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The New Mestiza By Gloria Anzaldúa

1028 Words5 Pages

Identity has been discussed about for a very long time. People debate what shapes a person’s identity such as their clothing, their personality, or their culture. People can’t decide if they shape their identity or their identity shapes them. The truth is that people will decide what a person’s true identity is almost as soon as they meet them. It doesn’t matter how much a person flaunts or pretends to be someone different afterwards. Each person’s individual identity is unwavering and it never changes because of the social pressure of society. A person believes that to truly feel good about themselves, they must be wanted by the rest of society.
Society has turned into a type of modern caste system in places like school or work. People are …show more content…

People may have to hide their race or language because otherwise they unfortunately have to face racism. People have no filter when they’re bullying others and it’ll cut deep easily. Those that get bullied are usually already easy targets. They are frail and it won’t be hard to get to them. They may hide their feelings but deep down, all they would like is someone to be a friend. Author Gloria Anzaldúa is seen going through something like this in her book The New Mestiza where in an excerpt in the book ReMix she says, “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess and that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler.”(Anzaldúa, 71) Anzaldúa had to go through a physical punishment in an attempt to silence her heritage. Her teachers try to force her to speak English and forget where she came from. Everyone tells her to stop speaking a foreign tongue and that if she wants to be “normal”, then she should speak English like everyone else. Anzaldúa also says in the excerpt that, “Chicano Spanish is considered by the purest and most Latinos deficient, a mutilation of Spanish.”(Anzaldúa, 72). Even other Latinos and Latinas don’t truly accept her just because Chicano Spanish is slightly different than normal. Chicanos don’t really belong to any one group and instead of being considered a part of many different cultures, they aren’t a part of any

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“Chicano Spanish is a border tongue which developed naturally. Being Chicana, herself, and growing up in Texas, Anzaldua was forced to learn English. Because their heritage and the language is a mixture of many, Chicanos are susceptible to judgement by people of other ethnicities and other Chicanos. In order to fit in with the rest of the school population, chicano students were forced to take speech classes to rid them of their accents.(26) Without speaking Spanish, some people viewed them as less Chicano, like they were not being true to themselves. The dilemma Anzaldua was faced with was that she was being made the other by two competing groups.

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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.

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Notwithstanding, many Chicanos stand up for their values and ideals to defend their own culture and spread it around the world; one example is Gloria Anzaldua. Anzaldua denies the comments of Paz and emphasizes that the Mexican culture is antique and useless. She affirms due to her rebelliousness, she was “the first in six generations to leave the valley.” p.2 a shocking declaration. In the modern world, most of the Mexican values have been dismissed and have reached a point where they are not longer apt to adapt to the new world.

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Every type of person struggles with a thing we call, identity. Personal identity come from multiple factors from our race to our own personal beliefs. Some people say we have the choice to choose our own identity, but is that always true? No, in fact other people can affect how we look and essentially identity our self’s. In the article called.

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In How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua, the concept of language is tied to ethnic identity. There is an interconnection between language and identity. The attitude that members of the community where she lives have towards her way of speaking (Chicano Spanish) is highlighted. This results in harmful effects that impact her identity as well as the one of the Chicano citizens that live in the borders. It is clear that there is a totally different understanding of the world and by focusing on the context-centered lens, racism concepts are expressed in the text.

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Identity is a vague definition used to determine what or who a person is. Identity is how we see ourselves and how we are able to see others. It can go beyond the basic characterizations we commonly think of, age, gender, religion, and race. For those who have a cultural background can go beyond their ethnicity and heritage and use their language. In If Black Isn’t a Language, Baldwin said, “It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity.”

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It is important for a person to know their true identity. If they do not know their true identity then they are not truly themselves, they are someone or something else. Most people choose to ignore who they really are because they are afraid that people will make fun of them for being different, but being different is a good thing and that should never hold anybody back. In fact, it should make people proud that no one else is quite like them. For example, Hercules and April both were left out because they were different, but they used their differences from others and became leaders where they were.

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People always suggest others to be themselves. To not care about what others have to say about you. People try to ignore society 's opinion about them, not realizing the importance it plays in identity. For a person to feel identified, they must have similarities or differences, and some type of involvement. Identity involves a combination of how you see yourself and how others see you.

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It is important for someone to know their true identity because that is who they really are and what is so great about them. Someone's true identity makes them different from other people and no one really wants to be the same because if everything was the same, then life would not be as near as fun as it is today. Someone's identity is also important because that is what people like the most about that specific person. People have friends because of their identity and personality and that is why one's identity is so important. In the short clip of April and the movie Hercules, April and Hercules had trouble finding who they really were because of all the challenges that they faced.

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It is important for someone to know their true identity because if that person does not know they could be doing something different what their friends or family would have expected and wanted them to do. A person that does not know their true identity could be doing something outside of their religion or beliefs that their family had. If someone does not know their identity then that means that they are more than likely trying to be in different groups and trying to fit in. A very important thing to remember is to be yourself. That is not very easy whenever you do not even know who you are.

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Every person in the world has a different identity. Everyone also has a different understanding of who and how they came to be the person they are today. I believe that individuals are free to shape their own identities to the extent that they change the paths given to them. A person can be raised one way and change their opinions along the way based on different things they see and learn. While a person has their own identity, they gained that identity from experiences influenced by others.

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Identity is something people tend to think of as consistent, however that is far from the case. The Oxford English dictionary states that the definition of identity is “ The characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is.” The allegorical novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding tackles the issue of identity while following young boys from the ages twelve and down as they struggle with remembering their identities when trapped on a deserted island. Identity is affected by the influence of society and how individuals influence society based on their identities. By looking at Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the Stanford Prison Experiment, and Sigmund Freud 's philosophical ideas, it becomes clear that identity is affected by society through peer pressure and social normalities.

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Gloria Anzaldúa’s “La Prieta” tell her struggles with identity by talking about prejudices she dealt with while growing up. These prejudices, such as colorism, sexism, and heteronormativity, were not only held by people outside her social groups but within them as well. Anzaldúa goes on to explain the way identity is formed by intersecting factors and not only one aspect of someone’s life therefore denying one factor of identity can cause isolation and self-hatred. The fact that Anzaldúa developed faster than is deemed normal the first struggle in forming her identity.

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Identity plays a big role in our lives. Identity, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is defined as "the sameness of a person or thing at all times or in all circumstances". It can be also referred to as oneness. Oneness means "the quality of being one body or whole". Identity can be chosen, or it can be created by peers, parents, or friends.

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