusions, can be made from referring to one identity (language) as standard versus nonstandard?

Yes, academic English and standard Spanish can be considered the same because, us Americans all know English as our first language and standard Spanish would be the first language for the Spanish/Mexicans.  I inferred this because on page 246 Anzaldúa wrote a list of all the languages, “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)” (Anzaldúa 246).  Since, Standard English and standard Spanish are both at the tops of the list, they are considered to be the same for their countries.  So, then Chicano Spanish would be considered an off slang of Spanish that has some standard techniques’ in it but it isn’t the universal language.

4.    Discuss the necessity of speaking and/writing in Academic English as an identity.  Is it necessary?

I think it is necessary for us to speak and write in academic English because, for most of us it is our first language.  Most of us identified as Americans who speak English first.  Although, there are some people who know other languages, or whose first language isn’t English but they still know it and understand it.  So, yes it is necessary especially for this class, we all understand English so our speaking and writing in English would be easiest for all of us.

5.    Anzaldúa describes different types of Spanish, identities.  Discuss the various types of English identities, you know.

Most people speak the same in the English language but some people don’t speak properly.  For example, there are three different ways to say there in the English language.  There, their and they’re.  Also, your and you’re mean two different things.  This is where some people write differently.  They say one thing and mean something else.

6.    Pachuco.  Do you use a secret language, secret identity, to communicate to your friends? If so, what?

I don’t have a different secret language that I use with my friends but I talk differently with them than I do with my parents.  For example, I curse in front of my friends but I don’t in front of my parents.

7.    Chicano Spanish can be compared to non-standard English.  What form of English (standard or nonstandard) do you speak with your friends (audience)?  What form of English do you speak when you talk to your mother (audience), professor (audience)? Why?

With my friends I will talk more nonstandard English or shorter English, especially over text.  On the other hand, with my parents and professors I will talk in Standard English because, it is more proper and respectful. 

8.    “I am my language.” What does this mean? How does this statement connect to a person’s identity?

This quote means that she identities with her language.  Her language is where she is from, it is apart of her and she doesn’t want to hide that, no matter how many people tell her to. 

9.    Talk specifically about how the introduction and conclusion connect.

In the introduction she talks about how everyone around says to control her tongue, but in the ends she talks about how she is the only one who has kept her tongue.  She has kept her language and her identity because; it describes who she is as a person.

10. Can the language you speak be a part of your identity? Why?

Yes, because the language you speak is either where you came from or how you were raised, both are apart of whom you are as a person. 

11. How important is identity to you?  Does Anzaldúa believe it’s important to have identity?  Use some examples from “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” to support your answer.

Identity is very important to me because, it is a way for people to describe me to other people.  It is also what makes me “me”.  Anazaldúa believes that identity is important and she talks about how her language makes her identity, “ So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language.  Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity-I am my language…I will overcome the tradition of silence” (Anazaldúa 251).  She talks about how she fights for language because; by doing that she is also fighting for her identity.

Works Cited

Anzaldúa, Gloria. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Teaching Developmental Writing.  Ed.  Susan Naomi Bernstein New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s 2013. 245-255. Print.