In Borderlands Gloria Anzaldúa discusses the idea of language identity and the confusion she had growing up concerning language. Anzaldúa explains the dichotomous ways her two ethnic groups reacted to her language. In college, she was “required to take two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of her accent”, but her Latino peers would proclaim, “pocho, cultural traitor. You’re speaking the oppressor’s language by speaking English, you’re ruining the Spanish language” (Anzaldúa 77). Both of the cultures Anzaldúa identified with, criticized her language, which she views as essential to one’s identity. Through her writing, I think that Anzaldúa was able to express this duality that she experienced. Although the chapter was primarily written in English, there were many parts where the author used other languages and dialects. The way Anzaldúa mixed so many different languages really allowed the reader to experience how she talked in real life.

            It was really hard for me to read the parts of the reading that were in Spanish or in a Spanish dialect. I know enough Spanish that I could get the gist of what Anzaldúa was writing, but it took a lot of extra effort to try and interpret the Spanish. It really allowed me to put myself in the shoes of people who continually have to communicate is a language that they are not fluent in. The whole time I was reading the text I was on the brink of not being able to fully comprehend the full meaning of what Anzaldúa was trying to convey. I think Anzaldúa did this for a few reasons. First, I think that it allowed the reader to understand what it is like for immigrants to move to a new country and not be fluent in the common language, and the subsequent pressure they face to learn the new language. Second, I think that she uses it to show what Chicano is and the mix of languages that it includes. Finally, it allows people to understand the importance of language in the development of personal identity.

            To me, the use of multiple languages allowed me to better understand the sense of double identity that Anzaldúa felt. Furthermore, I was able to really understand the whole idea that, “ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language” (Anzaldúa 81). How you understand the world around you and how you express your ideas and thoughts is a huge part in shaping who you are. If a person is ridiculed for language they use, how can they truly feel comfortable. Neither of the groups that Anzaldúa identified with fully accepted her; ultimately, I believe that Anzaldúa found peace with her identity. In the end, I think it is important to know that you do not need to be defined by an already existing label. At one point Anzaldúa asserts, “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white” (81). Just how Chicano was a new, unique identity that was created I don’t think people should shy away from creating their own identity.

This reading inspired me to share all the thoughts that I have accumulated in one year and a half experience here in America. During this time, I got to think a lot about many cultural, economical and social issues that affect US but specifically Europe, and I found out that communication is the most influencing factor on all this matters.

Through Gloria Anzaldua’s text:“Borderlands/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza” we can see how difficult it is, for people who belong to two different culture at the same time, to integrate and find a true single identity. The author finds herself in a limbo, where she wants to be American, but she doesn’t want to give up any of her Spanish treats, particularly the language. She calls herself a “Chicana”, because she feels like being a mix of the Mexican and the Anglo culture. Analyzing the situation from an American perspective, I see her behavior in a very skeptical way. It’s sad but at the same time scary to read: “I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself. Until I’m free to write bilingually and to switch codes without always having to translate, my tongue will be illegitimate” (pag 81). She clearly doesn’t want to accept English as the only common language in the United States and it looks like nothing can change her mind. Even though I firmly believe that her behavior is wrong and potentially dangerous, we have to take some time to understand where it comes from. For example, we can see how Gloria had to deal with conflicting ideas about her identity since she was young and this must have shaped her character over time: ”Pocho, cultural traitor, you’re speaking the oppressor’s language by speaking English, you are ruining the Spanish language, I have been accused by many Latinos and Latinas” she writes at pag 77…

If there is a way to convince the author to be wrong, I would do it by talking about Europe though. Coming oversea and being able to adapt to another culture opened my eyes on the real problem of the European Union: the common language. It has been the biggest weakness of the whole system since the UE was created. Why Italians don’t get along with French, French don’t get along with Germans and the whole European political system is about to collapse? Because despite we have a common currency and freedom to travel among the states, we can’t speck the same language. Communication is at the base of every civilization and mis-communication at the base of every conflict. I know it can sound stupid, but why do we kill and eat animals? Because we can’t communicate with them and they can’t communicate to us. Trying to convince you that Anzaldua is wrong by using animals example and Europe, is not a provocation. I would like you to picture one day in the future, where all the European countries will be committed to a common language. That day, Europe, would not only become a true protagonist of world globalization, but it would also become the main actor of worldwide peace, due to future relationships with all the Anglo countries such as US and Australia.

Ultimately, I want to clarify that there is nothing wrong in knowing multiple languages. I wish I knew all the languages that the author knows. Being able to speak more than one idiom makes you, luckier , richer and better. Though, my point is about knowing when to use one or the others. 

