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The Concepts Of U. S- Mexican Border Essay

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The concepts of U.S- Mexican border, and boarders in general, is the main focus of author Gloria Anzalúda in her publication “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.” In some ways, this book is an autobiography that is written in a stream of consciousness with intertextual poems, songs, and stories. By using such techniques, Anzalúda is able to stress different aspects of living in a ‘borderland’ and also how the role expected of women is extensive and interconnected with the Catholic Church and Mexican cultural norms. In “Signs Preceding the End of the World,” a novel by Yuri Herrera, the main character, a young girl by the name of Makina, who defies the many of the general accepted behaviors for women in Mexico. The entire story revolves around her journey across the United States and Mexican border to find her brother who had gone over many years ago. In her quest she encounters gangsters, smugglers, and law enforcement, all the while leaving behind her life in Mexico. In this paper, I will explain how Makina, as a young woman from Mexico, engages with and contests the gender expectations demonstrated in Anzalúda’s text through the relationships with her boyfriend(s), entering into the places of the gangs, and her behavior towards the people she encounters along her journey.
While most of “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.” confronts the overall cultural, societal, and beliefs of this living in the borderlands, the author demonstrates the roles of women by

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