Growing up people would ask me where I was from, I would answer Queens. There was never a doubt in my mind that this is where I am from since this is where I was born. People would often tell me that I’m not from Queens since my parents are immigrants. I’ve always felt that I’ve had to fight to say where I’m from. These constant battles came from family members, friends, and strangers. It always had questioning my language and personal identity. My family members would say I’m Mexican but I don’t share the culture, language, nor experiences. Strangers from America would say I couldn’t be American since my parents are from another country but I do share the culture, language, and experiences. The craziest part is that my parents did everything they could so there children could …show more content…
It touched me so proudly since it changed the way I saw my identity. In chapter 5 “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Anzaldua lists the different type of languages Mexicans speak since we are so complex and those tongues are standard english, working class, slang english, standard spanish, standard Mexican spanish, North Mexican spanish dialect, Chicano Spanish (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California have variations). Tex-Mex, and Pachucho. In this chapter Anzaldua really breaks down how rebellious we could be with out tongue, and with that being said I felt I was being rebellious not practicing my second tongue. I can speak spanish even though it 's not excellent. I really enjoyed this chapter since I could see for myself the different tongues my people have and how its more understood on geographic level. For example chicano spanish and standard Mexican dialect, they are two different tongues from the same nation. I never knew that and find that amazing. How complex language can be. I always saw it as one
Using both English and Spanish or Spanglish the author Gloria Anzaldua explores the physical, cultural, spiritual, sexual and psychological meaning of borderlands in her book Borderlands/La Frontera: A New Mestiza. As a Chicana lesbian feminist, Anzaldua grew up in an atmosphere of oppression and confusion. Anzaldua illustrates the meaning of being a “mestiza”. In order to define this, she examines herself, her homeland and language. Anzaldúa discusses the complexity of several themes having to do with borderlands, mestizaje, cultural identity, women in the traditional Mexican family, sexual orientation, la facultad and the Coatlicue state. Through these themes, she is able to give her readers a new way of discovering themselves. Anzaldua alerts us to a new understanding of the self and the world around us by using her personal experiences.
Writing a self-reflective tirade is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks to perform. I have found myself pondering this topic for an unusually long time; no one has ever asked me to write about my culture-- the one thing about myself which I understand the least. This question which is so easy for others to answer often leads me into a series of convoluted explanations, "I was born in the U.S., but lived in Pakistan since I was six. My brothers moved to the US when I was thirteen" I am now nearly twenty, which means I have spent half my life being Pakistani, the other half trying to be American, or is the other way around?
The conflict she addresses is the criticizing of one's accent and how that can shape an individual's identity and mentality. In this chapter, Anzaldua talks about her life during these controversies with her language where she was told that spoke the 'improper' and 'poor' Chicano Spanish throughout her childhood. She was constantly scolded and criticized by her mother as well as educator. Anzaldua had to control her tongue and she was not allowed to speak Spanish at her school or she would receive some form of punishment. She says that “All Chicano students were required to take two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of our accents” (Anzaldua, 2947). In almost every environment, she was mentally tortured by the dominant English language and culture into conforming to society's norms. Her native tongue was constantly belittled by those who speak the standard English and Spanish language. Anzaldua calls this "Linguistic Terrorism" because it is an attack on individual’s identity and their native language. This creates a sort of hierarchy in what is spoken because society sees these other dialects as illegitimate and
Anzaldua grew up in the United States but spoke mostly Spanish, however, her essay discusses how the elements of language began to define her identity and culture. She was living in an English speaking environment, but was not White. She describes the difficulty of straddling the delicate changing language of Chicano Spanish. Chicano Spanish can even differ from state to state; these variations as well as and the whole Chicano language, is considered a lesser form of Spanish, which is where Anzaldua has a problem. The language a person speaks is a part...
The normalization of being a heterosexual presence would classify you as normal and you’d feel accepted by many different groups and communities by default. Certainly no one would deny that being true. What seems to be the issue is why is being heterosexual is the only type of normality society seems to accept. While reading Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/ La Frontera, the author brought up her personal struggles with her sexuality within her culture and with society. As well as other difficulties when being a female and being lesbian (Anzaldúa and Saldívar-Hull, 41). The scope of this essay should cover the many different borders we face as humans when it comes to where we draw the line on sexuality.
She uses small stories that are personal to her to appeal to the reader’s emotions. She writes, “If you want to be American, Speak American. If not go back to Mexico.” This is a very powerful and derogatory statement to her personally. Anzaldua tells a short story about how she was told this in school by her Anglo teacher and how it made her feel attacked and humiliated. Being multi-cultural and living in an Anglo Saxon country can be difficult at times. Being apart of two diverse cultures, Anzaldua realized that someone’s language is just something they can connect with, their form of identity. She says, “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, White.” She has self-validated herself and she is completely okay with it. “Chicano Spanish is not incorrect, it is a living language.” People should not judge based on what they speak. A person’s identity should not be made any less of just because of their language. It should be
“You are in America, speak English.” As a young child hearing these words, it did not only confuse me but it also made me question my belonging in a foreign country. As a child I struggled with my self-image; Not being Hispanic enough because of my physical appearance and not being welcomed enough in the community I have tried so hard to integrate myself with. Being an immigrant with immigrant parents forces you to view life differently. It drives you to work harder or to change the status quo for the preconceived notion someone else created on a mass of people. Coming to America filled me with anxiety, excitement, and even an unexpected wave of fear.
