Gloria Anzaldua
Borderlands
La Frontera
The New Mestiza
Chapter 5 How to Tame a Wild Tongue
• The Chapter Title “How to Tame a wild Tongue”
focuses on the language of Spanish speaking people
(The Chicanos) in different aspects.
• Chapter took place in a dentist chair
• Main Topics throughout the chapter
– education different dialects, gendered biases of the
languages Music And other communication topics.
• Bastard Form Language: A combination of different
Spanish, Native American, and English sounds and
words were combined to develop into this Chicano
Spanish.
What do you think Ray Gwyn Smith meant by
the quote “Who is to say that robbing a
people of its language is less violent than
war?” (first pg. In chpt 5)
Chapter 5 Continued…
• People may think that Chicanos and Latinos are the
same, but in this section It talks about how chicanas
feel uncomfortable talking in Spanish with Latinas,
afraid that they may be speaking it wrong.
• She has to take pride of her language before she takes
pride in herself.
• She begins to say that until it is legit to speak all the
languages she mentions in the past pages, and then
she is free. “and as long as I have to accommodate the
English speakers rather than having them
accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate.”
(Anzaldua 81).
• When she taught high school, she tried to implement
the works of Chicano and got in trouble for it.
• When she was getting her PhD, she had to plead
semester after semester to the advisor to let her class
be a Chicano Literature concentration.
• There are subtle ways that we can all identify ourselves
to our homeland. For her, food and certain smells are
tied to her identity.
• “Deep in our hearts we believe that being Mexican has
nothing to do with which country one lives in. Being
Mexican is a state of soul—not one of mind, not one of
citizenship. Neither eagle or serpent, but both. And like
the ocean, neither animal respects the borders”
(Anzaldua 84).
How do you identify yourself to your
homeland? What does it remind you
of specifically?
Chapter 6 The Path of the Red and
Black Ink
• During her childhood, Gloria would
read books in bed because she
preferred imagination than sleeping.
Her sister, Hilda, said that she would
tell their mom that she was up all
night reading unless she would tell
her a story.
• Gloria can look at her book that she is
almost finished writing and she sees
a mosaic pattern. Instead of seeing
her book as words on a page, she
sees a complex form of something
that is almost living and it is also a
performance.
• Western cultures Vs. tribal cultures
(how they view art)
• Conscious Vs. subconscious
The color white: Pure, hope,
sterility, etc.
• Subconscious: disease, death,
hopelessness.
The color black: death,
evil, destruction.
• “Images are more direct than
words, and closer to the
unconscious” (pg 91).
• Gloria is able to create stories
in her head and watch
everything play out. If she
doesn’t do this, she would
get ill. This is the reason why
she thinks that writing heals
her. She is able to create
“movies” while she is in
between sleeping and awake.
Why do you think Gloria
prefers the world of
imagination rather than
sleep?
Chapter 6 Continued…
• Writing about her experiences produces
anxiety in her
• For Gloria righting is a way to forget the pain,
writing is part of her life
• She describes her life and writing as one
• She talks about another persons work and
they describe writing as an experience of
giving birth and how it would be easier to
carry a child for nine months
Describe your writing experience.
Game Questions
What are some of the languages the Chicanos
speak?
A.) Standard English
B.)Tex.Mex
C.)Working class and Slang English
D.)All of the Above
True or False
When the Chicanos came to American
schools the teachers encouraged them
to speak Spanish because that is their
home language?
What was the setting of chapter
5?
A) At school
B) The Dentist
C) Texas
D) Church
What was a main topic throughout
chapter 5?
A) Education
B) Different dialects
C) Gendered biases of the languages
D) All of the above
What do the upper class people
view Chicano Spanish as?
A) Bastard Language
B) Spanish
C)French
D) None of the above
Consciously, what does the color white
and black mean?
Subconsciously, what does the color
white mean?
Why does Gloria describe images as a
bridge and that words are the cables
that hold the bridge?
How does Gloria view art?
What does writing help Gloria to do?
What does writing produce in her?
What does Gloria have to do in
order to be a writer?
What does Tlilli and Tlapalli mean?
What kind of pattern does she see in
the book?
What does she say being a writer is
like for her?