Semiautobiographical Work- Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa

La Linea is a novel about crossing borders. The protagonists literally cross the borders of Guatemala and the US. Crossing the Guatemalan border has no importance, because this border does not carry meaning for them. Only the American border is a symbol of hope, a better future, and reunion with their parents. However, during their strenuous trip through the desert, they do not even notice when they cross the border. “I always thought I’d know exactly the moment I crossed the border. [...] How could I not have felt something?” (96) Miguel is shocked because he confused the physical border with the symbolic border. The novel ends before the reader could see how Miguel and Elena deal with the cultural border they crossed. We only know that they came to the US without knowing anything about the culture. Elena returns to Mexico, probably because she was not happy in her new environment. The siblings also

During the 1960’s, the Civil Rights Movement wasn’t the only one occurring. Struggling to assimilate into American culture, and suppressed by social injustices convicted by their Anglo counterparts, the Chicano movement was born. In the epic poem “I am Joaquin” written by Rodolfo Gonzales in 1969, we dive into what it means to be a Chicano. Through this poem, we see the struggles of the Chicano people portrayed by the narrator, in an attempt to grasp the American’s attention during the time of these movements. Hoping to shed light on the issues and struggles the Chicano population faced, Gonzales writes this epic in an attempt to strengthen the movement taking place, and to give Chicanos a sense of belonging and solidarity in this now

Gloria Anzaldúa was a Texas-born, lesbian, Latina, feminist, that wrote about many of her personal experiences and views of the diverse background she grew up in. Growing up a certain culture at home and being in a country with a different culture, brings along a lot of self-identifying issues. Gloria Anzaldúa uses various strategies and languages to write this powerful piece by code-switching, quoting others, diction, and rhetorical questions. Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” speaks about the social issues that Latinos face involving identity, language, and sexism.

Caminero-Santangelo, Marta. 2007. On Latinidad: U.S. Latino Literature and the Construction of Ethnicity. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.

Prior to colonialism, there was no race. Colonialism was a racialized, gendered and sexualized classification of people based on race. Gender was socially constructed. This dichotomy of people was made up of the light side, the liminal side and the dark side. The light side consisted of white men, white bourgeois, colonials and white women. The light side was considered dichotomously binary where heterosexuality was institutionalized. This dichotomy was not complementary. Men were portrayed with reason, public and mind and woman as emotion, private, non promiscuous, passive, pure and weak in mind and body. The liminal/in between side included servants, prostitutes and criminals. Those in the dark side were seen as animals that did

However, Pitti’s examines the Chicano civil rights movement, seeking its strengths and weaknesses, to is an important step in the developing historiography of the broader civil rights movement, seeking to place it in a historical aspect and broadening the field of vision beyond the more radical, attention-seizing groups while accepting their donations to the maneuver for justice within the Mexican-American communities. Which this can be tied to the concept of cultural citizenship (refers to the right to be different and to belong in a participatory democratic sense. Over time, the word has been used in relation to the Mexican-American struggle and how they have been depraved of their original culture and have instead tried to “Americanize”

Edited by several scholars such as Gabriella F. Arredondo, Aída Hurtado, Norma Klahn, Olga Nájera-Ramírez, and Patricia Zanella, this book in particular highlights the development of Chicana identities in the twentieth century by showing “how Chicana feminist writings move discourse beyond binaries and toward intersectionality and hybridity” (Arredondo e.al. 2). What is interesting is how the feminist scholars in this book used different epistemologies and methods in capturing the experiences of the Chicanas which include oral histories, poetry, theatrical performance, painting, dance, music and social science survey. Some of the contributors also combine “analytical tools and cross disciplinary boundaries” (5). The approaches used are very unique as they enables to unravel the Chicana experiences thoroughly and disrupt “the notion of Chicana identity as monolithic and homogeneous” (6). Also, the format of the book which presents articles and then the responses by another activist or scholars offers a very distinct way of presenting critical and provocative analysis. Such format allows the editors to “reaffirm the tensions and creativity of individual and group consciousness that underlie Chicana feminism and scholarship” (Salas 122). From this edited volume, I choose three articles along with their responses. Those articles are Cartohistografía: Continente de una voz/Cartohistography: One Voice’s Continent by Elba Rosario Sánchez (response: Translating Herstory: A Reading

Anzaldúa recounts her experience growing up in a community where her Chicana culture wasn’t widely accepted. She would be punished for speaking the language her culture influenced to create a language, which corresponds to a way of life. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” the variety of languages helps her compare, contrast and define her argument of the distinguished languages concerning her Chicana identity.