David Mack

Journal 4

            In Gloria Anzaldúa’s How to Tame a Wild Tongue, she explores the complexities and struggles of living in a body that can be expressed by many languages. She talks of all the different languages that she experiences and how it can be difficult to know which ones to use and when. She describes the different languages that range from English to Spanish and all the mixes in between.

            In describing her personality and how language impacts her daily life in society and how she identifies herself, Anzaldúa sprinkles pieces of her languages into her text. As a student who also takes Spanish I understood a lot of what she wrote as she did a beautiful job incorporating Spanish into her work. In Spanish anything that has a -ar, -er, or -ir suffix is considered to be a verb. When I was learning Spanish in 7^th grade I often added those endings to common verbs to make it sound as if I understood the language. Anzaldúa describes one of the dialects that defines her as; “Tex-Mex argot, created by adding a Spanish sound at the beginning or end of an English word such as cookiar for cook, watchar for watch, parkiar for park, and rapiar for rape, is the result of the pressures on Spanish speaker to adapt to English” (pg.70). Her quote defines the Mexican immigrant through the use of language and pressure. Something I did as an innocent middle schooler has become something that is used and understood by people who speak Spanish and different variations of the language.

            Anzaldúa also talks of the effect this mixing has had on her and others who consider themselves to be Chicana. She recalls, “In childhood we are told that our language is wrong. Repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self. The attacks continue throughout our lives” (pg. 80). Americans have been known to discriminate against those who don’t fit in, but Anzaldúa makes the point that they do fit in and have a rich history here. I believe that Anzaldúa talk of these experiences and her history because its important and any normal person can feel for the struggle she has had to endure. For anyone to have something so important to them targeted simply because it is not what the majority believes in is absurd. This country was built on immigrants and to read a story like hers makes me so upset that people aren’t accommodating. She also notes that, “by the end of this century, Spanish speakers will compromise the biggest minority group in the U.S.” (pg. 81). This fact alone should make a reader realize the importance of Spanish speakers and the culture they bring to American society.

            If I were in her position I would feel the same way and hope that a country as great as America would accommodate her to live the life she wishes to live. English is important, but this country needs the diversity brought here by others, and their languages should be prized not punished.

            In her novel Borderlands, Gloria Anzaldua strives to explore the connection of her intertwining identities: her geographical identity, her racial identity, her ethnic identity, and most importantly, her linguistic identity. Gloria describes, in detail, her experience as a “mestiza,”; as a Chicano, as a Mexican American, and even as a woman of color. Gloria emphasizes the difficulties encountered by someone who belongs to multiple groups of people but is truly accepted by none. Throughout the text, she bounces between writing in English and various strands of Spanish, sometimes translating her words and other times leaving the reader to figure out what she means. Her use of her multiple languages, or her “switching of codes” (Anzaldua, preface), reveals her idea that “ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity” (Anzaldua, 81). In saying this, Anzaldua is agreeing with many of the other historians we have interacted with in class; she is agreeing that language is an essential factor in claiming an ethnic or national identity. But she complicates this idea by discussing her experience as a multi-lingual woman, who because she speaks English, is not truly accepted by Mexicans, and because she speaks Spanish, is not truly accepted by Americans.

            I took Spanish classes for all four years of high school and my freshman year of college. Even after five years of Spanish language and culture education, I am not even close to being fluent, nor do I truly know that much about Spanish culture. I could read some of the Spanish language that Anzaldua incorporated in her writing, but not all. And it was frustrating. I kind of caught myself thinking, “how am I expected to read this?” And I caught myself especially wondering: what about the people who have never taken Spanish? How are they expected to read this? Putting this into perspective, it was made obvious what Anzaldua was potentially trying to do. I began to imagine what it would feel like to be immersed in a culture where I was not allowed to speak my first language. An environment where I felt like I had to hide a piece of me.

            And this was a feeling that Anzaldua cannot escape. If she was surrounded by Americans, she was expected not to speak Spanish, or she might make some people uncomfortable. If she was around fellow Chicanas, she still felt a need to prove herself in some way. She talked about how there are several variations of each language that she can speak, and she has to censor herself depending on the group that she was around or the environment she was in. I think that this piece of work was a space Gloria Anzaldua created for herself to speak on these issues in every language that she could speak. Her goal is reflected when she says, “…until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without always having to translate…my tongue will be illegitimate,” (Anzaldua, 81), and in writing this she is beginning to legitimize her, and many other immigrants’ experiences in balancing their battling identities.

