Borderlands La Frontera Summary

In the end though, Gloria Anzaldua states that the struggle in the inner self needs to be healed before any problems within our races and between other cultures can be solved. [Though Gloria Anzaldua’s biased statements may cause many to feel offended, she provides a viable resolution to solve the fight between different races and cultures, which is an effect of ignorance and holding up borders to feel safe. She also provides a feasible resolution to individuals’ unawareness, which ultimately begins by looking at the inner psyche.]

I find it interesting that while Rodriguez and Anzaldua came from comparable backgrounds they feel very differently about similar issues. Rodriguez believes that education should not be bilingual for children who come from Spanish speaking homes. Anzaldua on the other hand thinks that people should not be squashing the culture of these people, and should do what they can to help them preserve it. I think that in that sense one could compare Anzaldua and Rodriguez to the idea of American culture, as each are one extreme of how we view it. On the one hand we have Anzaldua, the idea that America is a melting pot, combining all of the different cultures of the different people living here to come up

Throughout this essay, Anzaldua hold a prideful yet informative tone. When she tells her stories from her childhood, the tone changes to disbelief as she remembers all hardships she had to go through. Anzaldua gives another example of when her teachers mispronounced her name and as she tried to correct them they told her “If she wants

In attempting to reach a higher position in the social hierarchy, nepatleras can become complicit in each others oppression. In order to reach one’s goal, even someone who sees themselves as oppressed has the potential to oppress others that they see as “others.” This definition of other is constantly changing. For instance, two Latinas may think of themselves as “us” when they’re considering race, but become “otras” if one of them is queer. Unlike the old mestiza, which was based on a hierarchy determined by racial purity, Anzaldua suggests that mestiza consciousness can lead to the creation of a New Mestiza, which instead aims to dismantle this hierarchy. The impulse to hurt another individual comes from one’s shadow self, which draws boundaries around race, nationality, gender, and other categories. According to Anzaldua, these fences can offer protection to a group by isolating them from other possibly conflicting groups, but this isolation also takes away the opportunity to look into the lives of these other groups, and gain conocimiento, or knowledge, and empathize with their struggles. Anzaldua states that often, this perceived otherness that we build fences around can be deceptive, and by separating ourselves, we make ourselves weaker by having fewer connections within our ecosystem. In order to become nosotras, which in Anzaldua’s mind

Although I can’t specifically relate to Gloria Anzaldúa’s struggle between her languages in “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” I can relate to her “kind of dual identity” in which she identifies with neither Anglo-American cultural values nor Mexican cultural values (1566). Being half white, half Chinese, I struggle identifying as either identity, especially because my mom (who is Chinese) never learned Cantonese and largely became Americanized in her childhood. It’s an uncomfortable position to be in when racial and ethnic identity are so significant in America and when I must interact with the world as part of both the majority and the marginalized. Considering my own struggle and the conflict Anzaldúa describes, it became clearer to me the way race relations in American not only marginalize people of color but train our consciousnesses to damage ourselves. Before I turn back to Anzaldúa, a novel I’ve recently read, William Godwin’s Caleb Williams has also been on my mind, particularly in Godwin’s portrayal of how police surveillance transforms us into agents of our own oppression. Although Caleb is a white man, he also experiences a split consciousness as his values and characteristics are whittled away by the paranoia of constant surveillance.

Who I am? A question everyone at some point will ask themselves. I personally had asked that question many times and especially now that I'm getting my U.S residency and later my citizenship. I trying to answer if I'm Peruvian or American. The Borderlands/ La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldua had show me to identify myself. This book isn’t all a happy story as is life. She shares her experience in this world were where her heritage and her blood is the cause of an oppression in her society. There are invisible borders were to exist between cultural groups, where people who have multiple identities has to break through those invisible borders and regain culture that has been lost.

The main argument that both Anzaldua and Baldwin makes are very similar, and in these aspects, both are as equally strong. Both authors have experienced cultural and language discrimination throughout their lives, and wish to make a change. Anzaldua argues that Chicano English should not be considered an inferior language, while Baldwin claims that Black English should not be considered an inferior form of English. Anzaldua and Baldwin address the oppressors of their language and condemns them for marginalizing Chicano English and Black English, respectively. They also empower those who can relate to their situation, and encourage them to step up to be equal to that of speakers of other languages. While the main message and purpose of each author is clear, their delivery differs vastly.

modules gives many examples how strong cultural pasts lead to identity problems in a new society. Also, the module shows us that many Mexicans were not happy with the stereotype formed about their identity. In Between the Lines, we see how Mexicans in America suffer through harsh discrimination, while trying to stay close to their relatives and culture. The letters talk about how Whites did not have concerns with family values or cultural beliefs. Whites based many of their values off succeeding in the economy. Whites in general had no regard for Mexicans as people.

