How to Tame a Wild Tongue

54 – How to Tame a Wild Tongue – Gloria Anzaldua

Gloria’s language is conversational, depicting descriptive, cultural language differences and how they have affected her throughout her life. She describes many cases of how her language difference affects different situations, such as the rude teacher that told her to go back to Mexico, if she cannot speak English properly. Sometimes we need to listen more than we speak to learn the needs of others, since proper pronunciation of her name is a normal desire. There are many varieties of the Spanish language, as well as many accents and dialects of English; sadly, they are less acceptable between cultures. This is both a blessing and a curse because the company she keeps determines her speech and language. She literally has to control her tongue for acceptance, forcing her to speak eight dialects for the accommodation of others. This is an insult to her identity; “until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself…my tongue will be illegitimate.” Her desire to express herself freely in all situations makes her unacceptable in many. My lack of the Spanish language makes parts of the essay unreadable, but that is my deficiency not hers, which is part of the point she is trying to make.