Being bilingual can be both useful or irritating, having the ability to communicate and understand several languages or being raised to be an interpreter for your parents. As you become more exposed to a variety of languages you can often observe how society treats certain languages. Martin Espada is a lawyer and poet who defends Spanish speakers in America, makes it clear about the role of language in his essay, “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School.” He asserts that the importance of language is created from cultural identity. When Espada shared what he learned about maintaining and defending Spanish he proceeded to say, “Defending the right of all Latinos to use the tongue of their history and identity creates in me passion for Spanish itself.” (18-19) Espada uses pathos to highlight that defending the voices of Latinos creates the history and identity of those individuals. Additionally, Perez-Bustillo talked about his experience when …show more content…
Another example is Espadas encounter with a politician during a protest and decided to greet him in Spanish he reported, “He squinted with rage, then threatened to rip my tongue out for talking to him in Spanish. He shoved past me and disappeared into the streets.” (Lines 88-91) Espada uses pathos to show how Spanish speakers are being threatened by other languages, indicating that their language is not allowed in the
Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez are Latino authors of “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” and “Hunger of Memory” which touch on the topic of language-limiting policies and ideas in the United States. Language is something everyone in existence uses to communicate with. Yet, not all languages are the same. Many have difficulty understanding language when it differs from one’s own. Language can be a barrier between people from other places.
Bilingual speakers need to share their experiences and help prevent these situations from increasing and impacting children as old as our elders. Espada states, "Defending the right of all Latinos to use the tongue of their history and identity creates in me a passion for Spanish itself" (Espada 4). Furthermore, each bilingual speaker has the right to use their voice to defend their native language, and each language in the world has its
The definition of bilingualism is fluency in or use of two languages. Martín Espada is the author of the essay “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” which is about the act of Spanish being a forbidden language in a school full of multicultural children. In the essay, his main argument is the idea that the language of Spanish, or Bilingualism as a whole is interpreted as a burden for a young immigrant. Another author named Richard Rodriguez wrote about his struggle to juggle between his 2 languages, his public language (English) and his private
Language plays a vital role in a person’s sense of identity and connection; despite that, however, many face issues of discrimination of language throughout the United States for speaking another language. Former lawyer-turned-poet Martin Espada addresses these issues in his essay “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School,” through the use of anecdotes and his work, Espada continues to fight and serve as a voice for Latinos across America. Espada states how language isn’t a means of communication, but instead integral to an individual’s identity and culture, he recounts the story of attending a protest for a bill to make English the official language of Massachusetts, during the demonstration, a state legislator threatens to rip his tongue out for speaking Spanish, later, when Espada goes up and conveys to the crowd, he calls out to the audience that even if his tongue gets ripped, it won’t stop him from speaking Spanish with his heart, “He can rip out my tongue if he wants. But it won’t work, porque yo hablo español con el corazón,” (97-99). Espada conveys to the audience that Spanish epitomizes a person’s identity and pride.
For bilinguals, education normally starts off as a challenging time when little English is spoken in their home. Rodriguez, a first generation Mexican American, had a limited exposure to English because Spanish was entirely spoken together with his family. Therefore, he considered it to be his private language because he felt most comfortable and confident using it. Due to Richard’s insufficient practice with English, he suffered developing and speaking with others outside of his household. As a result, Rodriguez’s parents took awareness and encouraged him to speak in English at home.
