“How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Analysis

In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Anzaldua experiences a “contact zone”, a meeting of different cultures on uneven terms due to a power difference, with the intermixing of her American and Mexican cultures (Pratt 34). Because of the existing nature of dominant and subordinate roles within this contact zone, Anzaldua incorporates both Chicano Spanish and English into her daily life as an act to lessen the power difference, allowing her Mexican culture to take a more influential part in her life.  

Anzaldua’s bilingual tongue of speaking Chicano Spanish and English presents itself as a compromise between the two colliding cultures. A social gap exists between the two languages as described in the parameters of a contact zone because on the economical and status scale, characteristics that are related to English and the United States are seen as more advantageous and superior than those that are related to Spanish and Mexico. Her solution to this apparent gap is to become a proud linguist of both Chicano Spanish and English. Though she is at times labeled as a “Pocho or cultural traitor” for speaking “the oppressor’s language” and “a mutilation of Spanish”, Anzaldua is simply a product of two diverging cultures that have harassed her to fully immerse in one culture and one culture only, and her means to deal with this dilemma is to blend of the two languages that define her (Anzaldua 35). Words such “bola and carpeta” that are derived from ball and carpet portray the agglomeration of the two languages, South Texan English and Mexican Spanish (Anzaldua 38). For most of her life, Anzaldua has struggled to take pride in her linguistic identity as she had to accommodate to English speakers, but now, she fully embraces her bilingualism and has even furthered the surfacing of her Mexican side through engaging in “safe houses.”

Anzaldua is inclined to cherish and prefer engaging in safe houses, places that give her a sense of belonging and understanding with others without feeling oppressed or judged, because it gives her means to preserve her Mexican roots, for she is limited by living in an American community (Pratt 40). For example, she would watch Mexican movies on Thursday nights at a drive-in, and such nights “gave her a sense of belonging” because many people from her community came together as a unified group to carry out an activity (Anzaldua 40). Moreover, going to drive-in movie theaters lessens the power difference that exists in a contact zone because the subordinate group selects and takes material from the dominant group and incorporates it into its culture, a concept known as transculturation (Pratt 36). In this case, drive-in movie theaters are being incorporated into the Mexican culture. Drive-in movie theaters were classic hotspots for pastimes in the 50s and 60s in America, and by playing Mexican movies at these events, the Mexican community is integrating a very American concept and making it their own. Furthermore, Anzaldua states, “We’d wolf down cheese and bologna white bread sandwiches while watching Pedro Infante in melodramatic tearjerkers like Nosotros los pobres” (Anzaldua 40). Again, her family chooses to eat classic American picnic snacks of meat and cheese sandwiches and incorporate them in a Mexican activity. Doing so lessens this power difference which aids Anzaldua in feeling more connected to her Mexican culture. Another “safe house” Anzaldua experiences is her family’s home cooking. Though she lives in Texas and is placed in a completely different culture, Anzaldua can imitate the emotions and feelings just as if she were in Mexico through her “sister Hilda’s hot, spicy menudo, chile colorado”, her brother Carito’s “barbequed fajitas”, her mother’s “hot steaming tamales”, and the wood smoke perfume of her grandmother’s clothes and skin (Anzaldua 42). Living in a different country can often times severe the connection to the mother homeland, and Anzaldua copes with this problem through “food and certain smells” as they “are tied to her identity” (Anzaldua 42).

Through this piece of writing, Anzaldua fights even more for her culture to become the dominant one through her continuous insertion of Spanish into a piece intended for an English speaking audience. She was punished consistently in her younger years for not conforming to the dominant English speaking culture, but now the roles have reversed and Anzaldua is forcing her language onto the readers just as how English was forced upon her by society. She is rebelling against the expected role she is supposed to fulfill and continues to imbed untranslated Spanish into her writing, leaving it up to the readers to decipher what she is saying and not vice versa. Through her writing, she is controlling the level of power that her culture has in the contact zone. Anzaldua further displays her persistency and audacity through her anecdote. In the intro of her piece, she inserts an anecdote about her experience at the dentist when she was younger. During the appointment, Anzaldua’s tongue is uncontrollably moving, and her doctor states, “I’ve never seen anything as strong or stubborn”, and she thinks “how do you tame a wild tongue” (Anzaldua 33). The story itself serves as a double meaning and to convey irony. The stubborn tongue represents Anzaldua’s determination to be in touch with her Mexican side, and throughout the course of the text and her life, she does the opposite of taming her tongue and instead lets it run wild. Anzaldua’s ability to become a proud mestiza at the end of the piece gives closure and shows that now she is no longer ashamed, and her success is a portrayal of her will power and drive.

Though Anzaldua and many people like her have tried to rid of the evident power difference in the contact zone between Anglo-American and Mexican cultures, “the struggle of identities continues” (Anzaldua 44). Anzaldua believes Chicanos are the solution to this problem as their identities are the blending of “la india” and “el blanco” cultures that mediate to both sides (Anzaldua 44). However as of now, purist groups view the Chicano group as illegitimate, but as more Chicanos proudly identify themselves and unite together to fight common cause, they will no longer have to “walk like a thief in their own house” (Anzaldua 44). With “true integration”, the legitimacy of Chicanos will not be overlooked, and the struggle will cease (Anzaldua 44).

Works Cited

Anzaldua, Gloria. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue." Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute, 1987. 33-44. Print.

Pratt, Mary Louise. "Arts of the Contact Zone." Profession (1991): 33-40. Print.