In Gloria Anzualda’s text “Borderlands/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza,” she discusses the effects that borders have on identity. Borders are not merely physical, as Anzualda emphasizes when she writes “Borderlands are physically present wherever two or more cultures edge each other, where people of different races occupy the same territory, where under, lower, middle, and upper classes touch, where the space between two individuals shrinks with intimacy” (Anzualda 71). In this quote, she lays out her definition for a borderland, and this makes it easier to understand the effects of living in a borderland. She also states that borders can be psychological, sexual, and spiritual.

Anzualda, having spent most of her life in the American Southwest, has been exposed to Mexican and American culture and language. Consequently, she, like many of those living in the Southwest borderlands, has adopted an identity that incorporates both of these cultures. She calls herself and her community “Chicano,” which is a culture and language that has developed from mixtures between English and Spanish language, and Mexican and American culture. Gloria Anzualda’s identity is built around her Chicano language and culture, which she sees as distinct from both the cultures surrounding it. Anzualda explains this when she states “Chicano Spanish sprung out of the Chicano’s need to identify ourselves as a distinct people. We needed a language with which we could communicate with ourselves” (Anzualda 77). In this statement, Anzualda explains why the creation of the Chicano language and culture was necessary. In her mind, the Chicano identity was born of necessity, of a need to find an identity that meshed all influential cultures present in the Southwestern borderlands.

Anzualda places incredible importance on her language and culture, and defends them from those who consider Chicano to be an illegitimate bastardization of Spanish and English. And her identity certainly needs defending, as she explains that many do not view the Chicano identity to be valid. She expresses “If a person, Chicana or Latina, has a low estimation of my native tongue, she also has a low estimation of me” (Anzualda 80). In other words, Anzualda considers an attack or criticism of her language to be an attack on herself, as her identity is deeply rooted in her Chicano origins.

Personally, I agree that no one should feel like their language and way of life is lesser than anyone else’s. Anzualda has every right to be angry if someone takes issue with her or her personal identity. But, having said that, I do take issue with some of the statements that Anzualda makes. For instance, She articulates “Until I am free to write bilingually and switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak Spanish or English when I would rather speak Spanglish, and as long as I have to accomodate the English speakers rather than having them accomodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate” (Anzualda 81). I do not think that not accommodating Chicano speakers is disrespecting their language. Very few people speak Chicano compared to Spanish and English, so it only makes sense that they would need to translate their language when around speakers of a more common tongue. It’s not an issue of legitimacy, as every language is as legitimate as the next, it’s about convenience. Anzualda even states many times that members of the Chicano community speak both English and Spanish, so it stands to reason that they use these languages when in the presence of those who do not speak Chicano. I would not expect a someone to accommodate my language if it was very uncommon.

In her piece, Borderlands/La frontera: The New Mestiza, Gloria Anzaldúa describes the complexities of “living between the borders” of two languages both in a literal and figurative sense. Despite opening the conversation with commentary on the clear and present disparities between native English speakers and native Spanish speakers, Anzaldùa primarily focuses on the even more complex livelihoods of those who are stuck somewhere in the middle of the two languages; more specifically, the Chicano people, who speak around 8 different languages ranging from Standard English and Standard Spanish to Chicano Spanish and Pachuco, according to Anzaldùa.

The author, as mentioned previously, uses her writing to illustrate the hostile environment many Chicanas endure as a minority group within the greater Spanish community. The author states at the beginning of the section, “Linguistic Terrorism”, that “Chicanas who grew up speaking Chicano Spanish have internalized the belief that we spoke poor Spanish” (Anzaldùa 80). She describes how this discriminatory narrative endorsed by the dominant culture bred feelings of inadequacy in the Chicana community, and that it prompted its various members to use their own language differences against one another. Distancing yourself from certain individuals who identify similarly to you in order to create some sense of self-worth is a phenomenon that is prevalent in several socially repressed minority groups today. When your identity is demonized and attacked repeatedly, it is easy to internalize those feelings, as Anzaldùa puts it, and criticize those same aspects when you view them in those around you. Society can condition us into believing that something which isn’t inherently negative, such as a different language, is a trait that we should be ashamed of, when in reality, our differences are what allow us to grow and learn as a culture. This also leads into the question of whether or not America is in reality a melting pot of different cultures and ideas or more simply a mosaic. Do we truly believe diversity is what makes us unique as a people, or are we more akin to making others leave their underlying identities behind in order to make them conform to larger society? Anzaldùa captures this dilemma perfectly in this section of her writing.

