Personal Statement : ' Se Habla Espanol '

“My Spanish Standoff” by Gabriella Kuntz explains how the fear of prejudice against Latin America in the United States led her and her husband to avoid speaking and teaching their children Spanish. One reason that she decides not to teach her native language to her children is because she saw how the Anglo-Saxons in the community treated her because of her dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair. Another reason, she mentions involves the fact that her children developed accents and were unable to understand either language completely. Because of this, Kuntz decides only to speak to them in English to prevent others from criticizing her children for speaking with broken grammar and thick accents. She believes

As Anzaldua integrated to American culture she continued to experience discriminatory circumstances. For instance, while she attended “Pan American University” she had to enroll in speech class “to get rid of [her] [accent]” (Anzaldúa 374). Then, when she “taught High School English” she was discouraged by the principal to using Chicano literature in her class (379). On the other hand, the resentful minority group (“Spanish speakers”) expected her not to use the “oppressor’s language” (Anzaldua 375).The impact of all these events, influence Anzaldua to believe that “by the end of this century English, and not Spanish, will be the mother tongue of most Chicanos and Latinos” (Anzaldúa 378). This is important, because Anzaldua writes, “Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity” (378). If her prediction becomes reality, then most of what surrounds me (and others like me) will disappear.

The film “American Tongues” documents a variety of English accents that are present across the United States and highlights a lot of the opinions people have about accents and people who speak these accents. A large majority of the people who express opinions about other peoples’ accents tend to express negative views, as they see their own accent as the superior one. The film focuses on showing the array of accents found in the U.S., but also how a lot of people who speak these “inferior” accents work to learn “Standard American English” to increase their chances of getting jobs and communicating in more official domains. Although the film was made in 1988, it expresses views still present in today’s society towards different accents, as people tend to continue judging others based not only on what they say, but also how they say it.

I became interested in missions when my family and I lived abroad in Laos, Singapore, and Costa Rica; we had adopted my youngest brother and were in the process of immigrating him back to the United States. I believe that I can use my majors, Spanish and music (piano pedagogy) in evangelism and in furthering Christ and His Kingdom.

Gloria Anzaldua’s article “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” focuses on the discrimination against Latin American individuals, who are residents or citizens, of the United States. Gloria Anzaldua empathizes the bullying in schools and in her daily life. Despite all the bullying and discrimination she had to put up with, Gloria stands up for herself and fights for her culture and origins. She chooses to love herself for who she is, which allowed her to put those ugly comments and actions aside to grow into the person she is today. Amy Tan’s article “Mother Tongue,” also focuses on the discrimination against her efforts to speak and write English. Amy Tan emphasizes the topics of standardized testing and discrimination within schools that go

Although our society is slowly developing a more accepting attitude toward differences, several minority groups continue to suffer from cultural oppression. In her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa explores the challenges encountered by these groups. She especially focuses on her people, the Chicanos, and describes the difficulties she faced practicing her mother tongue. She argues that for many years, the dominant American culture has silenced their language. She claims that by forcing them to speak English and attempting to eliminate their accents, the Americans have robbed the Chicanos of their identity. She also addresses the issue of low self-esteem that results from this process of acculturation. Growing up in the United States, Anzaldúa says she had to accommodate to the American culture. The fact that she was discouraged from practicing her native language induced her to become ashamed of her roots. In addition, she explains that she constantly felt suppressed on account of her gender. By incorporating Spanish words, powerful personal anecdotes and historical facts about her people, Anzaldúa produces a unique composition in which she depicts an unfair and repressive world and reprimands the prejudices that hinder certain cultures from flourishing and establishing themselves.

In the article How to Tame a Wild Tongue written by Gloria Anzaldua covers a real life story that Gloria lived. She was born into a Mexican home in the United States during the 1970s. She was looked down upon by her peers due to the fact that she spoke Spanish. When she was in school they got her in trouble because she spoke Spanish in one of her classes. Gloria also never knew that Spanish words were not all male dominant, they also applied to females. The biggest struggle for Gloria was that she often used both English and Spanish when she would talk to her peers. While some argue that she was in the wrong, I believe that she has a right to keep in touch with her roots because nobody should be ashamed of where they come from.

