Note 1: This note is a metaphor. It describes a memory from the dentist’s office and relates the wild tongue to accents or language. In the note it describes how whatever the dentist does, nothing can seem to tame the tongue. They try cotton, drills, and even needles; nothing seems to do the trick. This relates to the story when Anzaldua talks about her experience at recess. Where she got sent in a corner of a classroom for “talking back” when she was only trying to help her pronounce her name correctly. Her mother was even mortified when she spoke English with an accent and in university, she was required to take two speech classes. All this to tame her wild tongue, to get rid of her accent. This section of the essay provides how she was being punished for being bilingual or more specifically Chicano.
Note 2: This note describes how our tongues have “dried out” and we have speech that is unspoken. In other words, our tongues have become limited in language and some words either don’t exist or are not culturalized based on gender. This part explains how people become held back with what they can say because our language is based on male discourse. For Chicanas, they have only use nosotros for male or females and according to Anzaldua, this robs females of a singular pronoun for themselves.
Note 6: This note describes how Spanish speakers will be the largest minority group by the end of the century and how taking a French class is considered “more cultured”. Anzaldua then says how English will be the main language of Spanish speakers. Anzaldua believes that she is her language, how she must take pride in herself and to do this she must accept all the languages she speaks. The fact that the U.S doesn’t allow her to use her language, how the U.S wants her to cut out her accent, her language; to her that is what makes up her identity.
Note 7: This note describes something intimate. When the fingers move against one’s palm, it could represent how the person is sexually attracted to you and would want to take their business with that person somewhere else. However, in this context, I believe when it says “Like women everywhere, we speak in code…”, it represents how Anzaldua uses her poetic and sexual voice to say things that are allowed, that aren’t cut out of the education system, in the U.S, she was raised in.
5 Questions:
- Who is Inditex? (I quoted them twice but never explained their relevance to Zara)
- What’s significant about the shirt design you chose in your essay?
- What’s Jasper’s significance to the story?
- Why did you pick those specific visuals?
- Why did you set up your essay with text boxes?