The Power of Language: Using Language to Reclaim and Reform Identity
In her essay “Spanish Lessons,” Christine Marin describes her struggle with two language identities and how finding her voice in both Spanish and English allowed her to discover the power of language. Similarly in “Coming Into Language,” Jimmy Santiago Baca discusses how, in spite of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, language became a powerful outlet through which his life was changed. Both essays describe situations in which language and education were used as tools to empower the authors to reclaim their respective identities. I identify with the authors’ struggle to turn language and education from sources of humiliation to platforms of empowerment.
Marin describes to …show more content…
“There was nothing so humiliating as being unable to express myself, and my inarticulateness increased my sense of jeopardy… I felt intimidated and vulnerable, ridiculous and scorned” (Baca 153). Baca’s lack of communication skills became a constant source of shame and, later, landed him in the prison system after being unable to explain a situation to police officers. In prison, Baca began to study language as a form of protest against the inhumane treatment inmates faced at the hands of the guards. After years of illiteracy, language provided a sense of freedom and became an optimistic source of hope in spite of his situation. “When at last I wrote my first words on the page, I felt an island rising beneath my feet…As more and more words emerged, I could finally rest: I had a place to stand for the first time” (Baca 154). Through writing, he found a platform from which he could express himself and it sparked his transformation from anger to …show more content…
Like Baca’s depiction of the challenges he faced in elementary school, teachers who opted to punish my lack of understanding rather than inform me on how to improve also discouraged me away from education. I did not think that I would graduate from high school, and at the time I did not really care either way. Thankfully, my mother was patient with my learning and worked with me everyday to improve my writing and math skills. Writing allowed Baca to regain his “clarity of mind” even during his time in prison, which speaks to the power of writing as a form of mental escape (Baca 156). While my connection with writing is not as strong as the one Baca depicted, I have found education to be a source of hope for my future. My “aha moment” came when I was accepted into a university during my senior year of high school. The opportunity to pursue my education became an island beneath my feet, like the one described by Baca, and for the first time I became excited about the prospect of