In this article, Author Gloria Anzaldua writes about growing up in America as a Mexican-American and the struggles that she faced due to the language barrier. Gloria claims that she grew up around a variety of different forms of both Spanish and English, “Standard English, working class/slang English, standard Spanish, Standard Mexican Spanish, and North Mexican Spanish dialect”, are just a few. The language spoken, or combinations of the languages correlate with where the Hispanic person was originally from and where in the U.S. they are now, for example, “Chicano Spanish” is spoken in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Another focus of this article is how Gloria would be punished in school for speaking in her native tongue and then at home by her for not speaking English properly. Gloria also felt the university she attended made the Hispanics take two speech classes, “in order to get rid of our accents”, she claims. Gloria was not only criticized by English speakers for the way she spoke, but also by fellow Latinos. “You are ruining the Spanish language.” She was told by other Latinos. Gloria feels that by trying to …show more content…
She concludes by saying, “we count the days the weeks the years the centuries the eons until the white laws and commerce and customs will rot in the deserts they’ve created, lie bleached.” I think this was very hypocritical for her to say because earlier in the article she criticized Americans for saying “If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you don’t like it, go back to where you belong.” She is wanting the American culture to disappear while complaining about teachers trying to change her way of speaking. Gloria is right to be proud of her culture, but if she wants people to understand and respect hers then should also do the same to their culture, especially when she lives and works in