Blog #1 Team Unicorn-Brandy

I want to begin with Jill Bolte Taylor and the experience she encountered after having a stroke. Though it may have been an extremely traumatic time in her life she describes it almost blissfully as if she enjoyed the silence that was the effects of the stroke. The picture she paints is a kind of “lala” land, which if it were my own experience, would seem incredible. I could imagine it as feeling innocent again, like a young child, not knowing what is right and wrong. The story about Ildefonso, however, is very much the opposite of Jill Bolte Taylor and in a way makes her sound somewhat unappreciative of what she has had the majority of her life. It’s amazing that after not having language half his life, Ildefonso could no longer contemplate or imagine not having it. I don’t believe it was necessary for him per say based on the idea there are other ways to communicate without language. Having language is just a matter of association, like putting a name with a face. His ability to think did not depend on his adaption to our language, because from what she described about his friends they had already adapted their own way to communicate with each other which tells me that they could indeed think for themselves. I don’t think learning our language was necessarily a good thing nor a bad thing, it only opened eyes to a more in depth way of communicating and approaching life.

I feel like I can relate to Anzaldua in the sense that I too consider myself a mixture of different cultures. I have constantly moved from region to region since I was a young child and gained various traits that have become part of who I am from the different places I’ve lived. I actually consider myself somewhat of a chameleon because of my ability to relate to different people in different social groups. As I’ve gotten older I have become very well rounded and able to incorporate all the different sides of me no matter who I am around. As far as Anzaldua’s claim that denying a group their language is a violation of their rights, I completely agree. The first amendment was put into place for a reason and not only that but no one should be denied the right to be different. Some children make up secret languages amongst there friends that make no sense at all but are deemed “silly” and “child-like” but they are not shunned for them. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it is an act of violence but it is extremely unjust and unfair.