In the essay “How to tame a Wild Tongue”, In one of her sections of the essay “Overcoming the Tradition of Silence”, she talks about how people are being silenced through their language. Not being able to speak or express how we feel, or our own beliefs causes to have problems among society. Meaning that certain proposals being said cannot be down or are not continued because of how we fall in the ranking system of authority among our society.

We are constantly following orders, or taught to listen since little to higher authority, whether it be parents, teachers, professors, staff, faculty, etc. Causing us to not really express ourselves how we would really want to and like to, instead we let others do it for us- to do the speaking. At times we stay quiet when higher authority tells us something and the reason, we stay quiet is because that’s what we were taught. What the other person might’ve said could have been something you disagree entirely on, but we stay quiet, out of respect.

In the reading she states “Es una falta de respeto to talk back to one’s mother or father”. I can relate to this quote very well because ever since I was little and had common sense my parents especially my mom would always tell me this and coming from a Hispanic household talking back was a sign of disrespect and no morals, because I grew up like this and was taught this way I never really knew when to respond for myself or speak up for myself, because I was showing respect. Even when being scolded by my aunt and I knew I was getting in trouble or scolded for something I didn’t do I had to stay shut because she is the adult in the relationship and I’m the “child”. Growing up like this all my years, when I come encounter with someone who doesn’t stay quiet when someone higher than them in authority is speaking to them would surprise me, because it wasn’t something that wasn’t often happening around my life. But in this person doing so it has made me realized that, that person was just speaking up for themselves and defending themselves where they thought they had to. Throughout the years I’ve learned that it is okay to talk back when you must, when you feel it’s right. But there other oftentimes where sometimes the best option is to stay quiet to not make things worse.