Anzaldua Blog "How to Tame a Wild Ton...

Anzaldua Blog "How to Tame a Wild Tongue"

Growing up I was thought two languages, Spanish and English. For my first 2-3 years in elementary school I was put in a bilingual class were the language mostly spoken was Spanish. Later on in fourth grade when I was finally in a all English class for the first time I remember one of my teachers saying "Don't speak Spanish in class, it's rude to those around you that don't understand or speak Spanish. You're in the United States, your supposed to speak ENGLISH!". I really didn't know what to do, it was the first time that anyone had ever told me not to speak Spanish. I was offended, mad and confused all at the same time. Apart from this incident, there have been other times as well. Random people on the street or stores would tell us not to speak Spanish. Specifically I remember the bus stop incident. After school we were waiting for the bus to come. The majority of the people waiting for the bus were Spanish speakers. When the bus finally arrived and old white guy came out of nowhere, cut in front of the line and said "If you Mexican kids want to speak Spanish you can go back to Mexico were you belong!". No one did anything to him,  he just said it. Other than that I have had a lot of people criticize my Spanish, especially when I go to Mexico. People always assume that I don't speak Spanish. When they find out that I do they tell me how bad it is, that I don't speak it correctly or that I don't have a Mexican accent in my Spanish (what does a Mexican accent sound like anyway?). I was raised in a dominant white culture where speaking anything other than English gave you dirty looks. I know that my Spanish isn't perfect but I know enough to the point where I know that I can communicate with my family, hold a conversation and survive in Mexico if I had to. To this day I don't know why someone would tell someone else not to speak their language. Spanish is something that I grew up with, it will always be in my life. But most important, it's part of my identity.