In addition to identifying different types of language and speakers, Anzaldúa analyzes the CAUSES of her own linguistic diversity. What are some of them? What specific EFFECTS do they have on her identity, both linguistic and personal?

It is important to define what we mean by "culture" and "identity." After a bit of reading and thought, I came up with this working definition of the first of these concepts:

"Culture. The collective ideas, values, and patterns of behavior of a group of people; culture consists of a set of intertwined subsystems, the generally blurry borders of which do not necessarily coincide; these cultural subsystems are transmitted and learned, and are constantly adapting to the changes in the geographic and social context of the group."

These cultural subsystems include things like economic strategies, social organization, material technologies, music, dance, visual symbolic systems, verbal symbolic systems, etc. Thus language is but one aspect of culture, intertwined with these other aspects.

If you were to construct a three dimensional graphic model for plotting the distribution of cultural subsystems throughout space and time, then place within it data from groups of people living in some concrete geographic and chronological frame, you would probably find that each subsystem has distinct, blurry and overlapping boundaries. In some cases there may be no overlap at all. The complexity of the situation makes it difficult to make a clear association between language and other cultural subsystems, since these do not line up along neat boundaries, like those of political maps, which give us an extremely limited vision of human cultural complexity.

Ethnic identity is a separate but related matter. Language may be an important factor in defining ethnicity, but it is not the only one, nor is it a necessary component. Any cultural subsystem, or combination of these, may come into play. An individual's or a group's ethnicity is flexible and may change in a short span of time, as a response to a changing social and cultural context, and to internal processes of transformation. Nationalism may be thought of as a sort of macroethnicity, usually invented and imposed upon a population by a nation state.

Explanation:

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)

merry christmas to you, too. may god be with you all in doing your work and just living a great life in general! < 3