Essay 1 identity

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.