English 1100
September 1, 2015
Prof. Young
Who I am
Every
person in the world is not exactly the same as the next, each individual is
different. Yes some people may look the same, but who they truly are is not.
One’s identity is made up of numerous qualities that no other person can exactly
have like culture, religion, language, race, and gender. Identity is the
uniqueness and perception of how one sees himself/herself. To put simply
identity is you, it is who you are. Just like Gloria Anzaldua’s view of
identity, I too believe it is very important. In life people always try to fit
in and find people they can be comfortable around, and when someone is from two
different backgrounds, or in Anzaldua’s case Hispanic but lives in America, it
becomes difficult to find that feeling of belonging. Sometimes to find that
feeling people will branch out of the standard normal living and create
something new. For example when Azaldua states, "For a people who cannot
entirely identify with neither standard Spanish nor Standard English, what
recourse is left to them but to create their own language? A language whivh
they can connect their identity to, one capable of communicating the realities
and values true to themselves."
When
you hear people say to others that they are a mutt, it means they are made up
of a lot of ethnicities, and that’s one thing many people call me. Being Czech,
Irish, Welsh, Ukraine and Native American, it is somewhat hard to fit in
because I am so many things. However if I wasn’t one of them I wouldn’t be who
I am now. My ethnicities shaped who I am now, I take so much pride in learning
my languages and my history. Anzaldua’s essay expresses this when she says,”So,
if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my
language. Ethnic identity is twin to linguistic identity- I am my
language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself.”
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