In the poem “Green Chili” by Jimmy Santiago Baca the author shows us how he uses culture, identity and family to describe the poems importance to him. The way Baca uses culture is by stating that New Mexico is full of green and red chili. He also uses culture by naming all of the foods that are most commonly eaten in New Mexico. How Baca uses identity to describe the poems importance is by describing the tanned New Mexicans and his grandmother's appearance over the stove. He als
Growing up is a part of life , but with growing up we go through phases and life experiences. Author Gary Soto tells a little bit if his similar life experiences in his two stories “Broken Chain”, “Seventh Grade”, and small narrative poem “Oranges”. “Broken Chain” is about a boy named Alfonso who was insecure. One day he meets a girl named Sandra who he went to school with and thought she was cute. Alfonso asks her is she would want to go on a bike ride
Planet Taco, a non-fiction book by Jeffrey M. Pilcher, writes about the history of Mexican food. He begins the book in Mexico and ends up talking about how it impacted and spread through the whole world. In the introduction of the book Pilcher begins by writing about this taco cart his guide takes him to. Pilcher then tells you how much time it took for his tacos to be ready about 2 minutes. Little do we realize he ends up comparing the tacos he received in Mexico to the tacos he received in Taco Bell.
In the essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez. The author uses his memoir to show how he has fought through his childhood to understand English and how the english language had formed his identity. To him, Spanish was a private language, spoken only at home and in the comforting presence of his family. The Spanish language allowed him to connect with his parents because that was all they knew. However, After he was somewhat forced to speak English by the public, he became an outsider to his own culture, unable to speak Spanish, but still able to understand it as it states “we remained a loving family, but one greatly changed.
Furthermore, it explores the cultural hybridity of the Chicanos and the need to create a new uniting identity (Anzaldúa 77-83). The book
One of the area of conflict that rose in the book involves the usage of the English language in relation of the family’s native language, Spanish. As a Mexican-American raised in the States the exhibition of the English language, whether the use of the tongue is fluent or not, cause a strain in the Mexican culture as the culture takes in consideration of their romance and richness of history in their native tongue (Rothman 204). Language represent the supporting backbone of a person as the progress in life as the ability to communicate without misunderstands, however a person can cause the loss connection to the past romance of the culture and art of cultivation that brings the language to lifes from their inabilities to comprehend the ability/asset to its fullest potential (Rothman 204). To fully understand the true meaning behind a spoken chain of words can be understood by the method of trying to first comprehend the cultivation of the word and the definition behind them. Cisneros embeds the use of Spanish in fragments depicting a sense of reality within a fictional novel, Caramelo, as well with the use of interchangeable dialogues with spanish phrase to express the illustration of Celaya’s family and the culture in which is translate in of importance of pride.
My Rhetorical Analysis Language is a part one’s identity and culture, which allows one to communicate with those of the same group, although when spoken to someone of another group, it can cause a language barrier or miscommunication in many different ways. In Gloria Anzaldua’s article, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, which was taken from her book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, she is trying to inform her readers that her language is what defines her. She began to mention how she was being criticized by both English and Spanish Speakers, although they both make up who she is as a person. Then, she gave convincing personal experiences about how it was to be a Chicana and their different types of languages. Moreover, despite the fact that her language was considered illegitimate, Anzaldua made it clear that she cannot get rid of it until the day she dies, or as she states (on page 26) “Wild tongues can’t be, they can only be cut out.”
However, in order for one to truly understand the arguments made by the authors they must also understand the context behind these arguments; therefore, knowing how the individual authors’ definition of bilingualism lets the reader truly absorb what points they’re trying to make and why. In Espada’s essay, he defines bilingualism as a way for a person to remain in contact with their different cultural identities. There are many areas in the essay where the reader could interpret this definition from. However, the most significant piece of evidence appears at the beginning of the essay where Espada mentions his friend Jack Agueros’ analogy to describe his bilingualism “English and Spanish are like two dogs I love. English is an obedient dog.
Cofer addresses the cultural barriers and challenges that Latinos experience through emotional appeal, anecdotal imagery, parallelism and the use of effective periodic sentences. In her article, Cofer assesses the difficult cultural hurdles of Latin Americans with emotional appeal. She provides insight on her cultural barriers by first conveying the way she had to dress and her struggle, as it shows in this piece of text, “That morning I had organized… which to base my decision” (Cofer 5). This poignancy works to stress an agonizing feeling of uncertainty and restraint towards the author.
A tongue is one of the most important body parts, if that’s what we shall call it, that a human being has. If it was not for the tongue, it would be a very quiet world. Gloria Anzaldúa, born in 1942, near the large Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, was bound to make a difference in lives before she ever knew it. When Gloria turned eleven she started to work in the fields as a migrant worker and then started on her family’s land after the passing of her father. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s the short story, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, she describes her upbringing and growing up in a dual culture society split in two.
Both demonstrates that it is significant to succeed in the process of learning the new language but it is also important never abandon our own culture. In the poem “English con Salsa” Valdés makes more emphasis on Mexican’s words which might be difficult to understand for people that are not from Mexico but, I think that she chose the perfect tittle for her poem. The word “Salsa” is a strong pointer of what expect after read the poem. It is a word that can be defined as a representation for the Latino culture. Might be interpret by, either Salsa as a music or Salsa as a condiment for cooking.
Gloria Anzaldua gives respect to the importance of language and its everyday use. In her own way, specifically with focus on the Chicano tongue, she is able to redefine the true values and meanings that language holds. There, however, is something that goes much deeper and beyond what is superficially written on the pages. Through a lens of Kwame Appiah’s “Racial Identities,” Anzaldua’s essay can be ‘decode,’ and the true significance of language can be reestablished.
The poem fully develops the idea of the limited of privileges that some might have according to the their races and the racial division. The “borderlands” is the division of a place, but in the eyes of Gloria she makes the character grow up in a place where there is a racial division. The character is in the middle of how of her race is important as her cultural ways get in the way of trying to practice each one of them. The poet writes in both english and spanish to explain how she speaks to the different races she carries. As you read the poem you can feel how the tone changes as the author is speaking of the different events that she goes through in her life.
Cultural influences people on how to communicate with one another and its methods of communication from one culture to another. Culture plays a significant role in intercultural communication. Cultural identity is an element in a person’s life when one understands their own culture, leading to an understanding and appreciation of other cultures as well. It promotes a vital part of communication between people who come from different cultures. This paper will examine my Mexican American cultural background and how it affects my way of communicating with others.
In the poem “To live in the Borderlands means you”, the borderlands become a place of change, such as changing from just one culture or race into a diverse culture or race and not-belonging. (Singh, A., & Schmidt, P. 2000). The poem describes how the author’s own background ethnicity people, mixicanas, identifies people like her, chicanas, as “split or mixture that means to betray your word and they deny “Anlo inside you.” (Anzaldua, F. 1987). The poem describes that the borderland is a place of contradiction, such as of home not being a home.
