Gloria Anzaldúa's Theory About The Mestiza Race

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Gloria Anzaldúa’s theory about the mestiza race asserts that the acknowledgement and understanding of this new race would be the key element to reconcile the relationship between Latino immigrants and U.S. citizens by first reconciling the notion of a multiple identities within the first group.
In her essay “En Rapport, I Opposition” she puts an emphasis on being more solidary to one another than trying to enforce unity among larger groups or communities. She favors maintaining ethnic groups separate and only coming together to interact to one another or fight for a common cause. For about five hundred years people have been looking to achieve unity among the different cultures and ethnicities without positive results. The main reasons are …show more content…

It is common knowledge that each person is one entity which its one identity. However, that notion differs from reality because it can be observed that each person has many personalities and sub-personalities inhabiting all together and what identity this person chooses to displays depends on the person’s position. “You’re not a single entity. You’re a multiple identity” (Keating 111). This multiplicity is further analyzed in her book Borderlands La Frontera The New Mestiza. Anzaldua talks about a new race, a hybrid race which is born from the physical borderlands to the ideological borderlands. The borders are the geographical areas where this hybridity occurs due to “[l]iving between two countries, two social systems, two languages, two cultures” (Anzaldua 7). According to Anzaldua, “living in the borderlands creates a third space between cultures and social systems” (Anzaldua 6). This border is a limited space where there is not just one identity but a duality that is in constant clash with each other; neither one nor the other but in a state of transition. The individuals who are involved in such situation are treated as aliens by both cultures. Nonetheless, Anzaldua does not indulge people to make a choice and give up on important parts of the self. What the author aims is for people to evaluate the aspects of their home culture that have been devaluated by the white culture, while recognizing that there are some home cultural elements that are hurting them instead of protecting them. When facing this crossroad there is only one solution, a new culture, but how to get there is a long process that Anzaldua explain through the images of mythical creatures from her own

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