Wild Things Project

1) A wild woman ran from the police, even though she only had one leg. She was quickly captured.

2) A wild man was taking a dump on Guadalupe Street last weekend, when I was walking back to my apartment. 

3) A wild animal escaped from the Dallas zoo and was found in Austin a month later.

4) A wild beast was captured on film attacking a pride lions, but the beast quickly regretted that decision because he was easily overtaken.

5) The government is hiding a wild thing in Area 51. They just don’t want anyone to know about it yet.

-Major Wheless

I like how when Gloria Anzaldúa proposes this question, it isn’t the type of question that you expect a literal response to. I think the way Anzaldua was proposing this question was to show how a wild tongue like hers was not made to stay quiet and be reserved. Because Anzaldua always stood for what she believed in and make a positive change, when the dentist told her they were “going to have to do something about [her] tongue,” it made her question what that really meant. Given the “strong and stubborn” personality she had, there was no way to stop a wild tongue like hers. In my opinion, although you can’t force a strong, opinionated person to keep to themselves, there are ways in which this wild tongue can be tamed. Because of the situation she was in and the hardships she faced such as racism and sexism, I believe there is a way to express opinions and thoughts for your own personal benefit. Knowing how and when to express your opinions is of importance due to her being considered a minority. There are always better, more appropriate ways to say the express your thoughts without having to hold back from what we have to say. You don’t necessarily have to “make it lie down” but know when to keep low and how to come up.

Gloria Analdua’s question “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?” can be answered in two ways: literally and metaphorically. In the literal sense, the more a tongue feels threatened that something will choke it, the more it will try to resist and be “wild.” In order for the tongue to be relaxed or tamed, the tongue must feel safe and that there is no threat. I think this literal picture of taming a wild tongue can be related to the metaphorical meaning as well. Taming a wild tongue can also look like quieting a person who is talking very wildly. Many times people speak up in wildness, anger, or rage, because they feel threatened. When people feel like they are not being seen or heard, they will speak up and use their voice. However, if the individual feels heard, seen, safe, and understood they will calm down and be tamed. Therefore, my answer to the question “how do you tame a wild tongue?” is to listen, understand, and make it feel safe in order for the tongue to quiet down on its own.

Kristine Chin

In the opening of her essay, Gloria Anzaldúa uses the phrase “taming a wild tongue” in a very literal context of her being at the dentist and being told to keep her tongue under control. However, throughout the rest of her essay, she explains that being an immigrant in that era has affected her ability to speak Spanish freely and openly. Therefore, in this context, the “wild tongue” is referred to as the foreign language of immigrants that isn’t the primary language of the country they immigrated to. In addition, to “tame it” mean to silence the tongue, to make it speak the conventional language of the nation, to make it forget the native culture, and to make it conform to society’s standards. By forcing immigrants to speak only English, the United States is essentially denying them their right to freedom of speech. Another language should not be considered so wild and untamed that it needs to be saddled, but rather celebrated for its uniqueness. It is extremely important to encourage native speakers to practice their language so they can teach it to their children and prevent the language from becoming completely extinct, like many already have in the past.

Katsiaryna Aliashkevich

Gloria Anzaldua asks the question “how do you tame a wild tongue, train it to be quiet, how do you bridle and saddle it?” in her essay, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” She tells the story of her at the dentist but connects it to her life experience. For most of her life, Gloria, because she identified as a Chicana, was often silenced, disregarded, and stripped of her identity. By silencing someone’s tongue, you are taking away their ability to be human, stand up for themselves, and speak for what they believe in. They are essentially losing the biggest part of what defines them and what makes them unique. As we learned earlier this year, wildness is defined as something untamed, uncultivated, and something that stands out from the rest. To break down the question “how do you tame a wild tongue,” I personally think something so “wild” does not actually have the ability to be tamed. How can you “tame” something that is meant to be loud, to be heard, and to be understood? In Gloria’s example, people want to “tame” and silence her because of where she comes from and looks like. They want to take her established identity and change/silence it because they believe it does not belong, but she should be wild. She shouldn’t be silenced let alone ashamed of who she is.

~Audrey Wines

In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldua raises the central question of how to quiet a “wild tongue.” She answers this question by asserting that her Chicano identity will never be tamed, describing how they are “stubborn, persevering, impenetrable as stone.” This is despite numerous attempts by her society to silence her language and culture. After reading Anzaldua’s story, it may seem impossible to tame a wild tongue, but I believe that this is precisely where the answer lies: a wild tongue is tamed when one is made to no longer care about their tongue.