The author wraps up the Linguistic Terrorism section of her writing with a powerful stance against those who have demonized the fluidity of her identity. She asserts that, “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent’s tongue – my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence” (Anzaldùa 81). What I find interesting, however, is that she almost immediately juxtaposes this statement with one not only 4 pages later. When speaking on the inability to fully relate with neither Anglo-American nor Mexican cultural values, Anzaldùa admits that, “I have so internalized the borderland conflict that sometimes I feel like one cancels out the other and we are zero, nothing, no one” (Anzaldùa 85). The ability of the author to take pride in her heritage and upbringing while simultaneously being able to admit that problems of identity do prevail in her culture is an assessment that I find both honest and noteworthy. Dualities do exist in our world; it is possible to feel a sense of pride while also feeling like you don’t belong. Not only is it healthy to recognize this issue, but it is also important that we acknowledge these conflicting feelings so that we are able to address them and start a conversation. This is something that I believe Anzaldùa achieves with this piece.

In regards to Anzaldùa’s literary technique of switching between languages, I believe that she did this in order to put the audience in her shoes. Sometimes things are simply lost in translation, and it can be frustrating when we can’t understand an idea because it is not communicated to us effectively. I think the author wanted her audience to feel frustrated, because that is how she and so many others like her constantly. This is why I decided to not translate the text that wasn’t in English; some things are just better left ‘unsaid’ or simply put up to individual interpretation.

In the narrative, “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza,” Gloria Anzaldúa switches back and forth between using a variety of languages. She does this to show the reader that this is the language of the borderlands. It is a mix of English, Castillian Spanish, North Mexican, Tex Mex, and even Nahuatl. She talks about how being a boarder girl means living in an alien element. Her using a variety of languages in this text shows us how her life plays out as living in the middle of many different colliding cultures. She is in a melting pot, surrounded by a bunch of people similar and different to her. She talks about how difficult it is to live on this borderland because there’s always someone judging her and the language she’s speaking because its not the “proper” language.  She talks about living in the borderland means hearing one language on one side, and another on the other so that she ends up forgetting her own language. She questions what language she should actually speak because everyone around her expects something else from her. Anzaldúa says, “I have so internalized the borderland conflict that sometimes I feel like one cancels out the other and we are zero, nothing, no one” (Anzaldúa 85). Anzaldúa is trying to explain how much it affects her personal identity when someone rejects her linguistic identity.

            As I read through this narrative, I quickly became frustrated that I couldn’t understand so many of her sentences because they were written in a different language. Honestly, I have never been in such a position as this because I never find myself reading someone else’s work that is not in my native tongue. Everything that I’ve ever had or wanted to read has been in my own language, and I definitely have taken that for granted. I felt left out and almost less than the author because I wasn’t able to understand everything she was trying to share. In other words, I wasn’t capable of understanding it all. As my frustration grew, I started simply skipping over the words I couldn’t read because it didn’t make me feel good to be incapable of understanding certain words. It made me want to give up reading this narrative because I felt like it wasn’t meant for readers like me whose native language is English.
            Turns out though, I believe that narrative was exactly for readers like me. Anzaldúa threw in all of her languages proudly to show that she is a Chicana. She talks about how she is who she is despite what anyone else says. She confidently boasts how the Chicanos are the ones who haven’t been scared into throwing away their native tongue, while so many other races have allowed themselves to be stripped of their linguistic identity. She says, “We count the days the weeks the years the centuries the eons until the white laws and commerce and customs will rot in the deserts they’ve created, lie bleached” (Anzaldúa 86). She is digging Americans in the way that we’ve demanded such a white culture where English is the main language that’s been spoken and white customs are the ones that should be kept. She is foretelling that one day, we will be shown how unjust we’ve been and our white laws will be done away with. This narrative is her taking pride in who she knows she is (a Chicano), and how nothing and no one is powerful enough to take that away from her.

Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands is a beautiful piece about growing up between borders, because Anzaldúa has ties to both America and Mexico. I thought it was a really interesting way to go about writing a book. By having multiple languages within a piece, I feel like it is important for the message the author is trying to ultimately convey, which to me is that Gloria Anzaldúa has so much diversity in her because of these languages that she will never get rid of. The chapter called “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” represents to the reader what Gloria Anzaldúa’s life was like growing up surrounded by various languages and the struggle of being forced to leave some of her culture behind by having to speak only English at school. By incorporating dialogue here and there that was not in English I thought it was extremely realistic to her life.

