Marjorie Agosin is a professor of Spanish at Wellesley College as well as an essayist, poet, and human rights activist. In the essay “Always Living in Spanish,” translated by Celeste Kostopulos-Cooperman, and the poem “English,” translated by Monic Bruno, Agosin
Reading: Min-Zhan Lu’s “From Silence to Words”
“My mother withdrew into silence two months before she died. A few nights before she fell silent, she told me she regretted the way she had raised me and my sisters. I knew she was referring to the way he
Reading: Nancy Sommers’ “I Stand Here Writing”
While “I Stand Here Writing,” might not immediately jump out as a translingual text—the entire article is written in Standard Edited American English—Nancy Sommers fluidly moves between different registers and discourse communities. At times, she writes very personally and informally,
Reading: Maxine Hong Kingston’s Woman Warrior
Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is a modern classic and one of the most frequently taught memoirs. And for good reason. Kingston recounts memories from her early childhood as a first generation, Chinese American
Reading: June Jordan’s “Nobody Mean More to Me”
In “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan,” poet, essayist, and activist June Jordan, argues for the legitimacy of Black English, now often referred to as African American Vernacular English, by intertwining two
Reading: Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”
“So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity—I am my language.” —Gloria Anzaldua, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”
Reading: Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”
In this literacy narrative, Amy Tan explores her language and identity by reflecting on her mother’s language use. Tan writes that, “Lately, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described