Common Grounds

Sugei Jimenez

Professor Reyes

Blogger #2

English

Common Grounds

“…this is the impending problem at hand,” – Jamila Lyiscott

“…But who controls our language?” – Jamila Lyiscott

“…cultural traitor, you’re speaking the oppressor’s language…” - Anzuldua

“…I just follow to them people but-ti done…” – Jamila Lyiscott

Our tongues, are they really?

 Is the standard academic language we speak and use as formality really what identifies our articulacy?

 The common ground between Anzuldua, Lyiscott and I is that we practice a forced language that is structured and oppressed upon us by our oppressor, our oppressor: family, education and location.

 In Anzuldua’s, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” she speaks about her history in regards to her usage of multiple languages as a Chicana here in America. She says that she practices,

“Un lenguaje que corresponde a un modo de vivir.”

Anzuldua practices the language that fits her location because it’s the one that corresponds to that location.

In Lyiscott’s Ted talk, “3 Languages”, she says,

“…I had to barrow your language because mine was stolen…”

Lyiscott uses the English language because her language was not suited to the principle of the American system.

Common grounds, I’m articulate, we are articulate, even without a degree certified by the states.

Anzuldua’s Tongues

·         Standard English

·         Working class and slang English

·         Standard Spanish

·         Standard Mexican Spanish

·         North Mexican Spanish dialect

·         Chicano Spanish

·         Tex-Mex

·         Pachuco

Lyiscott Tongues

·         Home

·         School

·         Friends

                                                 

As for myself, I speak it all, English, Slang, Spanglish, Anger, Sophistication, Baby Talk, Anger, Spanish, Trash and Bullshit, amongst many others and I refuse to identify myself through a forced language.