I feel like Anzaldúa thinks in both English and Spanish so it was really cool to see where one English thought left off and a Spanish thought picked up. In another way, the narrative in Spanish was like sayings that she could have heard all throughout her childhood and it was a great addition to the piece. When the narrative was in spanish and she did not translate what she was saying I used my context clues to understand what she was talking about. For Example, “Pa’ ballar buen trabjo tienes que saber hablar el inglés bien. Que vale toda tu educacción si todavía hablas ingles con un ‘accent.” Anzaldúa never formally translates what this means but from my many years of studying spanish throughout my middle school and high school career I got the gist. To me, her mom is telling her that even if she can speak English it does not mean much if she still speaks it with an accent. Just to make sure I was right about that I translated it myself. By not understanding some lines at a time I felt kind of confused or that I had to rely heavily on the English part or the context to make sure I understood what the author was trying to say. Because of this, I put myself in the author’s position when she was a young girl learning English and how hard that was for her. Learning English as a second language is very complex as the English language has many difficult parts and it takes time and practice to grasp.

I believe that she put some spanish in the piece to portray a specific message about how the wild tongue she has will always be there. For example  Gloria Anzaldúa states “Attacks on one’s form of expression with the intent to censor are a violation of the First Amendment.El Anglo con cara de inocente nos arranco la lengua. Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out.” to me this means that no one can ever “tame” the beautiful and specialness of another language and there’s no way for it not to exist in your life unless you attempt to rid your life of it completely or you get it taken away from you. I think this piece was so intriguing has it had to do a lot with what we have been learning in class recently. We as a classed have discussed on multiple occasions how unfair it is that people who are born in America are praised for being multilingual but those who are immigrants are bashed for not speaking strictly English since they are in America.

I think this piece conveys how utterly unfair it is. That speaking multiple languages, whether you are an immigrant or not should never be looked down upon. I respect and admire the strength that Gloria Anzaldúa has from going through all of this. I absolutely love how she ended this chapter. Explaining that so many different cultures have had to give up their native tongue, but Los Chicanos have kept theirs. It is so important for immigrants to be able to hold onto their values and culture in America. Being in America should never take away your freedom to be as you are. America who prides itself on being accepting, being a “melting pot” needs to work on practicing what it preaches.

In Gloria Anzaldúa’s writing, Borderlands/ La Frontera, she utilizes the combination of the English language as well as many Spanish dialects. These dialects are so different from each other that most Spanish speakers don’t even understand all of them. Anzaldúa first describes how, in school, her and other Chicano students would be punished for speaking in Spanish as opposed to English. Anzaldúa expresses Native Spanish speakers would tell her that she was “‘speaking the oppressors language by speaking English, your ruining the Spanish language,” (pg. 77). By her Spanish being tainted by her English schooling, her Spanish was now considered mutilated in the eyes of other Latinos. This is eye opening because it portrays how the Americanization of people doesn’t quite adapt them properly to being an American, and they are no longer accepted by their previous group. This leaves to a conflicting and confusing sense of identity. This process is very similar to the assimilation of Native Americans, where they were stripped from their culture, yet still didn’t quite fit in with European culture, nor did they fit in with their tribes. This idea of Americanizing people has been a part of this nation’s culture since it became a nation, and it still has just as many repercussions as it did in the beginning. Anzaldúa re-tells her experiences growing up  all while continuously alternating between writing in English and writing in Spanish. While I was reading the Spanish parts I found myself trying to correlate some of the words to the language I’m used to, English, and would make assumptions about what they truly meant. After a while though I found myself just skipping over those words and only reading the English parts. I surprised myself by doing this because I have even taken Spanish for six years, and I was still not able to fully comprehend what was beginning said. I think this says a lot about people who come into a new country speaking a different language. Despite learning the new language, it is easy to find your going back to old habits, and doing what is most familiar to you. Also the fact that learning a new language is hard, and no matter how long you’ve been practicing, it can still be challenging. I also assume that the way Anzaldúa wrote this piece is very similar to the way a Spanish speaker would hear English speakers. They could pick out some words, but for the most parts it’s a lot of blanks. I also feel like this is similar to the way they would speak, a combination of both languages for whatever words they were the most comfortable with. I believe this is why Anzaldúa chose to write in this particular style, because it made the reader feel just as lost and confused as she and any other Latino kids must have been as a child, and possibly still are. Now the language she is most comfortable with is considered by Native speaking Chicano’s to be a “illegitimate, a bastard language. And because [they] internalize how our language has been used against us by the dominant culture, [they] use [their] language differences against each other,” (pg. 80). Anzaldúa expresses the frustration one would feel if they no longer belonged with their group, and simultaneously became an other to the group that assimilated them and the group they were assimilated from. Just like the Native Americans, Spanish Americans have faced the same hardships that come with American culture being the only acceptable way.