Culture and Language

Culture and Language

Anzaldua speaks in Spanish throughout the essay presuming that all her readers understand it. Anzaldua starts out with a story about her, and she throws in quotes that she is familiar with that also corroborate with her position. These are from her ethnic background, which shows the reader that she is still holding on to her roots.

However, Eric Liu is different from Anzaldua. He focuses on culture even he doesn’t have enough knowledge of his parent's Chinese culture. He believes that a person cannot gain a new world without losing his soul. But something is gained as well. The result is a new mix of cultures. But I think this depends on cultures. There are people who do change their language but keep traditions as much as possible, such as Jews, Chicanos and so on. There are people who cannot change their language but culture, such as young generation of the third world countries.

Liu's parents did not teach him anything in particular to do, except to be a good boy. I think this is a typical sign for weak cultural background. For Liu every single change in person's life is 'assimilation'. I do not think it is. He cannot understand the word assimilation as much as emigrants can because he grew up in the USA. Without language, you cannot understand that culture. Anzaldua was not allowed even penalized to speak Spanish at school. I do not think this is possible in the 'land of freedom'. It seems some Americans want all people to be the same. No one realizes that America is a mixture of so many different cultures. American society should be proud to have so much diversity in one place, but instead they look down upon it.