Anzaldua describes borderlands as a war between races and social classes, but for me it’s different than that because for six years of my life, I went to private (Catholic) school. Private school always seemed better than other schools until I left and had to face the real world. At school, all students had to wear the same uniforms, girls wore plaid skirts and boys wore khakis. From kindergarten until third grade, girls had to wear a sailor like shirt with a cardigan sweater while boys were allowed to wear polos. Girls were not allowed to wear jewelry or makeup or have dyed hair. These things were considered unnatural and distractions for others. In other words, everyone looked the same. I could not express myself at all because it was prohibited. The kids at my school could have been soldier's, silent, standing in line wearing matching uniforms waiting for instructions.
Born in El Salvador, raised by a single mother (father passed away when I was four years of age) and three beautiful sister. I am the eleventh child, yes she had eleven children; eight guys and three girls. Eight out of the eleven (seven guys and one girl) came to this country at a fairly young age around their early twenties and most of them are in their late thirties and early forties with kids, jobs, etc… Anyways I came to this country seven years ago so by default “America sees me” as an immigrant. An immigrant who is trying his best to become successful, an immigrant that’s pursuing the American dream, an immigrant who became naturalized as an American citizen two years
My parents sometimes got the notion that they knew everything in my life. They constantly advised me to eat my vegetables, do my homework, and put the toilet seat down after going to the bathroom. Yet, I felt as if my mother and father never understood what I went through in school due to the fact that they grew up in a totally different country. I’m sure that if I were raised in an Asian country, no one would pull their eye sockets back and start singing some gabble that didn’t even include a real character in any Asian alphabet, because we would all have the same face. My folks just moved to the “land of opportunity” in hopes of getting me a bright future; a land that has high school kids shooting up fellow students and teachers. Some future.
However, this fails and she is able to overcome this societal pressure to change through a strong pride in her background. Anzaldua says, “[...] I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself. Until I can accept as legitimate Chicano Texas Spanish [...] I cannot accept the legitimacy of myself”(30). Anzaldua states that her ethnic identity is equivalent to her linguistic identity so as long as she is embarrassed by the languages she speaks she will be ashamed of herself. So instead of backing down Anzaldua goes against society she says, “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of exiting, I will have my voice [...] I will overcome the tradition of silence”(31). Anzaldua will not be pressured into disliking her background. She is proud to be a Chicano and she will not continue to feel ashamed of it. Although other people still did not appreciate Chicano literature like Anzaldua did, she still fought for it. While Anzaldua was in graduate school working towards a ph.D. she said, “[she] had to ‘argue’ with one adviser after the other, semester after semester, before I was allowed to make Chicano literature an area of focus”(31). This shows that Anzaldua is willing to go to great lengths in order to use Chicano literature. This clearly reveals that Anzaldua has a huge amount of respect for her background and she is not afraid to show it. And when she started teaching High School students she said, [...she] tried to supplement the required texts with works Chicanos [...]”(31). This is just another example of how Anzaldua would go to great lengths to get Chicano literature known. She ends this section of her essay by saying some encouraging words for Chicano people. She says, “Stubborn, preserving, impenetrable as stone, yet possessing a malleability that renders us unbreakable, we, the mestizas and mestizos, will remain”(34).
It was October 1998 when an infant was born in New Delhi, India to a relatively unwealthy family. Two years later, this family made a migration from India to the opposite side of the planet, in the United States. The young infant alongside this family was no other than myself, which meant that I was going to grow up in a society much unlike that of which my parents and ancestors grew up in, a culture that I did not easily fit in socially, mentally, and even physically. Even though my foreign background has caused much of a struggle throughout my life, it did allow me to learn a few but critical lessons that I simply cannot thrive without.
Times are changing and I feel like I am forced to conform to the everyday social norms of America, which makes me feel impuissance. Racial identity, which refers to identifying with a social group with similar phenotypes and racial category, is the only experience that I have with life (Organista, 2010). Racial ethnicity was used to build my self-esteem and to keep me in the dark when it came to how society treats individuals of darker complexion. However, once I left the confines of my family and neighborhood, I was forced to befriend and interact with individuals that had different cultural values and beliefs than me. This experience caused me to learn how to appreciate other racial and ethnic groups and their cultural values and belief. This is an accurate definition, of acculturation because I was able to understand and fit in with individuals different from me, while maintaining my own culture and ethnic identity. Therefore, knowing the importance of my ancestry, while acculturating and developing my own identity was all used
Language is not only symbolic but also indicative of a home. For many people, language is significant of home. It means more because of where they are and how they choose to identify with that language. This is the case for well-known writer and Culturist, Gloria Anzaldua. In Anzaldua’s essay, How to Tame A Wild Tongue, she deeply explains how as a Chicana, she has grown to love her language and has even considered it as a second home. Living in Texas between the Mexican and American culture, she speaks a combination of English and Spanish. She claims, “My ‘home’ tongues are the languages I speak with my sister and brothers, with my friends…with [Chicano Spanish] and [Tex-Mex] being closest to my heart” (169). The two languages that are closest to her heart are a mix of English and Spanish. This type of individualism that language fosters
Born and bred in Indonesia and growing up with people from all over the globe have always made me question my real ethnicity. I went to a British international school since pre-kindergarten. Nevertheless, I always thought we were all alike. As I thought, I discovered when I was in the second grade that I was a bit different than most of my friends. I was born on Indonesian soil and I am obviously a national citizen. But all these facts doesn’t make me Indonesian. My paternal grandfather was Chinese-American while my paternal grandmother was from Beijing. My maternal grandparents, however, are very different. My maternal grandfather was Chinese-Japanese whereas my grandmother was Dutch.