Oppression Of The Truth By Nikki Giovanni

Can an ego be big enough for one to “trip over?” Ego-tripping is something undertaken to boost or draw attention to a person’s own image or appraisal of himself, and or something done primarily to satisfy one’s vanity. Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 7. 1943. She graduated with honors from her grandfather’s alma mater Fisk University. The poem Ego-Tripping is about what she perceives as the true identity of an African American women. She explains how being powerful can open so many doors for a person if they just believe in themselves. This poem was written when Giovanni took her first trip to Africa in 1972, the same year the poem was written. The poet explains her past experience to show how lost she was during

Rodriguez’s main point is to strongly encourage children of immigrant parents to adopt English, the “public language” as their main language in order to become assimilated in the

Tanya Barrientos explained her struggle with her identity growing up in her writing “Se Habla Español”. Barrientos describes herself as being “Guatemalan by birth but pure gringa by circumstance” (83). These circumstances began when her family relocated to the United States when she was three years old. Once the family moved to the states, her parents only spoke Spanish between themselves. The children learned to how read, write and speak the English language to fit into society at that time in 1963. (83) Barrientos explained how society shifted and “the nation changed its views on ethnic identity” (85) after she graduated college and it came as a backlash to her because she had isolated herself from the stereotype she constructed in her head. She was insulted to be called Mexican and to her speaking the Spanish language translated into being poor. She had felt superior to Latino waitresses and their maid when she told them that she didn’t speak Spanish. After the shift in society Barrientos wondered where she fit it since the Spanish language was the glue that held the new Latino American community together. Barrientos then set out on a difficult awkward journey to learn the language that others would assume she would already know. She wanted to nurture the seed of pride to be called Mexican that her father planted when her father sent her on a summer trip to Mexico City. Once Barrientos had learned more Spanish and could handle the present, past and future tenses she still

In her essay “Se Habla Español,” Tanya Maria Barrientos discusses her struggling as an English speaker with Latino heritage on self-definition and ethnic identity in the multi-cultured American society.

Anzaldúa wrote about the conflicting views that Chicanos face involving their own self-identity growing up in societies that tell them they do not belong. Chicanos are people that were born in the United States but have parents that were born in Mexico. They face constant criticism for the way they speak, by both American and Mexican people. Often times Chicanos are told that they’re cultural traitors and that they’re speaking the oppressors’ language and ruining the Spanish language when they are heard speaking English by Latinos (Anzaldúa, 17). They are made to feel as if they need to choose a sole identity to represent and anything other than that is going to be looked down on. Chicanos have felt as if they didn’t belong anywhere, so they created an identity to fit in and belong to “Chicano Spanish sprang out of the Chicanos’ need to identify ourselves as a distinct people” (Anzaldúa, 17). A feeling of

“I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess-that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler. I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for “talking back” to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name. “If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong.”

Gonzalez opens this chapter with, conceivably, the harshest narrative he could find to support his claims: He writes of a Latina mother forced by a judge to speak English to her daughter at home if she wanted to retain custody (Gonzalez 206). He continues on to describe the three categories of people affected by the

Summary- In her essay “Se Habla Español,” Tanya Maria Barrientos discusses her struggle of being an English speaker with Latino heritage, her story to search for a sense of belonging. In childhood, she tries to Americanize herself and stay away from any Latino features, including Spanish. Later in her life, as the society become more welcoming to different ethnic groups, it is natural for her to embrace her own group; but her limitation on Spanish causes Barrientos feeling distant. However, Barrientos believes that there are others in the same dilemma and she encourages those to take the pride to be who they are.

Rodriguez’s parents emphasize a large separation of their Mexican heritage from that of “los gringos.” The family speaks Spanish to each other, and the transition to speaking English symbolizes that person being spoken to is an outsider, not one to be trusted, an “Americano.” The language of Spanish, therefore, is a symbol of trust, acceptance, as being part of the family. When “Ricardo” gives up Spanish for English, although he is urged to do so by his parents, he feels he is betraying his family for “los gringos.”

