I agree with Anzaldua when she says denying someone their
language, their culture, is a violation of the first amendment. But I agree to
disagree with seeing it as an act of violence. I think of it like this, you
deny someone something that they themselves should only be in control of will
only cause trouble. Gloria’s mom used to say “I want you to speak English”. The
classes she attended at Pan American University had one goal, get rid of the
accent. Before then in school she’d be punished for speaking Spanish at recess.
“Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out”. From a young age she
was told to basically lock up a piece of herself to be American.
“Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” I don’t believe the Anglo teachers ever got in
trouble for hindering their students. If that were to happen now, it wouldn’t fly
by so easily, people will gladly whip out a copy of the constitution and fight
you on anything. If only it were like that then.
I agree with you when u said that denying someone their language , their culture, is a violation of the first amendment because when people do that it makes that person feel like their not welcomed how they are. I feel like how someone speeches or the color of their skin clouds the judgement of how people think of you. That's what they do to Hispanics all the time. For example, when the government is trying to build that wall at the border of Texas and Mexico to keep Hispanics out. It kills me to see that on the news , how we going to call us the land of the free if we are trying keep a specific race out of a state?
ReplyDeleteI really agree with you for the fact that you pointed out how they violated her amendments for trying to make her lose her native language. Each and everyone one of us has some sort of language we can speak to communicate and language is very important , but it is hard to make someone learn a new language by trying to inflict them with some sort of violence because it creates a lot of tension as to why she's getting beaten for speaking a language that she knows and without any thinking speaks. I mean once you come to the U.S. You have to be accustomed to learning the language due to the fact that everyone needs to be aware of what is happening around them , it can be difficult being accustomed to a language growing up but yea I feel like she should have gotten another punishment or anything like that that will allow her to speak and learn the language to communicate rather than making her lose her native language
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that what Gloria has experienced is suppression of her native tongue and that it technically isn’t on the same level as an act of violence. You stated that “From a young age she was told to basically lock up a piece of herself to be American”, which is accurate, from her mother telling her to speak English instead of Spanish to feeling shame when being around other people of the same culture in fear that she will further self-discriminate against herself. Also with her school designing courses specifically intended to further suppress the use of Spanish violates her first amendment right of free speech. Because of her experiences since the beginning of her childhood, her whole life has been about trying to change herself from what she truly is. Resulting in her everyday interactions being interpreted as discrimination, like a simple trip to the dentist. As Anzaldua was getting her roots cleaned, the dentist kept repeating how stubborn and wild her tongue is as he continues to fix her mouth. Any other person would’ve just experienced this as any other dentist appointment but for Anzaldua, this was exactly how she felt with living in American, a white man cleaning out her roots, her heritage and replacing it with English, forcing her to adjust to a new way of living.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the point you made about denying language being a violation of the first amendment. Denying a language diminishes culture and does not allow freedom of speech, both of which are against American values. As far as violence, it is clearly not physical violence. The author used the word 'violence' to highlight the dismay she felt. She mentions that she cannot herself if she doesn't accept her language first. So when someone denies her language, she takes it as a direct attack. Being Hispanic and bilingual, I can relate. Spanish was my first language so when people talk bad about it or do not allow it in certain situations, it feels as if they are insulting my heritage. I am proud to be Mexican and believe that we should be allowed to speak Spanish, or any other language, everywhere. It is our first amendment right to speak in these languages. Also, a huge percentage of the United States' population is people with roots from other countries. Not allowing them to speak in their native tongue seems as if 'Americans' are trying to shut them up. That way, they can't influence elections or be involved with what they believe in.
DeleteI agree with your statement about denying someone their language is a violation of their first amendment right. People of any language or culture should never be denied to speak a certain way although on a side note, I do feel it is important for people coming to a country such as America to learn and understand basic English as way to communicate and assimilate into our society, but they should never be required to change who they are or how or what language they speak. Also, the violence described by Gloria to me is not violence in a sense, it is more of a violation, but not something as harsh as violence. As you said ," I think of it like this, you deny someone something that they themselves should only be in control of will only cause trouble, "which again I would agree with you on. Denying someone something so basic like the right to speak whatever language they want will cause trouble as seen with Gloria's struggle to accept society's as well as her mothers will for her to learn and speak only English. The struggle caused her to lash out and question her identity and what her language meant to her. This is something that in unnecessary and problematic to society and will only create more divisions among people of different languages and cultures instead of teaching everyone to be respectful of each others cultures.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the fact that this would violate her first amendment right. Just as you quoted the first amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech.” No matter what the reason, if someone is being told what they can and cannot say, or how they can and can’t say it, I feel it is infringing on that person’s right of freedom of speech. To the matter of if this is an act of violence or not, I’m more torn between the two. Straight out, I do not think being told to speak the language of the country you are in is wrong, which in turn, should not cause violence. However, I feel like if this happened enough, it could start to cause violence because people would get tired of being told they couldn’t speak how they wanted to speak. In my opinion, if you live in America you should speak English, and when told to do so you shouldn’t get angry. But I do believe that this could start to cause violence the longer it continues to happen.
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