Pooja Shah

September 6, 2016

ENGW 1100

Free writing

Throughout the story, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, by Gloria Anzaldua, the theme of identity and expressing one’s identity presented itself. Anzaldua uses language as the main characteristic of identity and building up her identity. However, many components can make up identity, the most important component in my opinion is ethnicity. Ethnicity is the social group that you belong to by religion and background. This is a trace of who you are and where you came from, establishing a story that once was used to teach you about your native roots.

Ethnicity can mean anything from the languages you speak, the religion you follow and the cultural characteristics that you, your family and ancestors fall into. This becomes a large part of identity because of the world we live in today, where some people are racist, consider non-americans to be something less and even discriminate based upon a person's skin color or race. The truth is no matter where you come from, everyone should be equal. But, in the world we live in today, that is not true. As Anzaldua says in the story, “The struggles of the borders is still ours”. She means that, since her and her family are Mexican and there's a border between both America and Mexico, and she is american, people consider them to be non-american foreigners from the other side of the border. Coming from a indian decent, I understand her struggle with people making comments about terrorist even though I myself am a complete different race.

With ethnicity comes the way we speak, whether at home or in school, with friends or with grandparents. Everyone communicates in one way, through a language. Anzaldua’s whole story is based upon language and the way it defines a person. She says,”I am my language”, meaning the way that she speaks and the language she speaks is what makes her, herself. I, myself am fluent in more than one language, Gujarati and English. Being able to speak another language allows you to keep traditions going from one generation to another. As well as being able to carry a piece of your ethnicity with you no matter where you go. Not only does speaking another language allow you to have a piece of ethnicity with you, but it also shows where your

native roots are from. Depending on the area of where you are from, the native tongue is a little different. Allowing you to express your location in the country that your ancestors are from and grew up in.

The love that you have for yourself and family, go back and begin with the pride that you have for being the race and ethnicity that you are. A huge part of being happy with yourself is accepting and loving yourself for who you truly are. Anzaldua says, “Being Mexican is a state of soul..”, she is trying to tell us that being Mexican is something that makes up her soul. In my case, I'm indian, there is somethings that the indian race is known for, that makes that certain race different from other. For example, indian people are suppose to be able to eat spicy food. That is something that I grew up around in my household. It makes me who I am. Along with that it allows me to accept that races can be different and for that reason I take pride in being indian. Allowing myself to be different than others and express myself differently.

The ethnicity part of your identity is a key factor to being who you are and accepting the way your family is. This makes up a huge portion of the way you act towards others and yourself, the outlook that you have on life and even just the things you enjoy to do. Knowing to love and accept the things that come from your ethnicity will make you a better person and help you in the long run when facing things such as racism, discrimination and loving yourself a little more than you love others. Although more components make up your identity, this is still the most important in my opinion because once you accept your ethnicity, it allows you to do greater things. Such as, love yourself and family, grow as a person, spread the traditions of your background and keep your native languages alive.