The Example of Autoethnography in 'How to Tame a Wild Tongue'
“How to Tame a Wild Tongue” summary: an Example of an Autoethnographic. Gloria Anzaldua grew up in the borderlands of Texas in Mexico. She talks a lot about social and cultural injustice that many Mexicans face during this time since there was a lot of turmoil caused by the Chicano Movement.
One of her main focuses on the Chicano Movement was the language and how people who want to speak their own kind of mixed language speak it regardless of the unique situation such as the people in borderlands who don’t really see themselves as Americans or Mexicans. The language is getting forgotten since living between Mexico and American seems to be a place of confusion because they are not quite sure which side they belong to. She wants to clarify that just because they are unique in their own situation, their language is not different than ours. She wishes to be able to speak their own language without any criticism from the public and she has a quote which is “who is to say that robbing a people of their language is less violent than war” (Anzaldua). She is trying to get people to recognize that it is their Chicano language and the Mexican-American language can be whatever their unique situation allows it to be. We should not judge anyone based on their language just because we speak a different language and their language is weird to us. Gloria also talks about how immigrants who come to the United States seem to be expected to embrace a new culture to feel accepted in the American society and that is a big misunderstanding since just because someone is from Mexico and they come to America, it does not mean they have to put all their Mexican culture beside them and simply follow the American culture. Some enjoy part of their Mexican culture and some others mix both cultures.
Autoethnography is a form of self-reflection and writing that explores the researcher’s personal experience and connects his/her autobiography to a wider cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings.
Pratt discusses three main situations that she connects the concepts of the contact zone: the first concept is the story about his son Sam growing up with his fascination with baseball. Pratt explains her son’s obsession with baseball cards as a sort of contact zone since baseball was his point of contact with adults. Baseball history was his expertise enabling him to start conversations and hold his own as an equal rather than an inferior with adults. On the other hand, liberate arts make up a big portion of a contact zone. For example, the concept of imaginary dialogue can be applied within Sam’s situation. Pratt describes imaginary dialogue or communities as the language being viewed as a universal tool that is used throughout the community and also how teachers were simply giving him basic concepts with no reference or context.
The second situation is the argument over Guaman Poma's letter. It is a letter sent to communicate points to break down the walls between two battling cultures which was never received or led by the intended audience. By including the story about Poma’s letter to the king, Pratt gives historical evidence or context of a contact zone. This validates her information and ideas and gives it the credibility of something proven over time. Something that her other stories do not provide.
To conclude, the concept of unread message also fits within Poma’s contact zone as the letter itself is an unread masterpiece. It contains ideologies and concepts that we are not analyzed or read thoroughly, which means his concepts were never understood completely and this was partly because the letter was never received but also because when it was found, it was too late to do anything about it.
