Bilingual Sestina by Julia Alvarez Poem Analysis

Julia Alvarez’s poem, Bilingual Sestina, emphasizes the downfall of a Spanish speaker's bilingualism in relation to the diminishing of their native language by English. Edwards outlines a similar idea in Language and Identity where bilingualism is viewed as valuable for its diversity, but still majorly affects minority languages that are not as recognized. 

A bilingualists native language is important to them and can cause an increase in emotions and desire to protect it. In the poem, Alvarez describes the effects of the use of Spanish on how she feels in line eight, “-the sounds of Spanish wash over me like warm island waters...” which evokes the thought that different languages reflect different attitudes and in some way personalities (Alvarez line 8). For example, in chapter 11 of Language and Identity, Edwards describes a similar idea in which bilinguals can present different personalities depending on the language they are speaking at that moment. One could show differing emotions depending on whether it is their native or second language, indicating each are at certain levels of importance. Also, it is important to note that this focus on native language is not solely based on the language itself, but how it is impactful socially and psychologically (Edwards 11.4). 

The simplicity of only knowing one language is overshadowed by bilingualism because of how versatile it is but learning more can take away from how well one can know one language. Towards the end of Alvarez’s poem, this is highlighted when she writes, “doubling the world with synonyms, no dizzying array of words, --the world was simple and intact in Spanish” (Alvarez lines 32-33). This is vital because as much as Edwards emphasizes being fluent in two languages, code switching and being able to manage both languages is a lot easier said than done. Another difficulty these fluent speakers have is being able to speak two languages and being viewed as less intelligent. For example, Edwards describes the issue Paul Theroux viewing Welsh people as being “handicap” for knowing two languages which shows one in many that are uneducated on the topic of bilingualism (Edwards 11.4). 

Edwards puts more emphasis on the benefits of bilingualism than Alvarez, but they both share the same beliefs that embracing one’s native language is important. Alvarez shows this desire to preserve her native tongue through personal experience and feeling more at home with speaking Spanish, while she never discounts the positive aspects of knowing English simultaneously. It is thoroughly emphasized that being bilingual is more difficult than one may think and shows the true mobility and linguistic agility of those individuals.