I read the essay "HOw to tame a wild tongue". It was interesting, which struck me first, but hard to understand because of all the spanish. I had a friend near by to help me translate, and i understood alot of it. It added depth to my paper, and i do stuff like that in my writing for class. I like to add spanish just cuz that's how i talk to my friends. She related her language to her identity which i thought was really interesting, i never knew how much that ment to people since i grew up in a town where soooo many of my friends were bilingual. i was actually ashamed of not knowing a second language and speaking to my parents in english. Thats why i want to learn another language, to mix it with english and make it my own.
In the essay sexism was also touched apon briefly in the begining in relation to language. English isn't really sexist, well in the same way that spanish is since our nouns don't have genders, but it was still interesting to think about. It always makes me think about how in the bible god is a him, just because they needed to translate god into a gender, which wasn't written there origionally, or so i've heard.
Another idea that i liked was that the chicano's have kept their language thru the centuries, they haven't given it up like so many other people. They aren't allowed to speak spanish at school, but at home they can. When my ancestors came over, they thought it wrong for their children to learn their mother language, trying to make them american, but what really came of that. We all come from somewhere else, and after a while that is forgotten, everyone at some point will have to forge their own identity, it may be more pronounced for someone who is told their identity is wrong as a child, but what of someone who didn't feel they had that identity to start off with.
When i was a kid i struggled with where i come from. I'm jewish, and is that my heritage or my race? It often gets confused, so as a kid i was. What about the people who have lost their language.
Anyways, in the essay there was also a brief conection to music, the music and literature of her people. She was amazed to find literature that mirrored her own language and her own experiences, which is something we would all like to find. In reading we all want to be able to relate to the characters and if we don't have a true sense of identity it would be more difficult to find.
the end.