Blog Post #2
- I find that the argument of this essay is the internal fight for identity. Gloria Anazldua fights for her Chicano identity, that she doesn’t take pride in herself until she can fully be this language. When she is teaching later on her books are diverse and the school doesn’t agree with it, but she fight back for the books of her language. She also talks about how she would get in trouble in school and at home for speaking Spanish which is her first language. Learning what she wanted to speak in the future Anazldua even has a list of all the different “languages” she speaks. This list then includes Standard English but then also working class English. At the end of this list she does Chicano Spanish. Anazldua then figures out that this is her true identity after going through all of the “languages”. She changes the way she speaks depending on who or where she is, this plays a role in internal fight for her identity. Another example of this would be when she moved to San Francisco and Anazldua states that her family feels embarrassed when she simple just rattles off something in Spanish, but to her it’s just trying to find her identity. Without the Chicano language Anazldua wouldn’t have her center self, and internally she would still be finding her way. The internal argument of finding the perfect identity to please everyone is portrayed throughout the whole essay, but in the end Anazldua does figure out who she wants to be and stands her ground on it.
- The way the Anazldua explores her self-expression is by after speaking in english the essay then shows her repeating back to herself in Spanish. I find that this is the easier way for Anazldua to find her self-expression. On the there side I find that the harder way for her to explore her self-expression is by learning all the different types of “languages”. Anazldua main language and heritage is to speak Spanish, she even talks about how she feels the most herself when she is talking to her youngest two siblings, that could be becuase they speak Spanish and she can be her most self around them. Around her two youngest siblings Anazldua doesn’t have to try and impress them or try and be someone else so that is the easiest way of self-expressing she has found.
