Anzaldua Blog

Dear Anzaldua,
As a Spanish speaker I can relate to your text, and most of your examples apply to me in a daily routine. It's hard for me to adapt to this environment where it seems that I am neglected because of my language or the way I speak it. Being born in Mexico but coming to the states at an early age it was hard for me to ignore the American culture and at some point it became a part of me. My family, an ordinary Mexican family has always had big expectations for the new generations, the expectation of keeping the culture going. I don't listen to "corridos" or go to church every Sunday and my Spanish is not that clear, these are good enough reasons for my family to start complaining that I'm starting to act like a "gavacho". The Spanish I speak differentiates in my environment, for example when I'm with my friends I usually talk with a mix of the two languages(spanish and english) which is very well understood among us, but i cannot go home and speak to my dad because he won't understand half of what I'm saying. In the text you start of by using the dentist story as a metaphor to relate to our language. The story applies to many Spanish speakers in this country, the Dentist playing the role of America and the tongue playing the role of Spanish speakers. I really liked the introduction, I can apply to it personally. I believe that family has a big factor on how you adapt to your environment since your own family is the one that tells you to learn English to succeed in this country but they are expecting you to stick to the family culture. One is stuck in between the two cultures, each culture asking for you to be a part of it completely. At the end you will always know where you came from it's just hard to fit in after being surrounded by another culture for so long. "Being Mexican is a state of soul not one of mind, not one of citizenship" (pg 46) I strongly agree with this since being Mexican is all within yourself and not in what country you live in.