Gloria Anzaldua

Gloria Anzaldua, "How to Tame a Wild Tongue"

Gloria Anzaldua (1942- ) was born in Jesus Maria of the Valley, which is situated within Texas's Rio Grande Valley. Anzaldua earned a B.A. from Pan American University in 1969 and an M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1973. She has taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Georgetown University, and Colorado University. Anzaldua frequently explores feminism, sexual identity, and Chicana issues in her work, and is noted for her passionate style and concern for the spiritual. Her books include the collection of essays and poems, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987), several children's books, and a collection of short fiction, La Prieta (1995). Anzaldua also contributes to periodicals such as Ikon and Third Woman. Among her awards and honors, she has won a National Endowment for the Arts fiction award, an American Book Award, and the Sappho Award of Distinction. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" is taken from Borderlands.

CONTENT

1. What policy did Anzaldua's grade school have about speaking Spanish while on the premises? Did things change much at Pan American University?
2. What distinction does the author draw between speaking "American" and speaking "English" in paragraphs five and six?
3. Explain what Anzaldua means by this sentence in paragraph ten: "Language is a male discourse."
4. Why are students sometimes encouraged to take French in high school and college, and not Spanish?
5. How does the author relate language to self-identity?
6. How and why did Chicano/Chicana Spanish arise? How does the author use it? How does it differ from other kinds of Spanish?
7. Explain the author's concept of "linguistic terrorism." According to Anzaldua, what repercussions has this trend had for Chicana feminists?

STRATEGY AND STYLE

1. Anzaldua divides her essay into sections and provides titles for them. What does she gain from this choice? How would the piece be different without?
2. What's ironic about the title? What does the author seem to be saying about taming "wild tongues"?
3. Why do you think Anzaldua devotes the first three paragraphs to the anecdote about her trip to the dentist? How does it fit in with the rest of the essay? Do you attach any particular significance to the fact that the dentist is a man? Explain.
4. Compare the quote that makes up paragraph four to the one that ends this piece. Both concern language, but how are they different? How do these two quotes mirror the development of the essay itself?
5. In paragraph seventeen, the author makes a list of "some of the languages" Chicanos speak, breaking it down into eight. What effect does this list and her use of the word "some" have upon her remarks about the nature of her language

1. Recall a time someone made an assumption about you based solely upon the language you used. How did it make you feel? Explain. How can you relate these feelings to your reading?
2. Should non-English speaking people intending to live in the U.S. learn English? Why or why not? Is English your first language? What impact does the answer to that last question have on your answer to the first two? How might have these factors in your life affected your reading of this essay?

SUGGESTIONS FOR SUSTAINED WRITING

1. Examine the author's use of italics throughout the essay. If you don't speak Spanish, did any of italicized words give you trouble? What did you do about it? If you do speak Spanish, what effect might this technique have upon non-Spanish speakers, and did you have any trouble with dialect? In either case, how can you relate these issues to the essay's stance on multilingualism more broadly?
2. How many languages do you speak? Pick the language you speak the most and break it down into sublanguages and dialects and slang, as Anzaldua has done. How many can you come up with? Describe when and where you use each of your languages.

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Anzaldua argues that even when discussing the broad topic of Spanish/English acculturation, it is misleading to call it a "bilingual" topic, because many different languages are involved. Pick a specific state or locality and do some research to find out what, if any, multicultural initiatives have been/are being raised. What are the main issues being discussed in this area? If this topic doesn't seem to be much of a concern in the area you've picked, why isn't it? Should it be?

WEB CONNECTION

Read this review of Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. What did you learn about the book from the review itself? What issues raised in the review would necessitate consulting the book itself in order to find out?

LINKS

Biographical

Are you unsure of where to start your online research? You'll find a biography, a photo, four bibliographies, and some links at Anzaldua's page at the Voices From the Gaps site.

Here is a page about Anzaldua that contains a biographical sketch and some links. What's different about the information here, compared to that found on the page above? What, do you think, accounts for the difference?

Would you prefer a stand alone approach to this author's biography? Here's a brief bio, along with a photo and some links.

Bibliographical

Ready for some of Anzaldua's work in e-text? Great! Here's a page with links to some excerpts of Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Do you like using e-text? Why or why not?

Did you know that this author also writes books for children? Here's a bit more information about one of Anzaldua's children's books.

Cultural

Interested in studying the topic of Spanglish further? This essay called "The Gravitas of Spanglish" from The Chronicle of Higher Education is a good place to start. How can you compare this reading to the one in your text?

Interested in putting this author's work into a cultural context? Here are some feminism and women's literature links. How can this information help you in your writing about Anzaldua?