I’m not my language, it belongs to me. Language is not the representation of my identity, it’s part of it that has been molded by many of my other traits. There are contrasts and differences between Anzaldúa’s perspectives of language and mine, and I can see the reasons behind it from the story she narrates in her text “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. Anzaldúa believes that language is the living image of her identity, this is clearly because of the life-long struggle she has encountered around her use of Chicano Spanish and her accent. I consider that language is not the reflection of who I am but rather only a part of it that has been shaped by my experience with its use and other characteristics that define my personality; although I’ve never personally encountered any major form of objection or resistance to my free use of any of my both languages (Spanish and English) or my accent. Worth clarifying that I carry great pride in being bilingual and my accent – which I consider to be my personal signature while speaking. By this sense, if anyone ever tried to “tame my wild tongue” it was me, who once taught that my best bet was slowly trowing Spanish in the recycling bin of my brain to give English “more space”. Gradually, I encountered how foolish that idea was as well as realizing that to “erase” Spanish I would indeed have to erase part of who I am. 

My tongue is unique in my persona because no one else speaks the way I do, not even those who speak the same English and Spanish. In her text, Anzaldúa said “A veces no soy nada ni nadie. Pero hasta cuando no lo soy, lo soy” (“Sometimes I’m nothing nor no one. But even when I’m not, I am”). By referring to herself as “nothing” and “no one” she means that her ways of speaking cannot be categorized, but even when she and her way of communicating are unable to labeled – as in this society where apparently everything requires labeling – she is her very own label, in which she can belong and talk freely; this is the perfect depiction of how I feel about language. I would rather mix up and play with Spanish and English – on their own or together, hence, Spanglish- than just having to stick to one of them and follow formalities; with the exception of academic use. I constantly fool around making clever combinations and associations of words. One example of how I have personalized my use of language is the Spanglish word ”inchas”. The Spanish translation of the word “inches” is “pulgadas”, but in an occasion, I started to say “inchas” instead, it was funny because in Spanish we rarely use inches as a measurement so people are little familiarized with the Spanish word for it, so in no time everyone was using the word “inchas” when talking about any measurements, I consider it a success. With my bilingual friends, we often say words in Spanish that are derived from English like “wachear” (from watching), “petear” (from petting), and many others, we also complete our sentences with English if we can’t remember the Spanish word for it and vice-versa. Anzaldúa makes mention of this, “We use anglicisms, words borrowed from English”, however, I don’t feel we are borrowing nothing from nowhere, we are using the languages that belong to us in our own way. It is not pressure to use English that causes us to create these words, but rather domain and usability, demonstrating we own our tongues.