From the context of the reading, I think what Gloria Anzalidia meant by Chicano Spanish being a border tongue, was that the language is stuck between Mexican and regional Chicano cultures bringing it together to form the dialect of Chicano Spanish. The way the author describes Chicano Spanish as a border tongue reminds of my own language of Haitian Creole. A language that we’ve fought to have people recognize as an authentic language, is often a hard battle since our language is a mix between French and West African languages. Our identity could never settle at either place so we must come to the middle.
The fact that Anzalidia uses the term of linguistic terrorism to describe the fact that her Chicano Spanish challenges “Standard” Spanish was interesting to me. I interpreted this term as a way her own language threatens the social stratification language of Spanish, as if it’s a way to separate themselves; when it’s really a product of a bigger issue of having to acculturate to American society.
This reading reminded me of discussions I had in my past linguistics class about how there is a sort of class system when it comes to language, especially dialects of a main language. When you speak a dialect or creole of a language, people then start to question your authenticity to your ethnic background. This is a similar idea that the author is presenting on page 58, when she talks about Latina’s and Chicana’s will compete to prove to each other that they are more real than each other. Although they might share the same ethnic background, due to linguistic stratification only one parties language is deemed acceptable.
