In her writing “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa asks the questions “how do you tame a wild tongue, train it to be quiet, how do you bridle and saddle it? How do you make it lie down?” In other words, how do you oppress someone into silence, based on how I interpret it. Throughout her piece, Anzaldua discusses how she felt that her language was a strong part of her identity, and that white society on the border was trying to take away their identity as chicanos by taking away their language. Growing up, she was always told in school to speak English, but, depending on who she was with, she spoke around 8 different languages of mixed Spanish and English. She felt that all of these languages were identities, and that her combination of them helped to create her own identity. I agree that, to “tame a wild tongue,” you must strip a person of their identity through language, and this is something that should not be desired to be achieved. Everyone has a voice, no matter their language, and different languages make life more wild in the best way. Anzaldua made it clear in her writing that she does not want her tongue to be tamed by anyone, and that while many attempted in her youth and most likely still do today, she will not yield.
Anna Ranslem
I love how you tie in Anzaldua’s life into your explanation! I totally agree, taming a tongue requires suppression of one’s identity.
I like how you gave a background of Anzaldua’s upbringing. I also agree that taming a wild tongue should not be achieved because of how much it silences identity. Great job!