- Respond to the prompt’s two parts with sufficient effort and clarity
- In Part 1: include at least one quotation from Junot Diaz and one quotation from Gloria Anzaldua
- In Part 1: actually analyze the quotations rather than just summarize the story or essay
- In Part 2: include at least one quotation from Diaz or Anzaldua (you’re welcome to include more quotes and quotes by both writers if you see fit)
- In Part 2: make a clear connection between the text and your own specific life experience
- Write an essay of at least 400 to 500 words in length (you may go longer but there’s no need to over-do it)
- Employ generally sound grammar and coherent essay organization
- Must have atleast one quote from each excerpt
- Excerpt from Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”
There are more subtle ways that we internalize identification, especially in the forms of images and emotions. For me food and certain smells are tied to my identity, to my homeland. Woodsmoke curling up to an immense blue sky; woodsmoke perfuming my grandmother’s clothes, her skjn. The stench of cow manure and the yellow patches on the ground; the crack of a .22 rifle and the reek of cordite. Homemade white cheese sizzling in a pan, melting inside a folded tortilla. My sister Hilda’s hot, spicy menudo, chile colorado making it deep red, pieces of panza and hominy floating on top. My brother Carito barbecuing fajitas in the backyard. Even now and 3,000 miles away, I can see my mother spicing the ground beef, pork, and venison with chile. My mouth salivates at the thought of the hot steaming tamales I would be eating if I were home.
Excerpt from “How to date a brown girl (black girl, white girl, or halfie)” by Junot Diaz
Clear the government cheese from the refrigerator. If the girl’s from the Terrace stack the boxes behind the milk. If she’s from the Park or Society Hill hide the cheese in the cabinet above the oven, way up where she’ll never see. Leave yourself a reminder to get it out before morning or your moms will kick your ass. Take down any embarrassing photos of your family in the campo, especially the one with the halfnaked kids dragging a goat on a rope leash. The kids are your cousins and by now they’re old enough to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. Hide the pictures of yourself with an Afro. Make sure the bathroom is presentable. Put the basket with all the crapped-on toilet paper under the sink. Spray the bucket with Lysol, then close the cabinet.
-
PART 1 (200-300 words) – Compare Gloria Anzaldua’s essay and Junot Diaz’s fictional story
In Part 1, you will compare how Gloria Anzaldua and Junior view themselves as illustrated by the details of their cultures shown in the provided quotations. Specifically, we want you to discuss how you see these two writers showing an embrace or a disclosing or hiding of their respective identities?
-
PART 2 (150-250 words) – Make a Connection to either Gloria Anzaldua’s essay or Junot Diaz’s fictional story
For Part 2, choose any moment or passage from either Anzaldua’s essay or Diaz’ short story and draw a meaningful connection from that specific passage to your own life. Specifically, we want you to explore how and why does that particular passage resonate with your life.