We live in a society where for decades we have been socialized to believe that there are only two genders: male and female. The idea of gender is socially constructed. Society and culture create gender roles and through those roles we all learn to enact our specific roles. With this in mind, this essay will seek to examine how gender shapes the structural and lived experiences of Chicanxs and Latinxs in the U.S. This essay will draw from Abrego, Acosta, Ocampo, and the documentary “No mas bebés” to see how gender affects an individual’s experiences in the U.S.

With this came a patriarchal movement with the anthem “Yo soy Chicano” and an ideology of “Chicano = Machismo”. Women within the Chicano movement were afforded one of three roles: mothers, nuns or whores. They were not allowed self determination. This stemmed from the idea that men were the ones that were rising against oppression, when in fact women “broke their shackles and stabbed the spirit of injustice when confronted in the fields by a shotgun, when bloodied on the streets”, when constructed under the violence of “Anglo/chauvinism or Chicano machismo.” The transition from Chicano to Chicana was in protest of previous marginalization and a step towards representation and manifestation. (I Throw Punches, Chabram,

Gloria Anzaldúa writes of a Utopic frame of mind, the borderlands created in and lived in by the new mestiza. She describes the preexisting natures of the Anglos, Mexicanos, and Chicanos as seen around the southwest U.S. / Mexican border, indicative of the nations at large. She also probes the borders of language, sexuality, psychology and spirituality. Anzaldúa presents this information in various identifiable ways including the autobiography, historical/informative essay, and poetry. What is unique to Anzaldúa is her ability to weave a ‘perfect’ kind of compromised state of mind that melds together the preexisting cultures while simultaneously formulating a fusion of genres that stretches previously

Gloria Anzaldua is among the many feminist theorists that has moved into the realm of addressing post-modern identities. In Gloria Anzaldua’s articulation of the new mestiza consciousness, she makes the argument of identities as multiple, hybrid, and more specifically created as a result of the Borderlands. However, according to Anzaldua, and despite the difficulties engendered by her very existence, the mestiza is also a figure of enormous potential, as her multiplicity allows a new kind of consciousness to emerge. This mestiza consciousness moves beyond the binary relationships and dichotomies that characterize traditional modes of thought, and seeks to build bridges between all minority communities to achieve social and political change.

In the short story “Borderlands”, Anzaldua uses a technique which crafts a metaphorical meaning for the reader. Anzaldua uses a metaphor in order to express the words, put chili into the borscht, having a metaphorical meaning of the chili in the borscht because of it explaining a mexican and russian cultures combing together. It also is a reference to acculturation because it suggests the mix of two cultural traditional foods. “Chili in the borscht” (1). The line chili in the borscht is a reference to assamlination because it’s combining the mexican and russian culture; which is a reference leading to a terminal conflict. Anzaldua creates a conflict between the different races by suggesting betrayal in the quote. “To live in the borderlands

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.

One of the most influential parts of Gloria Anzaldúa’s work is her concept of a mestiza consciousness and how it can be utilized to help us better understand and even accept the multiculturalism within our ethnic identity. Being a Mexican American or Chicana can be a complicated experience because of how the two worlds are divided in more ways than one. Not only is it challenging to find a sense of belonging when you’re divided by a physical and theoretical border, but it also takes a toll on the psyche to consistently adjust oneself in order to fit the scene. However, the mestiza consciousness is an inclusive and universal mindset that enables Chicanas to embrace all aspects of their identity, without having to sacrifice part of themselves in order to fit a concrete definition. Coinciding with Chicana feminism, the mestiza consciousness empowers women and enables them to celebrate their culture and