What is Identity?  According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, identity is said to be the fact of being who or what a person or thing is, and everybody has at least one way of identifying themselves.  In the passage How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua, Gloria talks about how her language plays as a big part of who she is, and if someone is to strip that away from her it would relate to someone taking her identity from her.  Being who you are to me is crucial because your identity is important, it’s what defines you as a person, and it is what separates you from one another.

There are many different things which can make one’s identity.  There are all different types of identities most of which are created by your traits for example, your character, language, culture, heritage, beliefs.  These are all prime examples of what in fact makes you, you.  It can go as far as your physical features, your hair color, eye color,  and no matter which traits you possess someone will always be judging you.  Just by the way you look people make assumptions which in their mind they already have a perception on the type of person they think you are, which for most, is wrongfully perceived as a wrong impression.  No matter the circumstances always be the person you are, never change your identity for any one person because in the end you are all you’ve got.

In today’s world people have become less and less prejudice over the years, although wherever you go you’ll seem to find at least one weed in the grass.  From the passage How to Tame a Wild Tongue,  “If you want to be American, speak American.  If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong” (Anzaldua 2947).  Gloria Anzaldua tells us about her experience in the States and shows us this example of someone threatening the use of her native language, she expresses how language is an immense part of people's identities. They are able to convey messages also provide feelings through use of their words.  Not only were they threatening Anzaldua's language, but her identity as she explains how her language relates to an enormous part of who she is.

That is to say without language identity would be non-existent.  There are no other ways to reach out and communicate or get your voice out in the world other than the tongue which you speak.  In the writing, If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is, James Baldwin states, “Language is the most vivid and crucial key to identity; it reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces on from, the larger, public, or communal identity” (Baldwin 201). Along with Anzaldua, Baldwin agrees that identity is very important and that language is one of the greatest key factors.

In conclusion, language differentiates people from each other, it gives everyone their own unique way of voice.  It becomes different from one another by showing where someone came from, and showing their culture from which they originate.  It also shows people how they are feeling at a certain moment in time and what it is they want to express to others.

 Identity is what makes people different, it is what makes an individual, which language later on helps reveal.  I cannot stress enough on how truly important identity is to ones being.  Without identity we are nothing.