Mark Beale
Enlgish 105
Rhetorical Analysis

    “Stubborn, persevering, impenetrable as stone, yet possessing a malleability that renders us unbreakable, we, the mestizas and mestizos, will remain” (Anzaldua, 2002, p.58) Gloria Anzaldua in her short essay entitled “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” uses both English and Spanish to express who she is and her culture through her power of language. The unique style of writing and use of two languages helps to set an environment not usually felt by the reader. Anzaldua uses every rhetorical appeal there is throughout her essay. She moves from discussing her youth and her language to the languages spoken by people in the southwest of America. Anzaldua uses many different structures inside the essay, but the structure that is found in the piece as a whole is order of importance. Gloria Anzaldua uses every rhetorical appeal and a radical style of writing that is laid out deductively in order of importance.
    “Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out” (Anzaldua, 2002, p.50) This short passage is stated in the first section of the essay. It is the bases for the whole essay. This simple phrase opens the essay to many different conduits and ideas that are each dealt in the order of their importance and their adherence to logic. For example, Anzaldua’s (2002) writes about the eight different languages of her culture before she starts to diagram the differences in Chicano Spanish and Spanish. This excerpt is found on page 51 and 52, “Some of the languages we speak are. 1. Standard English, 2. Working class and slang English, 3. Standard Spanish, 4. Standard Mexican Spanish, 5. North Mexican Spanish…” (Anzaldua, 2002, p.51+52). Later in the essay an explanation of the differences of standard Spanish and Chicano Spanish is given. The whole essay is set out deductively. The essay moves from the broad statement, “wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out,” (Anzaldua, 2002, p.50) into the specific examples of the difference of each of the eight languages and how Chicano Spanish has grown and developed in Mexico without butchering Standard Spanish. Anzaldua (2002) shows the Chicano’s language validity in this excerpt, “But Chicano Spanish is a border tongue which developed naturally” (p.51). Then Anzaldua deals with the problem of being told that the Chicano Spanish she speaks is a bastard language. She takes a broad subject of a wild tongue cannot be tamed, and then builds upon that idea and goes into many different specific examples.
    Anzaldua’s unique and original type of writing can be noticed by any reader. She forces the reader to be uncomfortable unless fluent in Spanish. Throughout her essay Anzaldua switches into Spanish and does not translate. Anzaldua (2002) writes, “Si le preguntas a mi  mama, ‘Que eres?’ te dira ‘Soy Mexicana.’ My brothers and sister say the same. I sometimes will answer ‘soy mexicana’ and at others will say ‘soy Chicana…” (p.57). In this excerpt Anzaldua swiftly switches back from Spanish to English. Anzaldua writes this essay for three reasons. The first purpose is that she wants her reader to be uncomfortable and constantly off guard so that she may make them feel as a solely Chicano speaker feels when they are forced to read and speak English. Anzaldua turns the table on the English speaking readers. It is a small way of showing what it feels like to be lost, confused, and forced to find out what someone is saying in another language. The second reason is that Anzaldua needs to be truthful to who she is. She is a Chicana and in an essay devoted to her identity and language it would be almost hypocritical if she did not express her whole self truthfully, and that means writing in Chicano Spanish. “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess - that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler” (Anzaldua, 2002, p.50). Anzaldua expresses being pushed down and told to stop speaking Spanish, but that is not who she is and because of that she needs to use Spanish in this essay or she is not being true to herself and her language. Lastly, She is writing to other Chicano speakers that have been raised in the same area. People that are able to easily switch from English to Spanish like she is.
    In this essay ethos is used to persuade the reader that Anzaldua has been through pain and suffering because of the language she speaks. “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess - that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler” (Anzaldua, 2002, p.50). “I remember one of the sins I’d recite to the priest in the confession box the few times I went to confession: talking back to my mother, hablar pa’ ‘tras, repelar. Hociona, repelona, chismosa, having a big mouth, questioning, carrying tales are all signs of being mal criada. In my culture they are all words that are derogatory if applied to women - I’ve never heard them applied to men.” (Anzaldua, 2002, p. 50) Anzaldua uses the ethos of her own confession to show that in her culture a vocal woman  is suppressed and told speaking out is a sin.
    Anzaldua uses logic throughout the essay, but especially in two sections: Oye como ladra: el language de la frontera, and Chicano Spanish. In these two sections Anzaldua lists the languages spoken around the border states area. “And because we are a complex, heterogeneous people, we speak many languages. Some of the languages we speak are:” (Anzaldua, 2002, p.52). Anzaldua goes on to list eight different languages. The listing of the languages is an appeal to logos in her essay. Then in the section “Chicano Spanish” Anzaldua shows specific examples of the differences between other Spanish languages and Chicano Spanish.
    Pathos is seen in a lot of the words Anzaldua uses. For example Anzaldua (2002) writes, “…Chicano Spanish have internalized the belief that we speak poor Spanish. It is illegitimate, a bastard language” (p.54). She evokes feelings from the reader through the words she chooses to use. She uses these words so that solely English speakers that have never been told their language is poor will understand what it feels like to be told you don’t speak a real language.
    Overall Anzaldua weaves a very disturbing, but enlightening essay about Chicano Spanish. She uses logos to defend Chicano Spanish as a valid language. She uses pathos to give the reader some sympathy to the persecution she has gone through because of what languages she speaks. Anzaldua appeals to ethos to show more than a few of the times she has been degraded because she speaks Chicano Spanish. Anzaldua’s purpose is threefold. She writes to other Chicano speakers so that they will understand that Chicano Spanish is a valid language and should be spoken. She is writing to English speaking readers so that they will stop persecuting others because they don’t speak English. She is writing to herself and staying genuine to herself and her identity as a Chicana. Anzaldua’s essay is a radical change that forces people to look at language from another point of view.

 


Bibliography

Anzaldua, G. (2002). How to Tame a Wild Tongue.
    In S. Gruber et al (ed.). Constructing Others, Constructing Ourselves
    (pp. 49-59). Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt