How To Tame A Wild Tongue Summary

Although it is nearly impossible to get an entirely accurate count, there exist at least 6,500 languages. Something tells me that if language were about something as simple as communication, that number would be smaller. In all actuality, people feel deeply connected to their native languages for another reason. Language and culture are one and the same, and Gloria Anzaldua illustrates this in her piece “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” using examples of changes and suppressions of her language, to represent changes and suppressions of her culture as a whole. This evident not only in the piece itself, but through much of linguistic discourse as well. Before discussing Anzaldua’s piece, I would like to provide some historical context. Instances of colonization have been taking place since the 15th century. Take for example the Portuguese colonization of Haiti. Because they were trying to impose their own beliefs and power, they did not want these countries to maintain their old way of living. They stripped away much of their culture, and along the way, their languages. Imperialists became paranoid that because they could not understand what the people were saying, that they must be conspiring against them. Instead of learning these languages for themselves, legal bans were enforced with physical punishment

“If you want to be American, speak American.” A bigoted phrase, yes, but also a very good use of rhetorical foreshadowing. This goes beyond frustration with a lack of communication. The teacher is not upset that she is speaking another language, she is upset that that language is representative of a culture other than her own. The way to be “American,” in the teachers opinion, is not by being a citizen of America, but rather through speaking the