How to Tame a Wild Tongue PDF

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Summary

From the "Ways of Reading" book by Bartholomae. Focuses on the story "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" and the struggle of a Spanish-American student that faced the assimilation of cultures....

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English 101 9/15/18 A Dance of Words “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua, is a chapter from her book La Frontera that can be read by not only Spanish-American speakers, but English speakers as well. Anzaldua successfully is able to incorporate her native language in her piece while keeping nonSpanish speakers engaged with what she is saying. By adding in translations to important words in her Spanish sentences, Anzaldua helps the reader decipher the main ideas and use context clues to understand what she is saying. On top of this she also uses an extremely unique style of writing that she even compares to “a crazy dance”. She includes poems, stories and historical paragraphs that when put together create a dance of words. Her combined writing strategies invite a new way of reading, that when figured out create a reading experience you hardly ever find. As you read her piece you can feel the struggle that she went through as a Chicano growing up in Texas, a place where racism is common at the time of her teenage years. Through all the different elements she uses to mold this essay, she invites the reader to feel what she felt, as peoples cultural identities are still being forced away from them in today’s society. As a first-time reader that does not speak Spanish begins “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” it is probably not uncommon for them to get a feeling of hopelessness when it comes to understanding what is being said. The first read through can be very tough as you are trying to stay with the text while also not knowing what certain sentences are saying. As the reader goes through a second time though small things such as the translations to important words and phrases are picked up on which ultimately helps them stay hooked to what they are reading while

also helping the text have character. Anzaldua most likely knew that her audience wouldn’t be all Spanish-American speakers therefore she had to compensate and add enough translations to keep the texting flowing while also assisting the reader. Why did Anzaldua add the Spanish sentences in if she knew it would trip up readers one might ask? An ongoing theme found throughout the piece is the ceaseless pride that she has for her culture and more importantly the language she speaks. Because of this she was constantly profiled and judged by English speakers for using her native language. By incorporating both languages, she is creating a sense of equality between them as they are working together to get her points across to the reader. Without this bilingual reading experience some of her points wouldn’t reach the reader the same way that they do with it. By giving a reader that doesn’t speak Spanish a sense of confusion and struggle, it can help show how Anzaldua had struggled when trying to speak English. Rather than pushing you away like her teachers did to her, she invites you in to embrace the struggle and learn. As they try to decipher the Spanish that is incorporated in the essay the reader is also matched with multiple different writing styles such as poems, stories, historical sections and sayings. Anzaldua is looking to step away from the traditional concept of reading and change the way that the reader digests the points being made. For about every idea that she gets across in a paragraph she adds a quote that matches it which helps to drive that idea home. The poem by Irena Klepfisz found after the “Overcoming the Tradition of Silence” paragraph is a great example of Anzaldua backing up her statements with other readings, as it helps to show how people were trying to take away Anzaldua’s language. Klepfisz says, “the wilderness has dried out our tongues and we have forgotten our speech.”, which relates to Anzaldua’s experience of being shamed for speaking her native language and because of that the language was being

forgotten. Similarly, Anzaldua recalls an experience in which a teacher of hers says, “If you want to be American, speak American. If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong”. Just like the quote this shows her language being taken away from her or as the poem would say, her tongue being dried out. After going through her personal experiences of being a Chicano native and having the feeling of her language being stripped from her she then follows up with the history of her culture and more in-depth analysis of Chicano Spanish and how it is spoken. This help to give the reader a background of what it was like for her growing up and some of the struggles she faced as a Chicano. She states that “As a culture, we call ourselves Spanish when referring to ourselves as a linguistic group”, showing that the Chicanos carry a lot of pride in their culture and don’t actually refer to themselves as Spanish. With this pride comes with its hardships though because they have trouble assimilating with other cultures. The historical context given adds a different viewpoint on the culture as a whole rather than just having her personal experiences which might be seen as biased from some readers. Overall Anzaldua’s use of multiple elements is what makes reading her essay different than other readings. Without this writing style it would be an easier read as it would be much more straightforward, but it definitely would be as interesting. Anzaldua truly knows how to lure her audience in and because of this she can successfully capture readers of any level.

Works Cited

Anzaldua, Gloria. “Resources for Teaching Ways of Reading: an Anthology for Writers.” Resources for Teaching Ways of Reading: an Anthology for Writers, by David Bartholomae and Tony Petrosky, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011, pp. 24–34....