Identity

The role that language plays in the community and identity are important to me because  language and communication in my culture are my identity. Identity means who a person really is or what’s its personality. I believe if the person is bilingual she or he has two identities because they can relate to two different cultures. To be bilingual is a gift because in the job world there are higher possibilities that the person will be employed. Especially here in California where there is higher population of Hispanics.

In my culture the women are the ones that are more involved in the community because they interact with their children’s school activities and any other event that relates to keeping their children safe, and maintaining the home organized to put everything in good shape. But in order for that to be possible the women must be sociable with other parents and that’s when language becomes the key role. In the same way the women in the Mexican community are the ones that do the communicating with other people and withhold the family as one unit. Language is what holds the individual the same; meaning he or she cannot totally erase their native language they can only customize it so it can fit with societies norms. Gloria Anzaldula in her short story “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” states that language is very important to some ones identity.  I identify with Spanish language and English because I speak both, and to me that is one of my key values. According to Anzaldua “ A language that which they can connect their identity to, one capable of communicating the realities and values true to themselves a language with terms that are neither espanol ni ingles, but both”( Anzaldua 105). The need to communicate gets me closer to my family and culture. Also I tend to make up new words both in Spanish and English in the same time also known as Spanglish. Spanglish is when an English word is added at the end of a Spanish word or the other way around. For example “Donde estan  las keys” or were you left the keys. According to Anzaldua “ We know how to survive when other races have given up their tongue, we’ve kept ours”(Anzaldua 113). My language adapted to keep its survival thru the mix of Mexican and American cultures.

In conclusion in my observations, I observed that language plays a variety of roles in the community and identity. Especially in the Mexican culture were families are united with the use of communication, and how women carry on the duty of exchanging ideas and thoughts to people or members of the family too maintain the peace. Also how the Mexican culture use words to keep its identity intact while living in the US were the Americanized ideas correspond with its society. I am both Mexican and American; thus I’m able to communicate with both languages.