Anzaldua was able to resist all efforts to assimilate her identity into the larger American identity chiefly due to her stone-cold determination to not lose sight of herself. She describes many scenes from her early life, such as the “cheese and bologna sandwiches” her family would “wolf down” while watching Mexican movies at the drive-in theatre. She also mentions certain smells that are inseparable from her identity, such as “woodsmoke,” “cow manure,” and the “reek of cordite.” Because she cares so deeply about these memories and cherishes them as a part of herself, she has managed to resist assimilation. A wild tongue can only be tamed when one does not view such memories as inseparable to their identity. They must be willing to let go of their previous defining characteristics and assimilate to a new identity.

-Avinash K

Gloria Anzaldua speaks on taming a “wild tongue” that she has due to her Chicano language. She is reminded by society that she is different and the way she speaks is different. Due to this, she and others who speak in the same way are expected to keep quiet. Anzaldua’s experience at the dentist shows what her life is like. The dentist is telling her she has a wild tongue and despite what he does, he can’t keep it controlled. This shows her experience of not being controlled by society. She has a wild tongue because she speaks differently than everyone else, and society wants her and people like her to conform to the language of everyone else. She was being forced to change her own identity by having to lose the language she spoke. The way someone speaks and their primary language is the largest way a person expresses themselves. Taking away the language of a group can lessen their ability to express their lives and experiences. Taking away the ability for people to express themselves can affect generations after them and can also ostracize them from society. They may also be seen as less than everyone else for speaking a different way. The Chicano Spanish can also be seen as “low class” by other Spanish speakers but is actually just a different way of people to express themselves and should not be class related. In the end, people should not have to lose their own language because they are seen as different or less than everyone else.

-Stephanie Wilhite

Gloria Anzaldúa poses an interesting question in her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” she states, “How do you tame a wild tongue…How do you make it lie down?” In other words, how are people’s voices and their identities being suppressed and made silenced? Throughout the essay, Anzaldúa states that people’s voices are a part of their identity. Language and the style of speaking are interconnected in one’s identity. It is a means of expression and self-identification. However, through oppression and by force, people’s voices can be taken away from them. Their means of identification and individuality can be silenced by an oppressor. At times, this can last for generations until the people it affects lose their identification. Anzaldúa makes this evident in her essay by discussing the history of Spanish and English colonization and the effects it had on the Native American population. The colonizers forced the Native Americans to assimilate to Western ideals and culture. They stripped them of their identity and forced them into new ones. The colonizers “tamed” the Natives’ “wild tongue” by force. They taught them that their beliefs were wrong and that the language they spoke was uncivilized. To tame a “wild tongue” the oppressor targets children because they are easy to influence. For example, in the United States, American Indian boarding schools were places that “tamed” the “wild tongue” of the Native population. In these schools, they were forced to learn English and assimilate to American values and ideas. If they were caught speaking in their native tongue, they were punished. As a consequence, the Native American populations lost language, culture, and ultimately their identities. Overall, the taming of “wild tongue” is the action of silencing one’s voice and taking away their means of self-expression and identity.

-Anna Allen

Born as the first child of Vietnamese immigrants, I began to speak in Vietnamese before I could in English, with “Cá”, meaning fish, being my first word. When I was of age to go to school, I remember taking a readiness test to see if I needed to attend preschool, and the fact that I primarily spoke Vietnamese instead of English placed me into the program. I was then taught to identify colors and shapes in English when I knew them in another language. After attending school where English was only spoken, I found myself forgetting my native language. My “wild tongue” was tamed by my surroundings which normalized one language over any other language, primarily in youth when the brain is developing. I asked my parents if they believed that they were forced to learn English and use it in America. In response, they saw it as a way to be accepted by coworkers, friends, and strangers and not be looked down upon for speaking Vietnamese: they viewed English as a sophisticated language and Vietnamese as its inferior counterpart. With this viewpoint, non-English languages in the United States can be suppressed as immigrants yearn for the feeling of belonging and acceptance. When early schooling pushes for language development in one primary language and American society makes it difficult for immigrants to embrace their native tongue, the “wild tongue” can be tamed.

-Vivian Nguyen