Gloria Anzaldua Immigrants

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Pages: 3

In the reading "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldua, the author describes her experience growing up in the United States with a different culture. Gloria Anzaldua grew up between two cultures, the Mexican culture, and Anglo culture. The insight I received from the reading was the way her people would be discriminated against because of the way they spoke. As a high school student, I am currently learning about old and new immigrants. In the earlier year, America was surrounded by people called nativist. Nativist favored inhabitants opposed to immigrants. Therefore, I could understand where Gloria Anzaldua is coming from.

As an immigrant, Gloria Anzaldua had to deal with how people disliked the culture she represented. People would talk about the
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For example, Monday, September 27th, 1920 a night school was established in Granite City. The advertisement for the school quotes, "Everybody who comes to America from the old country ought to learn the American language and become an American citizen. If the people come to America do not become Americans, this country will soon be like the old country." This advertisement is an example of how Americans would belittle immigrants because of a certain trait. For example, Gloria Anzaldua quotes, “Chicanas who grew up speaking Chicano Spanish have internalized the belief that we speak poor Spanish. It is illegitimate, a bastard language. And because we internalize how our language has been used against us by the dominant culture, we use our language differences against each other.” This quote shows the impact America have on immigrants. Basically, the quote is trying to say because Americans have told these unique people their language is wrong, they have begun to believe it. The Spanish of Gloria Anzaldua’s excerpt basically began to treat one another the way the Americans treated