Response to “Spanglish” Tato Lavier; Gloria Anzaldúa, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Borderlands/LaFrontera

Tato Laviera's "Spanglish" was way more easily understood when read aloud, which I found ironic since Anzaldua's article is about the importance of the tongue. Surely, hearing Laviera's poem read aloud reminded me of the power of the tongue.

Its unrelated, but this emphasis on the tongue reminds me of the emphasis of speech into my traditional religion. Sacred knowledge is transmitted only orally, with no written sacred text. Many indigenous cultures from which Indigenous Latinx people descend also practiced this. My cultural anthropology professor taught us that in cultures where there are shamans (applicable to many Indigenous Latinx cultures) there is very rarely oral texts. Knowledge is transmitted orally through generations. I wonder if this played a role in why the oral transmission of Laviera's work was such a different experience than reading it.

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