She discusses how Mexicans identify themselves; since there are many different ways to identify culture, they make up several different cultures (Indian, Black, and Mexican). By the end she talks about the fight that Mexicans put up to stand up for their culture and their identity.

As a result, Anzaldua illustrates her hardship to the attention of an English speaker as an audience. Throughout the reading, she consistently switches from English to Spanish in many paragraphs forcing a non-Spanish speaker, such as myself, to look up translations an order to make sense of the story. An example of this would be when her mother expresses her disappointment saying, “I want you to speak English. PA hallar buen trabajo hablas ingles con un accent” (206). By forcing this task on the audience, this allows a sense of empathy and understanding of author’s struggles of what she had to go through growing up. She had spoken English but is still sadly looked upon from her mother due to having Spanish “accent”, that with this accent putting her through school is pointless.

The Unit explains the hardships many Mexican and Mexican Americans have carried and continue to carry till this day due to their ethnicity and roots. The inequality and struggles rooted from the invasion of Texas and the wrongful “won” over Mexican territory by the Euro-centric American who then expanded their border down south unjustly colonizing the Northwest of Mexico. Along with land many Mexicans who resided in this land were now living in among a strange new government and environment that was once their land. This began the expectation of having Mexican-Americans being able to assimilate into the Euro-Centric culture. These assimilations they were presume to make caused for many to lose touch of their own culture. Mexican-Americans continued to be oppressed even when serving their own country. Many young Mexican-Americans turned to joining the military due to financial hardships, like many due this day. Although these young men were risking their life they were still wrongfully treated and racially discriminated while in service. Having men risking their life for a country and still be discriminated because of their ethnicity shows how progressed the hatred for Mexicans was developed. The recognition and triumph of many Mexican-American soldiers went unacknowledged due to their ethnicity. Mexican-Americans were also labeled as criminals and murders due to media and their portrayal of Mexicans. Also, the meaning of being called a “Chicano/a” is also included and

First of all, the setting of this novel contributes to the Rivera family’s overall perception of what it means to be an American. To start this off, the author chooses a small American city where groups of Latino immigrants with their own language and traditions, lived together in the same apartment building. All these immigrants experienced similar problems since they moved from their countries. For example, in the novel after every other chapter the author

What I'm going to talk about is four major themes from the book, Borderlands La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa. The four major themes I chose to talk about are first, how you shouldn’t be ashamed of yourself, then how Anzaldúa shows deviant behavior throughout the book, also, how she found herself through poetry, and lastly, America’s melting pot.

Anzaldua takes great pride in her language, “So if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic diversity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language” (p89). She states that her language is a part of herself so when you insult Chicano it’s like a strike to the heart of Anzaldua. Anzaldua goes on to explains that although Chicanos all over the US speak different dialects of Chicano Spanish, they are still all Chicanos. Just because the language varies a little does not diminish its authenticity. People who speak a variation on a language should not be ashamed because they speak a little differently. “There is the quiet of the Indian about us. We know how to survive. When other races have given up their tongue we’ve kept ours. We know what it is to live under the hammer blow of the dominant norteamericano culture. but more we count the blows, we count the days the weeks the years the centuries the aeons until the white laws and commerce and customs will rot in the deserts they’ve created” (p93). She strongly urges Los Chicanos to not give up their culture and endure. She believes that the will of their culture will outlast any obstacle they encounter and demands that they not give in to the temptation to conform.

One must learn to adjust themselves to the dominant culture while having their own cultural values, Anzaldua called it “plural personality”. Mestiza for her is possibility of thinking at border length. Rejection of binary thinking of border and it system of diffraction. All cultural identity is built in the story that is being told which passed down culture, identity and traditions. This encourages tolerance of ambiguity. There’s no Mestiza for her because it’s tainted and forged through power and domination. It’s a combination of inequality, rejection of traditional culture and the acceptance to create a new culture that gives rise to a new consciousness. Anzalua’s “new” identity is very significant to idea to a certain extent, other than defining herself according to society’s definition of what constitutes being Hispanic