Many Voices

Many Voices

Many Voices
In Susan G. Madera’s literacy narrative, “One Voice”, the author refers to bilingualism as a curse rather than a blessing due to the experiences she had speaking her neighborhood language; a language full of slang words and colloquialisms. Throughout Madera’s writing there is a resounding indication regarding how bilingualism affected her, as she emphasizes “Once outside the neighborhood, this language hindered me” (78). Madera lets her situation get the best of her in the sense that she allowed her so called “handicap” dictate her self-worth, sabotaging her educational path. In college, Madera states, “One of my professors decided to make my life miserable” (79). Madera’s Speech 101 professor went as far as to humiliate her in regards to her education and her heritage. In turn, the professors unfamiliarity of towards Madera’s neighborhood language made her feel as if she was inadequate for college. Madera emphasized she “wanted to get away from it as quickly as possible” (78), therefore she dropped out of college. Madera’s response to her bilingualism is only indicative of the fact that she truly sees her situation as a curse.
Although I agree with Madera up to a point, I cannot accept her overall conclusion of bilingualism as a curse. I have been taught to neither see my background as a disadvantage nor be ashamed of it. As an American of Hispanic decent raised in Miami FL, my background defines and enhances a lot of who I am at a psychological, spiritual and even at an intellectual level. More often than not, I have been able to use my bilingualism to my advantage, while in other situations I’ve had to put a slight effort in toggling between languages. Similar to Merda’s community, Miami has helped my transition due to the fact that Miami offers many opportunities for both Spanish and English. With that being said, Medea’s “trauma sicologico” as we say in Spanish (physiological trauma) is in my opinion an exaggeration. Firstly, her concept of a...

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