How to Tame a Wild Tongue
Here, Gloria Anzaldúa talks about her struggles with using Chicano Spanish. It was a language that was made for people who weren’t Spanish and didn’t live in an area where Spanish was the dominant language. Due to how it was never fully Spanish and seen as an “illegitimate language”, many Chicanos were often criticized for using it and were often told to use Spanish or English instead. As a result, she and many other Chicanos learned different languages to try and fit in different discourse groups. However, they were still able to keep Chicano Spanish alive by continuing to use it in their discourse group and in different forms of media. They soon gained recognition, but the fight for their identity still continues.
The Meanings of a Word
Like a picture, a single word can have different meanings. Gloria Naylor talks about how people can assign different definitions to a word by giving examples of how the word, “nigger” is perceived in different ways. To a non-African school boy, it was a derogatory term for Africans. However, within her own family, its meaning changed to fit the situation: “nigger” was used to describe a successful man; “my nigger” was used by females to show their affection towards their special one; and “niggers” was used in conversations that were about indecent groups of people. Therefore, it is important to know what certain words mean to different groups of people, as your own definitions may not be the same as someone else’s.