Language and identity , English composition 1 Essay

Language and identity , English composition 1 - Essay Example Anzaldua's essay is concerned with naming - but not 'mapping' - the multiplicity of identity formations she occupies simultaneously and contradictorily. She agrees with the (post)structuralist view that language speaks us, and that the languages we speak define our identity, our cultural make-up, our ideologies, and our definition of self. "Language is a homeland", Anzaldua says (1999, p. 895). She asserts that 'ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity - I am my language" (p. 898). But those who occupy 'the border', those who have multiple and conflicting subject positions or identity categories - such as Chicana lesbian - are 'deslanguadas' [without language] according to Anzaldua: "Somos los del espanol deficiente" (p. 897). We are your linguistic nightmare, your linguistic aberration, your linguistic mestizaje, the subject of your burla. Because we speak with tongues of fire we are culturally crucified. Racially, culturally and linguistically somos huerfanos - we speak an orphan tongue (p. 897). Anzaldua's own essay, in English and in Spanish - sometimes translated, sometimes not - embodies her answer to the problem of dominant and subordinated languages and identities. Her concept of 'mita y mita' - half and half (p. 890).