In "How to Tame a Wild Tongue", by Anzaldua, she claims that denying a group their language is a violation of the first amendment. I agree with her because as a Mexican-American I am bilingual and speak both English and Spanish. If people deny me of speaking Spanish it violates my right of freedom of speech, which is the first amendment. Freedom of speech means you have the right to speak of what ever or talk about what ever. My parents speak Spanish only and if I got denied the right to speak Spanish and only speak English I would probably not be able to communicate with them. Many people come here to the United State for the right to speak and if that was denied to them they would just have to leave and find somewhere where there language can expand. I think knowing different languages helps you communicate well with others and learn other peoples culture.
Relatability is the quality or state of being relatable. Which means it has relationship between two things. So I don't think relatabilty is not a problematic word as the author of "The Scourge of Relatability", Rebecca Mead, says it is. All it means is comparing two things and finding similarities and differences.
"How to Tame a Wild Tongue" I think is more effective at providing its argument of language because she uses many evidence and examples of how people get denied their right to speak their language.
I agree with you and Anzaldua. The freedom of speech is an amendment that applies to every single person in this country even if they speak a different language. A lot of my friends back home in San Antonio speak Spanish because it was their first language. Taking away their freedom of speech would be an act of violence because that is how they choose to communicate. Just like you, Bryan, some of my friends’ parents only speak Spanish. How would they communicate with their parents if they were not allowed to speak Spanish? How would their parents be able to communicate with them?
ReplyDeleteAnother argument of mine is about culture. Being from San Antonio, I know how much of an impact it makes on culture. Everywhere you go in San Antonio, you will hear people speaking Spanish with their friends, on the phone, etc. The Spanish speaking community is huge in San Antonio, and if those people had their language stripped from them, there would be a retaliation of violence. There are many cities in the United States with a huge Spanish speaking population.
I also agree with you when you said, “Many people come here to the United States for the right to speak…” Not only do they come here just for the rights to speak, but also to have a better future. If their language was taken from them, then they wouldn’t have a very fun/ good future. Taking away their culture is un-American. Going against an amendment would be un-American.
I agree with you and Anzaldúa that you do have the right to free speech by speaking whatever language you want whenever you want. The only problem I do have with this is that my family’s main language is English, in fact, it’s our only language, I think anyone who is accusing someone to speak English isn’t doing it because the want to be mean or don’t like that language, I think it is more of them wanting to communicate with someone, and when you speak Spanish to an English person in public…its very annoying. Because maybe I wanted to talk to you or argue into great depths but because someone is upset that I want to do that in English they feel like I’m trying to attack their rights to the first amendment, which I wouldn’t ever do. It’s not me saying don’t ever speak Spanish, or French, or whatever language you talk, just not to me since I don’t understand it. Now if someone straight up told someone they weren’t allowed to speak their own language, like at home with their family, I would definitely call that an act of violence. You are attacking the most sacred thing to most people, and that is how they communicate. And every person’s home language has a sense of love, care and good feelings to those who speak it with them. You said people come here for the right to speak, and that is true, people flock to the United States for the right to do almost anything, its what makes America so great and such a diverse country
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