Anzaldúa provides various Spanish languages to identify her Chicana identify, she provides the different Spanish languages to compare and contrast one another to provide not only her experience for the challenges immigrants face, but to put those in her shoes when growing up in America, not knowing every English word there is to know. The language uses Anglicism, words borrowed from the English language (Anzadúa 475). Anzaldúa compares and contrasts that her Chicana identity isn’t too much different; it’s a evolution of both her background and her adaptation of

However, in contrast to Espada’s claim about bilingualism, Rodriguez argues that, although uncomfortable and difficult, people need to learn the public language in order to effectively assimilate into society and have a public identity. He claims that he did not feel “American” until he was finally comfortable with English, when he says, “At last, seven years old, I came to believe what had technically been true since my birth: I was an American citizen” (121). Rodriguez is saying that before you can truly be a citizen, in all its definition, you must first be able to communicate in the language of the society. He also claims that the prominent language gives you a public identity in addition to your private language and identity

Anzaldua persuades her audience of Chicanos by her examples of her credibility. She is told many times that she needs to be able to speak Spanish without an accent. This affected her when she was younger a lot. She was not able to speak Spanish at school without her teacher telling her “If you want to be American, speak American! If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong.” She also had to fight with her mother about this because she wanted Anzaldua to not have the accent. She would tell her “I want you to speak English. Pa’ hallar buen trabajo tienes que saber hablar el ingles bien. Que vale toda tu educacion si todavia hablas ingles con un accent.” This translated to “To find good work you must know how to speak English well. That is worth all your education if you still speak English with an accent.” Anzaldua explains how she was mortified of this because she spoke English like a Mexican. She explains that she had to take two classes in order to get rid of her accents. She went on to become a teacher in 1971 and she was teaching High School English to Chicano

As a result, Anzaldua illustrates her hardship to the attention of an English speaker as an audience. Throughout the reading, she consistently switches from English to Spanish in many paragraphs forcing a non-Spanish speaker, such as myself, to look up translations an order to make sense of the story. An example of this would be when her mother expresses her disappointment saying, “I want you to speak English. PA hallar buen trabajo hablas ingles con un accent” (206). By forcing this task on the audience, this allows a sense of empathy and understanding of author’s struggles of what she had to go through growing up. She had spoken English but is still sadly looked upon from her mother due to having Spanish “accent”, that with this accent putting her through school is pointless.

Anzaldua describes how she experienced the feeling of being deviant towards society and not belonging to the community she lives in, “The queer are the mirror reflecting the heterosexual tribe’s fear: being different, being other than and therefore lesser, therefore sub-human, in-human, non-human” (Anzaldua, 1987). Acknowledging that someone is different from you in their thoughts, opinions, behavior, and appearance is not as easy as it may seem when these qualities matter to you. But acknowledging that being different is not better or worse—it is simply not the same—is what many people fail to do, often without even realizing how intolerant they are. The author herself, however, shows that she is in every way broadminded about her beliefs, her opinions, and even the language she speaks—the book is written equally in English and Spanish. The author naturally switches from one language to the other, showing not simply that she is bilingual, but that she is a human being above all other qualities, and it is the content, the meaning behind words that matters, not the form or language in which they are written.

Anzaldua takes great pride in her language, “So if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic diversity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language” (p89). She states that her language is a part of herself so when you insult Chicano it’s like a strike to the heart of Anzaldua. Anzaldua goes on to explains that although Chicanos all over the US speak different dialects of Chicano Spanish, they are still all Chicanos. Just because the language varies a little does not diminish its authenticity. People who speak a variation on a language should not be ashamed because they speak a little differently. “There is the quiet of the Indian about us. We know how to survive. When other races have given up their tongue we’ve kept ours. We know what it is to live under the hammer blow of the dominant norteamericano culture. but more we count the blows, we count the days the weeks the years the centuries the aeons until the white laws and commerce and customs will rot in the deserts they’ve created” (p93). She strongly urges Los Chicanos to not give up their culture and endure. She believes that the will of their culture will outlast any obstacle they encounter and demands that they not give in to the temptation to conform.