Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera challenges how we think about identity and presents borders as psychological, social and cultural terrains that we both inhabit, and that inhabit us. Her strong sense of history and the telling of her own narrative give Chicanos a human identity independent from the hegemonic white American narrative that posits them as nonhuman and other. She works to give a face to Chicanos and a choice. In her words, she wants to give Chicanas the ability, “To choose whether they want to be completely assimilated, whether they want to be border people, or whether they want to be isolationists” (234). Her work separates the oppression of Chicana women from the narrative of the oppression of all women. She opens a …show more content…
The stylistic and narrative border crossings that Borderlands/La Frontera enacts allows it to help us understand how lives can be shaped and formed by multiple cultures but never fully belong to any of them. Rather than detracting from the work, this inability to fully belong is a dynamic state that allows for free agency through the embodying ambiguity of the borderlands. Each of the genres she chooses enriches the others rather than having the opposite effect. Thus Anzaldua can reach a wider audience by bridging genres and by ultimately bridging cultures. In her own words, “If I had made Borderlands too inaccessible to you by putting in too many Chicano terms, too many Spanish words, or if I had been more fragmented in the text than I am right now, you would have been very frustrated” (232). The accessibility of the writing remains of intense importance in the understanding of her themes. She pushes the rules of genre …show more content…
It places it in time and physicality. The mode of the novel is restrictive therefore her use of variation in storytelling allows for the ability to extract elements from the borders. She says, “This almost finished product seems an assemblage, a montage, a beaded work with several leitmotifs and with a central core, now appearing, now disappearing in a crazy dance” (88). The multi-genre use of prose, poetry, myth, and the continually transitions from Spanish to English, aka code-switching, speaks to the complicated identity of the Chicano people. While the switching of languages demonstrates a cultural split, it asks the reader to confront the same ambiguity that she has been confronting for her entire life. The mixing of Spanish and English, as well as poetry and prose so the reader is forever confronted with genres and narratives which smack up against each other. This creates a sense of intense uncertainty. She writes this way because she wants us to share her experience as an individual living between cultures, and the sense of 'otherness' is one which emerges from the ambiguities that existence
Norma Elia Cantu’s novel “Canícula: Imágenes de una Niñez Fronteriza” (“Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera”), which chronicles of the forthcoming of age of a chicana on the U.S.- Mexico border in the town of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo in the 1940s-60s. Norma Elia Cantú brings together narrative and the images from the family album to tell the story of her family. It blends authentic snapshots with recreated memoirs from 1880 to 1950 in the town between Monterrey, Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas. Narratives present ethnographic information concerning the nationally distributed mass media in the border region. Also they study controversial discourse that challenges the manner in which the border and its populations have been portrayed in the U.S. and Mexico. The canícula in the title symbolizes “The dog days of 1993,” an intense part of summer when the cotton is harvested in South Texas. The canícula also represents summer and fall; also important seasons and concepts of that bridge between child and adulthood. She describes imaginative autobioethnography life growing up on ...
In a story of identity and empowerment, Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem “Borderbus” revolves around two Honduran women grappling with their fate regarding a detention center in the United States after crawling up the spine of Mexico from Honduras. While one grapples with their survival, fixated on the notion that their identities are the ultimate determinant for their future, the other remains fixated on maintaining their humanity by insisting instead of coming from nothingness they are everything. Herrera’s poem consists entirely of the dialogue between the two women, utilizing diction and imagery to emphasize one’s sense of isolation and empowerment in the face of adversity and what it takes to survive in America.
