Gloria Anzalduia committed to describing how fronting the alienation of alwa ly challenges dichoto are culture and individual, lends autobiography, ling zy that both exposes and overcor ‘and English celebrates readers who are ‘borders fluidly. Keating says that Anzaldi readers the performative power of language to generat e5,and communities, for good oil. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” {oing to have to control your tongue,” the dentist says, pulling out all tal from my mouth, Silver bits plop and tinkle into the basin. My mouth dentists cleaning out my roots. I get a whiff of the stench when I gasp. ‘tcap that tooth yet, you're still draining,” he says. fe're going to have to do something about your tongue,” I hear the anger ig out the wads of cotton, pushing never seen anything as strong or as ‘you tame a wild tongue, train it to be How do you make it lie down? ois to say that robbing a peop! “is language is less violent than wart —Ray Gwyn Smith speaking Spanish at recest—that was good for three ig sent to the corner of358 359 of the First Amendment. El Anglo con cara de inocente nos arrancé la lengua. Wild ng tongue but who are not Anglo; for a people who cannot entirely iden ‘tongues can't be tamed, they can only be cut out with either standard (formal, Castillian) Spanish nor standard English, what Overcoming the Tradition of Silence Abogadas, escupimos el oscuro. ‘Chicano Spanish sprang out of the Chicanos’ need to identify ourselves as a distinct people. We needed a language with which we could communicate with a secret language. For some of us, language is a homeland cl Southwest—for many Chicanos today live in the Midwest and the East. And. use we are a complex, heterogeneous people, we speak many languages. ‘of the languages we speak are: 4. Standard English ‘Working class and slang English ey are all words that are derogatory if a hem applied to men, ard two women, a Puerto Rican and a Cuban, say the #0 shocked. Thad not known the word existed. Chicanas use ‘And our tongues have become Ary the wilderness has ried out our tongues and ‘we have forgotten speech, From los recién llegados, Mexican immigrants, and braceros, North Mexican dialect. With Mexicans I'll try to speak eit Oyé como ladra: el lenguaje de la frontera Quien tiene boca se equivoca ‘Mexican sying 3, ounger brother (who married a Mexican and who rarely mixes Spanish ; English), aunts and other relatives. aking the oppressor’s language by ‘With Chicanas from Nuevo Mético or Arizona Iwill speak Chicano Spanish a he Spanish language 0s and Latinas. Chicano Span n. Often itis only with another Chicana tejana that I can talk freely. ds distorted by English are known as angliciams or po are neither Spanish nor live in country in which Sp « people who live in @ country in which English is lh language according tothe influence of English Tex Mer, or Spanglish,‘is made up of slang words from both. or woman, pato means guy or dude, cbale m that the Spaniards brought over from the Spanish coloni from Extremadura—Hernin Cortés was one of them—and Andalucia, And imes lavates (substituting the ates , words borrowed from English: bola from ball, ca dof lavadora) from washing machine ed by adding @ Spanish sound at the beginning or end of sch as cookiar for cook, watchar for watch, parkar for pak, ‘or me emociona, unless we picked up Spanish rin a classroom. Other Spanish-speaking groups through the same, or similar, development in their Spanish. das. Somos los del espanol defcente, We are yout linguistic nightmare, ngulstic aberration, your lingulstic mestsgje, the subject of your burla Be st we speak with tongues of fire we are culturally crucified, Racally,cultur ‘snd linguistically somos huérfanas—we speak aa orphan tongue. 8 who grew up speaking Chicano Spanish have internalized the belief other with suspicion and hesita ‘Then it dawned on me. To be Chicana is ike looking into the mirror. We are afraid of what ion of self. In childhood we are told language is wrong, Repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our self. The attacks continue throughout our lives nas feel uncomfortable talking in Spanish to Latinas, afraid of their Bsure. Their language was not outlawed in their countries. They had a whole of being immersed in their native tongue; generations, centuries in ‘Spanish was a first language, taught in school, heard on radio and TY, din the newspaper. ‘encouraged to take French classes because French is considered more “c\ite bilingually and to ve to speak. inglish, and as long as Ihave to modate the English an having them accommodate ‘tongue will be illegitimate. Like women everywhere, we speak in code, .. Melanie Kaye/Rantrowitz |—grandmother, brothers, sister and cousins—squeeze ‘cheese and bologna white bread sandwiches while srkers like Nosotras las pobres, the (Mexican movie (that was not an imitation of European movi Bamber seeing Cuando los bijos se oan and surmising that all Mexican movies something didn’t go to Mexican 2 rancherita, and corrido rausic. ies. In the Rio Grande Valley, Jordan and Littl Joe Hernéndea were popular, and Placo Jiménez was the dion king, The rhythms of Tex-Mex music are those of the polka, also < from the Germans, who In turn had borrowed the polka from the \dBohemians. [remember the hot, sultry evenings when corridos~songs of love and death onthe Texas-Mexican borderlands—reverberated out of cheap amplifiers from ‘cantinas and wafted in through my bedroom window, first became widely used along the South Texas/Mexican border the early c i tango negro," sung during the Great Depression, made people. The everpresent corridos narrated one hxindred years history, bringing news of events as well as entertaining. These folk up feeling ambivalent about our music. Country-western and rock- 1ad more status. In the 50s and 6os, for the slightly educated and agrin- there existed a sense of shame at being caught listening to our Yet I couldn't stop my feet from thumping to the music, could not stop ming the words, nor hide from myself the exhilaration Ifelt when I heard it. ‘are more subtle ways that we internalize identification, especially in the ‘of images and emotions. For me food and certain smells are tied to my ‘© my homeland. Woodsmoke curling up to an immense blue sky: ke perfuming my grandmother's clothes, her skin, The stench of cowfolded tortilla, My sister ed, pieces of panza and hom say nasotras los mexicanas (by mexicanos we do not mean citizens of Mi do not mean a national identity, but: ‘Mexican has nothing to do with whic! 4 state of soul—not one of serpent, but both. And like the ocean, animal respects borders, ime con quien andas yt dire quien ers. (Tell me who your friends are and I'l tell you who you are.) Mexican saying Sle preguntas a mi mamd, “gQué eres?” te dir, “Sey mexicana.” My brothers 33d sis me iy mexicana” and at others workers united and /Am Joaquin was published and la Raza Unida party red in Texas. With that recognition, we became a distinct people. ‘momentous happened to the Chicano soul—we became aware and acquired a name and a language (Chicano Spanish) struggle of borders is our reality intime, tenémas que hacer la lucha. { Quién estd proteglendo le £Quién esd tratando de cerrar la fisura entre la india y el bl Ife? El Chicano, sie! Chicano que anda como un ladrénen su propia casa. 1ow patient we seem, how very patient. There is the qulet of the other races have given up tirtongue, we've kept ours. We know what it is to live under the hammer wiof the dominant norteamericano cult ‘more than we count the ‘we count the days the weeks the years the cent Jaws and commerce and customs