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Luis Rojas

ENGW1100

Tuesdays & Fridays (11:20-12:35)

Professor Young

Is identity important & if it is, what is it?

“Deja de introducir palabras en Ingles al Español cuando hablamos entre nosotros” is what my mother told me one afternoon while talking to her. It reminded me of how she used to tell me to stop placing spanish words into English sentences when I spoke and/or wrote. Now, it’s the complete opposite. Identity can be defined in numerous ways, depending on who you are speaking to. Not everyone will give you relatively the same answer because not everyone has gone through the same things. For example, I can very much relate to Gloria Anzaldua because of how she was reprimanded by her mother for speaking English with an accent & her getting told that “what is the point of education if you’re still going to speak English with an accent?”. To my knowledge, what Gloria Anzaldua is trying to get across is that language does define who you are, moreover, it makes you stand out. What brings out my true identity is that whenever I can, I could just start speaking in my natural tongue, spanish, & everyone around me would be so amused because they would always think that English is my first language, so to show who I really am, I can easily just bring that out to people. 

To me, Anzaldua did a very thorough job with explain the concept of her identity in the passage “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. It fully analyzes how difficult it was for her to adapt & show that she could do what she has accomplished. It also helps me understand that I’m not the only one that has gone through the struggle of learning a new “tongue” just so I can attempt at being successful in another country. Gloria also shows her true identity by adding certain Spanish words into her English sentences, that way she never loses her true roots. I remember doing that myself when I speak with Latino friends & to me, it would be amusing because they would actually fully understand what I’d be trying to get across. Identity is very important because it defines a person’s true character & it represents where they come from & how they were brought up. 

When referring to “How important identity is”, many people will give you and endless amount of answers & that too reflects how they were brought up. It really doesn’t matter who you are, I’m more than sure that everyone has a slightly different answer than the last person. To me, identity is more than important because it differentiates you from one another. I believe that throughout or lifetime, we constantly build, destroy & rebuild our true identity, trying to find ourselves in the process. Your identity is what makes you, you. It not only signifies everything you've experienced, but also everything you've learned.