How to Tame a Wild Tongue' Rhetorical Analysis

Gloria E. Anzaldúa grew up on the Texas-Mexican border in the Rio Grande Valley with Mexican immigrant parents. “We are afraid of what we’ll see there. Pena. Shame. Low estimation of self. 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”. These are direct words from Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s 1987 passage “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. Anzaldúa uses her personal experiences of as being regarded a lesbian Chicana feminist to illustrate the terrorism and misogyny she experienced in her life.

Linguistic Terrorism is the partisan misuse of language, Anzaldúa experienced this when she was “caught speaking Spanish at recess- that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler. I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for “talking back” to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name. ‘If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong.”’ Here Anzaldúa uses pathos to intrigue her readers by sharing her stories of being a person of minority language and the sufferings that come of it.

“So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity- 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, Tex-Mex, and all the other languages I speak, I cannot accept the legitimacy of myself. Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak Spanglish, and as long as I have to accommodate the English speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate”. Throughout “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Anzaldúa attempts to bring awareness to people ashamed to proudly speak their native tongue as you can see from the passage above.. At a young age, Anzaldúa was ashamed of her culture and her tongue, felt as though it could not be tamed. I believe this is her attempt at the rhetorical appeal of pathos. Helping us sympathize with her and really feel what terrorism and mysogyny she has had to endure.

Throughout this piece, Anzaldúa is talking to people like her. People who have experienced alienation due to their native tongue. Although I am a white male, she can help me sympathize with her and fully understand her point of view.

Anzaldúa’s speaks a language referred to as “Chicano”. Chicano English is a general term for a nonstandard variety of the English language influenced by the Spanish language and spoken as a native dialect by both bilingual and monolingual speakers. “We are your linguistic nightmare, your linguistic aberration, your linguistic mestisaje, the subject of your burla. Because we speak with tongues of fire we are culturally crucified. Racially, culturally, and linguistically somos huerfanos – we speak an orphan tongue.” Anzaldúa was taught growing up she spoke poor Spanish and English, however, her language was her ‘home tongue’.

“My home tongues are the languages I speak with my sister and brothers, with my friends…. From school, the media, and job situations. I’ve picked up standard and working class English. From Mamagrande Locha and from reading Spanish and Mexican literature, I’ve picked up Standard Spanish and Standard Mexican Spanish. From los recien llegados, Mexican immigrants and braceros, I learned the North American dialect.”

Anzaldúa does a beautiful job of using repetition of the phrases ‘until I can’ to reiterate the idea that she couldn’t do these things because of her native tongue in the passage below. “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.” Earlier in the reading Anzaldúa explains that she felt ashamed of her tongue, as if it needed to be tamed. As the piece came to a close Anzaldúa analyzes why one should never be ashamed of their endemic or culture. Anzaldúa uses her personal experiences of as being regarded a lesbian Chicana feminist to illustrate the terrorism and misogyny she experienced in her life.