In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldua talks about her own language which is Chicano Spanish. She states how Chicano Spanish is very ambiguous because it’s not the kind of Spanish that Latinos would speak. It also has lots of variations which make it hard to explain the language. What is interesting about this is that there are prejudices against Chicano people just because they speak a different type of Spanish. The Chicano people have found their name and place since 1965 when Ceasar Chavez and the farmworkers united, I Am Joaquin got published, and when la Raza Unida party was formed in Texas. However, they still face struggles of trying to maintain their language and not give up their native tongue. This is because of their struggles of identity from getting looked down upon by English speaking people AND Spanish speaking people.
In “The Meanings of a Word,” Gloria Naylor argues that a mere word is harmless and that it is the meaning of the word that carries the power of a word. When she was younger, a boy called her a “nigger” as a means of humiliating her. She knew then that the word was supposed to be degrading, however, didn’t know why he used it then because she had a different meaning of the word in her head. She explains how she has heard the word being used many times but thought it was a word to describe a man. She only realized that it was a degrading term when the boy had said it to her that day. This is interesting because when we’re young, we don’t understand the full meaning of a word until we hear the word being used in every way possible. The word itself can be used for many things, but the context and history of the word limit it to be used only in certain situations.