To many opponents of the bilingual education program that existed prior to these laws, encouraging bilingualism and biculturalism threatened the very definition of the American culture, which, they believed, promoted the values and language of a common group (Weisman and Hanson,2002). ). These proponents of the initiatives believed that new immigrants must abandon their native languages and cultural practices to fully assimilate into U.S. society. They feared that Spanish-speaking immigrants in particular had been "clinging" to their language and resisting learning English (Mora,2009).

Many considered the Chicano language to be improper, but Anzaldua has redefined how we should embody the language. Anzaldua speaking Spanish in America is one of the few things that remind her of her Hispanic heritage. Languages are diverse and cannot always prove our ethnic background, but it is one of the many things that are significant to our identity. Language can legitimize our culture and has the ability to connect us despite distance. We should embrace our identities and recognize them to avoid negative stereotypes, which create predicaments for the stereotyped group. As a Chicana, Anzaldua, like many others, has trouble identifying herself, which has caused her to feel embarrassment and makes her question whether America is a welcoming place for Chicanos. As Gloria emphasizes the importance of embracing one’s culture, she also finds herself later realizing that we should stay true to one’s self and disregard what others have to say.

Being proud of one’s culture and language can often diminish when immigrating to a new country, but the author refuses the rejection of her culture, and most especially her tongue. She captivates the audience by providing a personal experience of when she was attacked for correcting her name, “If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong” (34). By including an anecdote packed with emotional stimuli, Anzaldua causes us to experience empathy for her and other minorities who are regarded as outsiders in a place they call “home.” She

Balancing out two different cultures can be burdensome. It can cause a roadblock to assimilating to the new culture just as it did for Changez for wanting to belong. Language is also a fundamental aspect for belonging and it can also conflict with one's identity. In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, language played a huge part in their lives and identities as Dominicans growing up in America. When they first immigrated, language and sexuality are the two most troubling aspects of their cultural displacement. Each sister had a different perspective on learning the new language and also embracing it. Yolanda, the third sister out of the four, developed a sensitive yet troublesome feeling through English. In her years in America, she endured

“... heavy English ‘accents’ in Spanish are perfectly acceptable for Whites, even when Spanish speakers experience them as ‘like a fingernail on the blackboard’”. Reading this sentence draws heavy attention to the degree by which White privilege is tolerated in the Spanish speaking community. Spanish speakers face discrimination every day in many aspects of their lives, including job interviews, parent-teacher conferences, public speeches, and even ordering food at a restaurant. The list goes on with the different scenarios in which Spanish speakers do not feel safe or welcomed because of how they speak the English language; however, White people who do not speak perfect Spanish are excused without being reprimanded. Although this extends

Migration can bring difficulties to parenting; language barriers may occur in the process (Bornstein and Bohr, 2011, p. 3). Children become more and more disconnected to their parents while they become attached to modern America as a result of peer pressure or solely because of the portrayal set out by the media (i.e. television shows, movies, music and magazines). It’s understandable that children want to fit in and that is something that parents should be more open-minded to. Dissonant acculturation, as explained by Bernstein et al (2011), “leads to increasing parent-child conflicts in immigrant families and adaptation challenges for children” (p. 3); children learning English and the ways of their new country can cause them to lose sight of their native culture and language (p. 3). I have often heard parents express their desire to ensure Spanish is learned and used so that it is not lost as well as how much more it is important for them to learn Spanish than English. Migration, overall, “affects intergenerational relations in the family” (Foner, n.d., p.

In Gloria Anzaldúa article “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” she shows us how different worlds so close can be so different. Anzaldúa shows that people have restricted freedom in society by the social norms set in them. Anzaldúa pressed her awareness and distraught on how people treat her depending on the type of language she uses. She also explains some of her emotions towards the way people are like with speaking and listening to accents. The article is how Anzaldúa explains how culture and accent shapes a person’s identity by being controlled and oppressed to fit into the social norms, which is how she creates cracks using language and code switching.

My father is Mexican, and my mother is White. I was born in California, however, when was 4 yrs. old we moved to Mexico. We did not returned to the United States till I turned 15 yrs. old. Although my first language was English, once I moved to Mexico, I became fluent in Spanish. Life coming back to America was hard, I did understand English perfectly since my mother always spoke to us in English, however, and I could no longer speak it. I was placed in ELL classes, and although I was very smart in many subjects, because I did not speak English, I was placed in easy classes, where we did nothing. They focus so much on learning the language that they fail to teach you. I survived; however, I knew the other classmates looked down at us. They would not speak to us, and they will make rude racial comments when referring to any of us.