Faiz 1

Sunzida Faiz
Professor Coy
English 125: Section DC1
October 6, 2018
Mother Tongue

More often than not we inherit things that others create without knowing why we do so or

the importance of it. Language is one of those things we inherit from our parents and it stays

with us no matter where we go. In the text “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, by Gloria Anzaldua,

Anzaldua talks about the negative reactions she received from people for being a Chicana and

speaking Chicano Spanish. Chicanos are Mexican-American people. Sometimes they have

difficulty identifying as American or Mexican since they’re in the middle of both cultures.

Anzaldua was born in Texas. In the text, Anzaldua shares some of her personal experiences that

had a great impact on her identity. As a teenager Anzaldua struggled with her language in school

because she spoke in a different dialect and faced discrimination. However, it helped her

discover her identity and be more content with her heritage. Gloria Anzaldua’s work portrays

that a person’s home language plays an important role in formal education and the workplace. A

person’s home language is their first language which attaches them to their roots and helps them

understand their intangible heritage. It lets them take control of their identity regardless of how

society views them. Home language can also help them interpret what they learn in school and

the workplace in their own way.

A person’s home language is a part of their identity which shouldn’t be taken away from

them by anyone. In the text, Anzaldua shares an experience with her readers where her teacher

mistreated her for having an accent. Being bilingual meant she pronounced some things, her

name, for example, differently than most American people. In school, Anzaldua’s American
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teachers tried to change her identity by trying to get rid of her accent. Anzaldua chose to

pronounce her name with her Spanish accent because to her, her name represents her culture and

it’s also part of her identity. If everyone were to change the pronunciation of their names just to

please the people hearing it then their name will lose its meaning and authenticity. Chicanos use

Spanish words that used to be in the Spanish language. In the text, Gloria Anzaldua claims that

Chicanos created their own language for “communicating the realities and values true to

themselves- a language with tems that are neither espanol ni ingles, but both” (36). When it

comes to communicating with people, language is the key because two people can understand

and express each other’s feelings through language, if they share a common language. If a

person’s language is limited, it limits them from completely being themselves. Since Chicano

students speak English and Spanish, it gives them a broad understanding of the world around

them because they’re able to communicate with many types of people just by being bilingual. In

formal education, this may benefit them because they can be friends with people who speak the

same language as them and those friends can actually help them with school work. This will

definitely boost their self-confidence because it’ll make them feel comfortable and not like an

outcast.

A person’s mother language is the first language they learn as a kid and that connects

them to their people. Using your mother language at work and in school is a way of showing

pride and representing your culture. A person can experience double consciousness when they

have to keep up with two different cultures and identities. Anzaldua experiences double

consciousness because she’s Chicana and she’s American. She has to keep up with her American

identity by not having an accent at school or workplace and by doing “American” things.
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Anzaldua keeps her Chicana identity alive through Mexican food and entertainment. Although at

first Anzaldua might have had trouble being a Chicano and dealing with discrimination, she

learned to accept the fact that she’s in the midst of both cultures and she became more content

with her heritage. When Anzaldua sees work done by Chicanos being published she feels good

about her identity. When she was a teacher in high school, she was forbidden from giving her

students Chicano literature, but she gave her students Chicano poems and stories to read anyway

(40). This suggests that once she saw her culture being represented by others, she gained the

confidence to spread her culture too. She took a bold risk that could’ve cost her the job she had,

she was a proud Chicano and she wanted to show it.When she saw more work done by Chicanos

getting published it gave her “ a sense of belonging” (40). Language can build a bridge between

people that share the same roots. This shows that some Chicano people were able to inspire

Anzaldua and now Anzaldua’s work is inspiring many Chicanos. Our mother language lets us

communicate with people native to our land. Being able to speak our home language in school or

at our workplace makes it easier to manage the dual identity. Maintaining two different identities

can be difficult, especially when society doesn’t accept your real identity. However, you

shouldn’t need society’s approval to be content with yourself, your identity and your language

should be your foundation for self-validation. Home language plays a huge role in formal

education, especially for teachers, because their home language can help them connect with

students that speak the same language as them instead of making “standard English” the barrier

between them.

A person’s home language matters a lot in formal education and the workplace because

sometimes they may be able to express something in their own language that can’t be expressed
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using “standard English”. As we can clearly see in “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Anzaldua

uses a few Spanish phrases and quotes that only work when written in Spanish not in English.

Some people find it easier to translate things into their own language because that makes it easier

for their brain to process and understand what they’re learning. Many languages, such as

Spanish, consists of grammatical gender. For example, in Spanish “the cat” is written as “la gata”

and “the dog” is written as “el gato”, the pronoun changes according to the noun. The “a” at the

end of a word seems to represent femininity and “o” represents masculinity; not in all cases. In

English, however, we don’t differentiate like that and that may confuse learners who are used to

learning with grammatical gender. Home language plays a big role in formal education because

it affects a person’s ability to understand what they learn by translating it to their own language.

In conclusion, people should be able to use their home language in school and the

workplace because it gives them a broad understanding of whatever they learn. People’s home

language gives them the sense of belonging to some place or to some group. A sense of

belonging is important for a sense of identity because you feel less insecure when you know

there are people who can relate to you and your culture. Letting people use their home language

gives them the chance to maintain different identities and stay true to their roots. Being able to

use your home language at the workplace can be beneficial for you and people around you

because you might be able to help people that don’t understand English but understands the same

language you speak at home. If we try to get everyone to speak “standard English” everywhere

then we can’t preserve people’s mother tongue and if we can’t preserve people’s mother tongue,

we can’t preserve cultural diversity in America.

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Works Cited

Anzaldúa, Gloria E. ​Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza​. 1987