Living Tongue

    The language that a person speaks and thinks in creates not only the social environment in which they exist but their entire metaphysical existence. Taking this idea into consideration when discussing the cultural overlap that occurs in situations of colonization, it becomes clear how imperative it is for the new dominant culture to squash existing languages in that area. For the new dominant culture to exist uncontested and unquestioned, the domination language must be absolute. The same holds true in situations of cultural movement through immigration, where individuals of separate cultural/lingual backgrounds are move to areas of an oppressive dominant culture. 

In Gloria Anzaldua’s Essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Anzaldua describes her experiences as a Chicano woman growing up in the American southwest. Anzaldua examines the forms of cultural pressure applied to her and other Chicanos, especially women, by both Spanish speaking cultures and English-speaking cultures. She explains the internalization of oppression that undermines her sense of identity, and the separation from her cultural language it created. 

I found this piece to be both effective and moving. The way Anzaldua talks about her languages, the connections that tie her to the varying aspects of her life, the cultural influences she experienced through media. She talks about her language as a living thing, something far more alive that Standard English or Standard Spanish.