Gloria Anzaldúa was a Chicana, lesbian feminist writer whose work exemplifies both the difficulties and beauty in living as one’s authentic self. She published her most prominent work in 1987, a book titled Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. In Borderlands, she write of her own struggle with coming to terms with her identify as a Chicana, an identity that lies at the border between Mexican and American. For instance, she writes,“we are a synergy of two cultures with various degrees of Mexicanness or Angloness. I have so internalized the borderland conflict that sometimes I feel like one cancel out the other and we are zero” However, even as she details this struggle she asserts pride in her identity, declaring, “I will no longer be
of the native tongue is lost , certain holidays may not be celebrated the same , and American born generations feel that they might have lost their identity , making it hard to fit in either cultures . Was is significant about this book is the fact it’s like telling a story to someone about something that happened when they were kid . Anyone can relate because we all have stories from when we were kids . Alvarez presents this method of writing by making it so that it doesn’t feel like it’s a story about Latin Americans , when
The popular revolutionary poem “I am Joaquin” by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales influenced many Chicana/os to embrace their heritage in the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. The poem created psychological work for the Chicano identity. Moreover, this poem developed and promoted social consciousness, commitment to activism, and cultural pride for many Chicanos. However, Gonzales primarily focuses on the identity and struggles of a Mexican-American male which excludes other narratives. Thus, the lack of inclusivity influenced me to recreate the popular poem, which centers on women from Central America who are rarely acknowledged in Chicano Studies. Therefore, our poem “I am Dolores” is focused on these three main themes: empowerment of women of color, resistance
The Life of Two Different Worlds In “Into the Beautiful North,” Luis Alberto Urrea tells a well-known story of life for thousands of Mexican people who seek a better future. He presents his novel through the experiences of the lives of his main characters that have different personalities but share a common goal. Through the main characters we are presented with different situations and problems that the characters encounter during their journey from Mexico to the United States. Urrea’s main theme in this novel is the border that separates both the U.S. and Mexico, and the difficulties that people face in the journey to cross.
Moraga, Cherrie. “Queer Aztlan: the Reformation of Chicano Tribe,” in The Color of Privilege 1996, ed Aida Hurtado. Ann Arbor: University Michigan Press, 1996.
Nevertheless, Cisneros’s experience with two cultures has given her a chance to see how Latino women are treated and perceived. Therefore, she uses her writing to give women a voice and to speak out against the unfairness. As a result, Cisneros’ story “Woman Hollering Creek” demonstrates a distinction between the life women dream of and the life they often have in reality.
Medina, Isabel M. “At the Border: What Tres Mujeres Tells Us About Walls and Fences.” Journal of Gender, Race and Justice 10 (2007): 245-68.
Although our society is slowly developing a more accepting attitude toward differences, several minority groups continue to suffer from cultural oppression. In her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa explores the challenges encountered by these groups. She especially focuses on her people, the Chicanos, and describes the difficulties she faced because of her cultural background. She argues that for many years, the dominant American culture has silenced their language. By forcing them to speak English and attempting to get rid of their accents, the Americans have robbed the Chicanos of their identity. She also addresses the issue of low self-esteem that arises from this process of acculturation. Growing up in the United States,
Martinez, Demetria. 2002. “Solidarity”. Border Women: Writing from la Frontera.. Castillo, Debra A & María Socorro Tabuenca Córdoba. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 168- 188.
The struggle to find a place inside an un-welcoming America has forced the Latino to recreate one. The Latino feels out of place, torn from the womb inside of America's reality because she would rather use it than know it (Paz 226-227). In response, the Mexican women planted the seeds of home inside the corral*. These tended and potted plants became her burrow of solace and place of acceptance. In the comfort of the suns slices and underneath the orange scents, the women were free. Still the questions pounded in the rhythm of street side whispers. The outside stare thundered in pulses, you are different it said. Instead of listening she tried to instill within her children the pride of language, song, and culture. Her roots weave soul into the stubborn soil and strength grew with each blossom of the fig tree (Goldsmith).
Anzaldua grew up in the United States but spoke mostly Spanish, however, her essay discusses how the elements of language began to define her identity and culture. She was living in an English speaking environment, but was not White. She describes the difficulty of straddling the delicate changing language of Chicano Spanish. Chicano Spanish can even differ from state to state; these variations as well as and the whole Chicano language, is considered a lesser form of Spanish, which is where Anzaldua has a problem. The language a person speaks is a part...
While there are many themes that can be found in this novella, Benitez skillfully uses the Mexican culture and the beliefs to improve her story, giving it understanding beyond the traditional American thoughts that many foreign writers are unable to achieve.
The normalization of being a heterosexual presence would classify you as normal and you’d feel accepted by many different groups and communities by default. Certainly no one would deny that being true. What seems to be the issue is why is being heterosexual is the only type of normality society seems to accept. While reading Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/ La Frontera, the author brought up her personal struggles with her sexuality within her culture and with society. As well as other difficulties when being a female and being lesbian (Anzaldúa and Saldívar-Hull, 41). The scope of this essay should cover the many different borders we face as humans when it comes to where we draw the line on sexuality.