That is why Filemon Lopez, who is part of the Benito Juarez Civic Association states that they are working hard to teach the Mixtecs their rights, about the importance of health, housing but overall of education. Even in the Madera school district, the importance of education is being advocated for, for teachers such as Carmen Hernandez states that it is important that both children like adults learn both Spanish and English, so that they can later be able to function in an English speaking society, but also so that they can keep their language and their pride in their background. Such as in the lecture about linguistic anthropology lecture that we went over in class, where it was explained that for the most part once English was learned that native languages were used less and less then forgotten, for only a subset of the population usually those who are older are the only ones who maintain the language going until they are gone. That is why Carmen emphasizes the importance of providing bilingual classes for Mixtec adults and children. So that in the future as Apuleyo Guzman states, that he hopes to learn more English so that he can get a better job so that e can get a better job, so that he can better provided for his family and his village, yet also still has his culture, his language and his ties to
My personal experience being multilingual is that i am able to freely express myself in words or phrases that come natural to me. Being able to speak Vietnamese, English, and French with ease while using some commonly known phrases from the Japanese language. Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez, two authors that speak Spanish and English have different standpoints on the subject of bilingualism. In Martin Espada’s essay “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” explains the need to maintain cultural identity through bilingualism, while in Richard Rodriguez’s exert “Hunger of Memory” depicts the necessity of becoming bilingual to be able to function well in society. “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” by Martin Espada explores
Martin Espada believes that language plays a substantial role in someone's identity, culture, and history. On the other hand, unfortunately, language can be used to threaten and silence others. Espada speaks out on this injustice and demonstrates how language can empower and support us. In “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School by Martin Espada, he claims that Spanish, like many other languages, represents one’s culture and identity, he explains how language is important as it shows history.
Being a Puerto Rican from Brooklyn, Espada failed to learn Spanish first. Through embracing his identity and fighting for the right to speak Spanish, Espada breaks down the barriers xenophobic people put up. During a protest, Espada meets a hot-headed man threatening him for speaking Spanish. Later, with a microphone, Espada snaps back, “He can rip my tongue out if he wants. But it won’t work, porque yo hablo español con el corazón” (97-99).
My Rhetorical Analysis Language is a part one’s identity and culture, which allows one to communicate with those of the same group, although when spoken to someone of another group, it can cause a language barrier or miscommunication in many different ways. In Gloria Anzaldua’s article, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, which was taken from her book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, she is trying to inform her readers that her language is what defines her. She began to mention how she was being criticized by both English and Spanish Speakers, although they both make up who she is as a person. Then, she gave convincing personal experiences about how it was to be a Chicana and their different types of languages. Moreover, despite the fact that her language was considered illegitimate, Anzaldua made it clear that she cannot get rid of it until the day she dies, or as she states (on page 26) “Wild tongues can’t be, they can only be cut out.”
Espada shares his enthusiasm towards fighting for Spanish, “Defending the right of all Latinos to [speak Spanish]... creates in me a passion towards Spanish itself,” (18-20). Alike Espada, I believe that language is a right, and speakers of non-English languages should have the freedom to speak in a comfortable environment. I also believe that such tolerance is a stride towards making America a better, more united place. Rodriguez suffers from the lack of accommodation for him to maintain his native language while also learning English. After the public language seeps into his own home, Rodriguez tells of how he was affected.
The power of language We all have some form of language limitations, no matter where we come from and what our background is. “Mother tongue” by Amy Tan and “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua both share similar themes in their stories that demonstrate how they both deal with how different forms of the same language are portrayed in society. In both stories they speak about what society declares the right way of speech and having to face prejudgment, the two authors share their personal experiences of how they’ve dealt with it.
Cofer addresses the cultural barriers and challenges that Latinos experience through emotional appeal, anecdotal imagery, parallelism and the use of effective periodic sentences. In her article, Cofer assesses the difficult cultural hurdles of Latin Americans with emotional appeal. She provides insight on her cultural barriers by first conveying the way she had to dress and her struggle, as it shows in this piece of text, “That morning I had organized… which to base my decision” (Cofer 5). This poignancy works to stress an agonizing feeling of uncertainty and restraint towards the author.
Her article Bilingual lives,Bilingual experience is a preface of the book Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development . In this article the author addresses several
Anna Wierzbicka is a Polish linguist with many articles published along her career. She is working at the Australian National University in Canberra where she spent much time writing over 20 books famous in his field , her work containing studies about semantics, pragmatics and cross-cultural linguistics. Her article Bilingual lives,Bilingual experience is a preface of the book Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development . In this article the author addresses several topics about bilingual life based on research done by other people but she also provides examples from her personal life .