Jamyl Bey
4 November, 2014
Engw_1100
Prof. Young
Identity
What is Identity?
What is identity? Is it what people make of themselves or what
the world makes them into? Before one
can truly know what identity is they must have one. Some people find their
identity as a child, while some others spend their entire lives trying to
figure out the person they see in the mirror. One thing is for sure. No one is given an identity. It is one journey
every person must take for themselves. Even
when one is given a situation to which they are bound by others, those people
cannot form an identity for that person. An identity is something one forms themselves,
how one defines oneself. This does not
mean that the world, its experiences and trials do not influence an identity or
how one views oneself. It is merely the
combination of natural-born traits, the struggle and the circumstances that the
universe offers to us.
In
the text, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, Anzaldua explains her troubles with
learning English in the United States. She
explains that as a child, she was often disciplined for talking back to her
teachers, who were trying to take away her identity and enslave her to a
culture that would not allow her to be herself. “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.”... Their purpose: to get rid of our accents.” (Anzaldua 2947) Anzaldua was forced to speak a
language that was given to her, but she knew that being ‘American’ was not
meant to be her identity. Although she
was placed in a system that was designed to steal away her true self, she would
not allow herself to be robbed of her personality or character. What is built solidly into a person can never
be taken away.
Anzaldua
also describes the struggle of being pulled by the different kinds of Spanish
speaking people. From Chicano Spanish to
Pachuco, she realizes that her identity may not sit well with everyone. Also, making the people speaking the Chicano
language feel insecure about who they are and what they speak. “Chicanas grew up speaking Chicano Spanish
have internalized the belief that we speak poor Spanish. It is illegitimate, a bastard language...We
are afraid of what we’ll see there. Pena.
Shame. Low estimation of self. In
childhood we were told that our language is wrong. Repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish
our sense of self.” (Anzaldua 2950-2951) The world has a way of twisting one’s
thoughts, wearing away at one’s pride, stripping people of their uniqueness,
and altogether causing people to conform to monotony. Some people with authority do this
intentionally to make people feel ashamed enough of who they are that they
desperately try to become something that no one is, normal. Anzaldua explains the pain of being told that speaking
her language was a disgrace and as people continued degrading her native
tongue, they were taking a little piece of herself with them.
Identity is not only who one is. It is also what one is, how one is, why one is, what one becomes, what one speaks and how one speaks it. People can take away the right of having any of those things, but they can never take away one’s identity. The only way a person identity can be destroyed is if it is unclaimed and devalued by its creator. Anzaldua declares that her ethnic identity is her twin skin to her linguistic identity and that the realest way to hurt her is to talk badly about her language. She is her language as she is her soul or her mind. She states “until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself”. Until one can claim and embrace the essence of one’s true self, one can never have peace within themselves. The importance of an identity equates to the importance of having a good self-esteem. Identity cannot exist without the self-esteem. One must accept who they are, what they are made of, and what they deserve to live a satisfying life. Anzaldua understands that her identity will never change, not for anyone. Many people must learn this and take the steps to accepting and defending who they really are.
