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Ms. Metzger
English 103
9-5-14
Reading Response- How to Tame a Wild Tongue
Identity and language are two closely related ideas which are identified in Gloria
Anzuldas How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Anzuldas main point is that her language plays an
extremely important role in her own views about identifying herself. Anzulda speaks about her
experience as a child growing up learning the correct way to speak and how it affects her
views and identity. She has strong opinions about the way her culture is shut down, as if its
wrong to be the way she is. Her ideas about the connection between identity and language can be
both good and bad. For someone to identify so closely with the language they speak is good in
that they have something they can be proud of and can say that they are fluent in this skill of
communication. However, if this is the only thing that someone can identify his/herself with,
they may be missing out on a greater part of themselves. Although your language should be
important to you, one cannot simply rely on the words you speak to shape yourself as a person.
She speaks out about how the judgment of others takes a toll on her confidence, how much the
languages have mixed and have branched off to become associated with groups of people and
how she specifically takes offense to the negative talk about her language and how she
overcomes the stereotypes and refuses to be made ashamed about her culture.
The story starts with Anzuldas own personal experience about when she was punished
in school when she was caught speaking Spanish to other students. She makes it clear that
growing up with the language change is a difficult experience for her and that shes always been
criticized for her culture, even by her own family. Based on the text, her mother seems almost
ashamed that her daughter cant speak the correct way and she tries to get her to talk without
an accent. Getting rid of an accent isnt easy when that pronunciation of words has been what
youve learned from a child to present. At school she is punished for speaking fluent Spanish to

other students. Anzulda references a story about a man who cannot keep the cotton in his mouth
at the dentist and that the conclusion he came to was that wild tongues cant be tamed; they can
only be cut out (374). Anzulda relates to this because of how she is treated for speaking her
own language. She feels that her language is a part of her, not something that she should be
forced to change. The way her specific branch of Spanish language came about is considered a
mutilation of Spanish by the puristLatinos however she claims that it developed naturally
and that it is not incorrect, it is a living language (375). The idea of living language in this
story is important because of how many languages she talks about and how many are actively
used in the present day. She acknowledges that the pachuo Spanish, that was a sort of made up
language, has died out because of how little people knew about it and so it isnt regularly used
and could be considered a dying language. She goes into a lot of depth about the intricacies of
the languages she speaks and also mentions how many different people disagree with the
Chicano Spanish dialect. She mentions that she is only ever comfortable to talk freely with
another Chicana Tejano due to the controversy of the language (376). Because of the way that
Chicano Spanish is spoken (a variation of two languages (375)), lots of people who grew up
speaking the language believe that it is poor Spanish and have called it an illegitimate
bastard language (377). This kind of negative association would obviously have a hard effect on
Glorias opinion of herself. Anzulda makes the claim that because we internalize how our
language has been used against us by the dominant culture, we use our language differences
against each other which is a very important concept (377). The amount of controversy
language has caused is a serious issue because we separate our people based on the way they
speak. In the United States we even categorize accents from within the country. We have ideas
about people who speak differently without knowing enough about them to judge. Similarly the

struggle with Gloria is that she is no different from the other Spanish speaking people but she is
judged based on her accent and her style of speaking her language and she takes this to heart.
She says that when any other Spanish speaking personhas a low estimation of [her] native
tongue, [they] also have a low estimation of her as a person (378). Anzulda makes it very clear
how she struggles with her identity because of the influence of other people. However, she
refuses to back down and have her identity be taken away from her.
Anzulda starts her concluding thoughts by saying that the number one thing that would
seriously offend her and hurt her feelings is to say negative things about her language. She feels
that for her to be proud of herself, she must first be proud of what she is and how she presents
herself (language being a major part of that). The most impactful quote is when Gloria says that
ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identityI am my language (378). This specifically
shows you the importance of her language to her being as a person. She says it straight and very
abruptlyI am my language. Anzulda wants to be able to claim all the languages that she
speaks to be something special about her, something that she can be proud of. She calls herself
illegitimate until she can successfully hone all the languages to a tee. She doesnt want other
people to look at her and think that she is not smart enough to speak each of the languages
individually. She also makes the claim that she will overcome the tradition of silence which is
important and impactful because silence has been forced upon her for a long time and she wants
to break out of the idea that speaking a certain way makes you wrong or illegitimate (378).
Taking pride in a language is something that takes time because to master a skill is not
something that will happen overnight. Towards the end, the reader can see Anzulda blossom out
of the young girl into a woman proud of who she is and who she has become. She talks about
how her people are special and how they have become accustomed and adapted to the way they
were looked down at. She claims that Chicanos became aware of [their] reality and acquired a

name and a languagethat reflected that reality and she goes on to say that theyve essentially
found themselves to be greater than what they were made out to be and that they now have a
purpose; who we were, what we were, how we had evolved (Anzulda 381-382). She makes
the very bold statement that when other races have given up their tongue weve kept ours
which is moving because of the honesty and probable truth in it (382). On the flip side Anzulda
makes sure to acknowledge that a realization of importance doesnt take away the struggle of
identities [And] the struggle of borders (381-382). Anzulda believes that there is hope for
the future and that there is still opportunity to cease the struggle of being considered different
and that there will be a day when the customs of separation and shame for identifying yourself
with a language will die. Anzulda believes that she will reign proud in her language and she will
find a way to never back down to the conformity in society. Identifying yourself with a language
is legitimate; it makes you communicative and allows you to interact in the world alone and have
your own voice.