The Travesty of Silence

Anzaldua contends that she will "overcome the tradition of silence"(81) and speak in a language that she wants to speak in--a combination of English and Spanish, rather than how her teachers tell her to speak. This idea of silence, of being stifled by the dominant culture is reminiscent of the Holocaust. Much of the poetry and prose that was written on the subject of the Holocaust puts forth the notion that language is a vital aspect of one's identity. The Jewish people along with many other oppressed persons had their language taken from them during this period. Not only did they have to hide their native tongue for fear of their lives, their horrific experiences morphed their language into an alien language that carried the shadows of the Holocaust. For instance, the meaning of the word chimney transformed into a connotation of a place where a person's loved ones were taken and wastefully murdered. Another point that is continuously articulated in Holocaust writing is the fact that silence is a travesty and it must be broken. The motivation behind this belief is that silence is like the absence of protest--of standing up for one's history and individuality. Moreover, if the events of the Holocaust are not communicated, they will be forgotten. On a similar note, Anzaldua writes, "for a language to remain alive it must be used". That is, if she is silenced by an oppressing culture and cannot use her language, it will fade away, as will part of her identity because she claims that she is her language. Furthermore, she demonstrates rebellion and shows an urgency to speak, communicate, and break the "tradition of silence" in Ch. 5 when she repeats the word "I" in her defiant statements numerous times. I believe that Anzaldua aimed to level her argument for the importance of language  with the problem of silence during and after the Holocaust by inserting a quote by Irena Klepfisz, who is a Holocaust poet who had not choice but to mask her identity during the war. The poem reads, "And our tongues have become/ dry the wilderness has/ dried out our tongues and/ we have forgotten speech"(76). This poem clearly illuminates the connection Anzaldua makes regarding the use of one's language and how one can lose it if s/he does not communicate or express him/herself with it. In linking her own struggle with the struggle of another vast majority that suffered, Anzaldua shows that the stakes are life and death when it comes to the language of the individual and his/her culture.