The Language In Hunger Of Memory By Richard Rodriguez

A Rhetorical Analysis of Gloria Anzaldua’s, “How to Tame A Wild Tongue.” The latin american and mexican diaspora have continuously been at odds as to which dialect of spanish tends to be the most proper or rightfully utilized, in being examined by each other as while as the anglo society. Well the multi-ethnic diaspora that resides within Gloria Anzaldua’s (the writer) home, the Borderlands, tends to exude the conceptualization of multiple dialects of spanish speech into one.

In the online article by Max J. Castro, Ph. D, The Future of Spanish in the United States, the author effectively uses his credibility to link facts and history of other languages to Spanish along with appealing to the reader’s emotions to explain why the longevity of the Spanish language is possibly threatened in the United States. In his article, Castro refers to a plethora of statistical information about Spanish as a language in the United States, including that it is predicted to be the largest Spanish speaking country in the world by 2050. Even today Spanish is by far the second most spoken language in America, second only to English. Although the amount of Spanish speakers is increasing, Castro also mentions in his article, largely concerned,

These quotes show his experience transitioning into a bilingual speaker between Spanish and English in the US. Rodriguez remarks, "I easily noted the difference between classroom language and the language of home" (Rodriguez 21). In this example, Rodriguez was able to tell the difference between English, his "classroom language", and Spanish, his "language of home". It is important because, as a person of bilingualism, it is a difficult struggle to separate two languages at school, and most times it can mess with a person's perspective on their identity. But this quote shows his experience slowly transitioning into a bilingual speaker as well as it becoming a part of his identity.

Apart from Espada or Rodriguez, I believe language is artistic, it’s lovely it’s engaging, and it’s a part of all of our lives. So stop trying to take that away for personal

Language, for many, is a way for someone to express their culture, not just to say words or communicate with one another, and why many, including Espada, fight for the right to speak

Only speaking SPanish made him a “disadvantaged child.” He expanded from that to become one of the public. He then goes on to say that his conversations accelerated, sounds formed sentences, and hello what’s your name, turned into new friends. Rodriguez uses the term “disadvantaged child” once more in the essay. This time he uses it to claim that Spanish is a private language and English is a public one and that people have an obligation to speak the English in AMerica.

“So many words were still unknown that when the butcher and the lady at the drugstore said something to me, exotic polysyllabic sounds would bloom in the midst of their sentences. Often, the speech of people in public seemed to be very loud, booming with confidence. The man behind the counter would literally ask, ‘What can I do for you?’ But by being firm and so clear, the sound of his voice said that he was a gringo; he belonged in the public society”(12). Rodriguez describes the way English sounds to him creating an image that the language was very complex to in his perspective.

According to Bucholtz and Hall, the tactic of adequation frequently forms the foundation of identity, which then tends to be impacted and transformed through a multitude of social variables in the pursuit of achieving group uniformity (Rodriguez, 1982, 383). Rodriguez illustrates the presence of this tactic as the autobiography details his change from a child of Mexican immigrants who struggled to speak English to an assimilated student with a proficiency in the language. Such an accomplishment is a source of particular pride for Rodriguez, who writes, "Proudly I announced...that a teacher had said I was losing all trace of a Spanish accent" (Rodriguez, 1982, 46). Rodriguez’s expression of joy at the loss of his accent highlights his successful adoption of new linguistic attributes that provide him with the ability to blend in seamlessly in the society of his peers. This enables him to assert a public identity that endows him with the means to express himself outside of his household, which ultimately establishes his complete identity.

Like how I repeated myself in the beginning, she gets words that she does and does not use and show how common it is for some and not others. The way Spanish affects her life is that others will look at her different. Anzaldua states, “in childhood we are told that our language is wrong” (39). She has a point for stating what she said. In every Spanish speaking country everyone will look at each other and say that they are speaking the wrong one, but they are all wrong.

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.

He shows this through his many experiences with bilingual court and education. At the end of his essay, Espada concludes with a basic summary of what he has learned. Espada claims “The repression of Spanish is part of a larger attempt to silence Latinos, and, like the crazy uncle at the family dinner table yelling about independence or socialism, we must refuse to be silenced.” Through the summary the reader understands despite English being the prevalent language the in the U.S. today the Spanish culture is still being preserved through bilingualism. On the other hand Rodriguez argues that in order to gain a public identity, one must be willing to sacrifice some part of their own cultural identity.

On the other hand, in Richard Rodriguez “ Public and Private Language”, he talks about how people who are out in public they tend to speak in English and when they are at home they will speak in a language that makes them more comfortable. Both authors struggle in English but in different ways. Tan’s mother has hard time speaking English since it was not her first language.

Reading an essay must have two sets of eyes, one from a reader and another from a writer. I as a reader, found Rodriguez’s essay rude and relatable; his way for describing what happened to him shared a type of equality with me in a different perspective. On the other hand, reading his writing as a writer I can fully appreciate his way to weave ideas and enjoy vivid descriptions about his life. Rodriguez’s Essay embodies different writing techniques, such as voice and tone. His voice is direct and focus, he describes his life as plain as possible and describes each event so that the reader can follow him through his life.

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.

“By 2050, the united states will be home to the most spanish speakers in the world, even so there are many latinx who are either not fluent or don't speak spanish at all,” then follows with a statistic, “The grandchildren of immigrants are likely to speak only english by the third generation only 17% of hispanics speak spanish fluently and by the fourth generation it drops to 5%. She begins with logos, second hand quantitative evidence ensuring she captures the reader's attention in relation to her main argument. She then transitions to pathos, the appeal to emotion including an examples of a Puerto Rican woman named Andria Morales who says “not speaking spanish has made me ineligible for opportunities,” which creates judgment against her leading to insecurity when trying to incorporate the Spanish language. Of course using the appeal to ethos is also an effective strategy to prove your point. Background information is given about Tracy Lopez to establish a relationship between her readers and reliability, Lopez appeared in various publications in cuding Ser padres magazine cafe magazine andplaza familia.