Gloria Anzaldua's How To Tame A Wild Tongue

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Being raised in the United States, many Mexican Immigrants face cultural and social difficulties. Gloria Anzaldua exposes her feelings in her short story “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. Growing up in the Rio Grande most of her work was influenced by the borderlands which refers to the border between Mexico and United States. “Borderlands,” she writes, “are physically present wherever two or more cultures edge each other, where people of different races occupy the same territory” (Anzaldua 205). The borderlands created a new category of person “Mestiza” (Anzaldua 205) it exists between cultures having a mix of more than one. In her short story, she compares and contrast between English and Spanish and how cultural imperialism is a contributing …show more content…
but living in a Spanish speaking household. “Language is a primary part of a person’s identity” (Anzaldua 205) as each different type of language helps the individual connect with their identity as they are capable to communicate their values and realities true to themselves. I agree on how language is a key factor in identifying who we are as an individual or society. As a Spanish speaking individual, I myself, can relate to Anzaldua’s short story as we were always told to speak English because society was not ok with us speaking Spanish.
An anthropologist, Ruth Benedict in the early twentieth century was in a group of scholars who “developed the discipline of cultural anthropology- a set of strategies and assumptions for studying different cultures” (Benedict 118). She attended Colombia University where she studied under the world famous anthropologist Franz Boas. In “The individual and the Pattern of Culture.” Ruth talks about the correlation between the different social norms in societies
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As this also applies to Anzaldua how languages have changed over time going from standard Spanish to Tex-Mex and so on. I once had to adapt to a new culture and language when I came into this country. The culture and society have shaped me to be the person I am now; language also influenced me to be able to express myself in two different languages and cultures. While Texas is more diverse now we can go from any form of Spanish to English with most people, something we could not do 12 years ago. “I want you to speak English” (Anzaldua 206) is always in the back of my mind. Society sets the rules and standards but it is up to us as individuals to decide on what are the things that truly make us happy. An individual and society are closely related you need both to be able to form one or the other. Society influences an individual, and the actions of an individual affects society. When there is a significant representative of the social world forming an individual it begins with the day you are born as they will teach you the norms, values, and the way they think. This process ends when an individual has gained the concept of the generation of one’s specific attitude and roles. On the other hand, the individual is able to decide if his decision matters more than the society which allows him or her to develop their own identity. Yet, his

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