The article “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”
The article “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” (1987) by Anzaldua focusses on a moment in a dentist’s office while there is metal comes out from her mouth when the dentist was working on her teeth. It makes she always struggled with identity. For example, she described a moment at school when she was sent into a corner for trying to pronounce her name for the teacher. Additionally, she identified herself as a Chicano. Chicano is a mix of almost everything from the standard Spanish to Southern Texas Spanish. She also mentioned that the best way to determine a Chicano is to talk badly about her language, which in turn would bring damage to her identity.
The rhetorical strategies she uses are the ethos and logos. Ethos is the set of ideas and attitudes that are associated with a particular group or a particular type of activity. Ethos is used when she claims, “If you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language” (Anzaldua, 1987, p.2951). Anzaldua used ethos again to prove that what people value highly, the language, is what she valued sincerely, claiming “I am my language” (Anzaldua, 1987, p. 2951). Logos is the reason or the rational principle expressed in words and things, argument, or justification. Additionally, she used logos by highlighting why Chicano Spanish is different from standard Spanish (Anzaldua, 1987). She determined that by the end of this century Spanish speakers will be the largest minority group in the United States (Anzaldua, 1987). This text works with the audience because it shows the audience what the Chicano Spanish is and wants more people to understand speech.
