Similarities Between Aria And How To Tame A Wild Tongue

The debate presented between the two texts, “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez and “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa, addresses the different experiences gained during bilingual learning and integration into their communities. From Rodriguez’s point of view, learning another language is harmful to one’s identity until they finally find comfort within their community. Throughout his memoir, he describes his struggle learning English during his childhood, how his perspective changed after English became his primary language, and his integration into the community. He brought up his heritage and the intimacy he had felt with his family in the US before he understood the new language. Anzaldúa shares her experiences of oppression for speaking

The essay which presents a better model of bilingual learning and integration is “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, but both present experiences that should and shouldn’t be involved in one’s language and cultural assimilation into today’s society. In “Aria”, the author makes his stance clear by sharing experiences, opinions, and reflecting upon his journey to the English language. Richard Rodriguez recalls, “Because I wrongly imagined that English was intrinsically a public language and Spanish an intrinsically private one, I easily noted the difference between classroom language and the language of home,” (Rodriguez, 466). He felt intimacy from Spanish with his family, as it was their private language that others around them couldn’t understand and they couldn’t understand English; their isolation from language barriers brought bring the family closer together. Once Richard and his siblings learned the new language, they began growing apart from their parents, “But the special feeling of closeness at home was diminished by

… Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out,” (Anzaldúa, 474). Gloria describes her encounters as a Spanish-speaker in the United States, such as being punished for speaking Spanish at school, not being respected as a Chicana, and the pride she takes in her heritage, culture, and language. Her tongue is a part of what makes her who she is, without it she wouldn’t have found her identity. She also asserts the importance and impact that different Spanish variations have on society, although many don’t recognize these languages as valid or respectable. She also goes on to describe how people of color have an American side and a native side, “Chicanos and other people of color suffer economically for not acculturating. This voluntary (yet forced) alienation makes for psychological conflict, a kind of dual identity - we don't identify with the Anglo-American cultural values and we don't totally identify with the Mexican cultural values. We are a synergy of two cultures with various degrees of Mexicanness or Angloness,” (Rodriguez, 479). People of color experience unfair and inhumane hardships because they are different. Our cultures should be embraced and respected; POC are being mistreated and