What Does Anzaldua Mean When Spanish Is A Border Tongue

942 Words4 Pages

Anzaldua writes about her Spanish and how it is to others. She explains the major things to her, but breaks it down piece by piece. Some will understand how she tries to explain herself, but it all depends on the person. She describes that her Spanish is different compared to the other Hispanic races. Anzaldua states, “Chicano Spanish is a border tongue which developed naturally” (35). In the essay, she states that they don’t use some words that others do. The author states, “the first time I heard two women, a Puerto Rican and a Cuban, say the word "nosotras," I was shocked” (Anzaldua 35). In her Spanish they don’t say words like that like the others do. Like in my mother’s Spanish, for kids we will say bitchos, sypotes, or wirdos. In others …show more content…

Another example from my mother’s Spanish is when we say you, instead of saying tu or usted, we say vos. From my examples I understand what she means about her Spanish. Some may not understand what she is trying to say, but those who speak like her will. Her Spanish is more adaptive to convert words into their own. As the author states in her work that their Spanish is more Spanglish. Their whole language is either Spanish or Spanish words adapted from English. By explaining how the language she grew up with is different from others is part of how she structures her essay. The author states, “Change, evolucion, enriquecimiento de palabras nuevas por invencion o adopcion have created variants of Chicano Spanish, un nuevo lenguaje” (Anzaldua 35). She stated that her Spanish is derived from different words. She makes this topic as …show more content…

Like how I repeated myself in the beginning, she gets words that she does and does not use and show how common it is for some and not others. The way Spanish affects her life is that others will look at her different. Anzaldua states, “in childhood we are told that our language is wrong” (39). She has a point for stating what she said. In every Spanish speaking country everyone will look at each other and say that they are speaking the wrong one, but they are all wrong. They don’t understand that each country has their own style to speak and use their words. The author is trying to state that it all works that way. It doesn’t matter how you speak the language and the important thing is that we all understand each other. She is trying to get her point out in her essay on how her life was knowing that she grew up speaking and understanding it that way. The author states, “repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self” (Anzaldua 39). All other countries come to them and say they are not true Spanish speakers and brings them down. Little do they know is that others could say the same to them. All fluent speakers thing that the Chicanos don’t know how to speak Spanish, but those who are

Open Document