A Sense Of Self Identity

Developing a sense of self is an essential part of every individual in which each person's self-conception is a unique combination of multiple identifications, composed of gender, race, class and language. Although self-identity is a part of every individual, it is often lost when individuals migrate to another country. Hispanic women migrating to the Borderlands of the United States and Mexico experience a number of events, it begins with a sense of stigmatization, that arises from their race, culture, tradition and language, which differ from that of the pre-dominant Anglo-Saxon. This rejection impacts their identity, creating a sense of loss, dislocation, alienation, and isolation. How do these women living in the borderlands battle against

this stigmatization and how are they able find or create a new identity within the dominant American and Mexican cultures? And what are the consequences of living in a sexed and gendered world? My research will examine how exploitation, rejection, marginalization, and racism against these women, have compelled them to attain a colonized identity. I will be using an interdisciplinary approach from Anthropology, Literary, Feminist, Latin and Linguistics Studies of the Borderlands and their intersections with theories of race, gender, and class. I will argue that Hispanic women navigate between various and often contradicting demands placed on them by the Borderland culture, that creates a lack of self-identity.
The entrance of large numbers of newcomers into the U. S. creates identity issues for the larger community as well. The dominant group is challenged to consider ways to embrace or at least accept the concept of a social diversity. This dominant group, while secured in their own identity and citizenship, are forced by the presence of the newcomers to ask: “What is an American?” Dr. Mark T Montoya, assistant professor or ethnic studies, describes the many assumptions made by other scholars of their definition of citizenship and how it is linked to identity. He states, “the assumption is that the concepts of citizenship and identity are complementary and that each person and group experiences and practices citizenship in different ways” (Montoya). Through his Chicano/a studies, he finds that when crossing the border to the U. S., it also means crossing into a new system of classification. A new system where, the “Chicano/a often claim two, and sometimes more, nation-states” (Montoya). More importantly, Chicano/a often create unique spatial formations that have evolved under the different cultural codes and conditions” (Montoya). In his article he discusses how the immigrant people have been dealing with the sense of not belonging, and how the borders confine citizens. He blames the traditional citizenship process, and argues that it is only given to those with power. The lack of citizenship leaves others including the people of color, the poor and the women in the positions of second-class citizens, non-citizens or both, leaving them with the lack of identity.
Consequently, when two cultures come in contact, a number of events may occur. For example, the process of stigmatization may be first in place. Women experience rejection from the new society, which in turn gives them a sense of not belonging. The effect on women forces them to try to correspond to adaptation, rejection and enculturation, “Many Chicano scholars view the borderlands as a site of political and cultural conflict, a contested terrain shaped by changing individual and collective definitions of belonging and not belonging to the borderlands” (Montoya). At the same time, he states, “many Chicanas often feel that it is tougher to be a Mexican-American than to be a Mexican or an American, because on both sides of the border, they are often viewed with negative stereotypes” (Montoya). As the Chicana woman tries to adopt the process of acculturation, when they come into contact, both cultures may experience some changes. In reality, however, one cultural group will often dominate the other group. Rejection status impacts identity, it includes experiencing at first a sense of loss, dislocation, alienation and isolation, which will lead to processes of acculturation. When individuals migrate they do not leave their beliefs or idioms of distress behind. A series of factors in the environment combined with levels of stress, the ability to deal with stress, and the ability to root oneself according to one’s personality traits, will produce either a sense of settling down or a sense of feeling isolated and alienated.
The borderland is a place where families negotiate identities while interacting within changing social, political, and economic dynamics.

When women migrate from one nation or culture to another they carry their knowledge and expressions of distress with them. On settling down in the new culture, their cultural identity is most likely going to change and that encourages a degree of not belonging; they also attempt to settle down by either assimilation or biculturalism. Consider identity issues of women from the borderlands like feminist Gloria Anzaldua. Her life in the borderlands was a constant battle of discrimination from the Anglo, she was caught in a world of two cultures, various languages, and male domination, “She realized she had two options, to be the victim or to take control of her own destiny” (Borderlands). In her book, Borderlands/La Frontera, she discusses conflicts of linguistic, sexual, and ethnic identity that exists on the border of Mexico and the United States. Gloria Anzaldúa articulates in one of her chapters, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, that “ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity;” the languages she possess wield extraordinary influence over her cultural identification (Borderlands). In her book she combines both Spanish and English to emphasize the significance of the position from which she writes, yet Anzaldúa also depicts the near impossibility of reconciling the cultures her speech reflects. When she speaks English, she speaks “the oppressor’s language” (Borderlands); when she speaks Chicano Spanish, she speaks “an orphan tongue” (Borderlands). As a result, the implications of language on her identity are, at times, problematic. Since the English speakers she must accommodate deem her tongue “illegitimate,” she deems herself illegitimate (Borderlands). Her life struggles in the borderlands compelled Gloria Anzaldúa to be resilient and even hopeful. She will use her native tongue to “overcome the tradition of

silence” indicative of life in the borderlands and, by speaking, establish her legitimacy (Borderlands).
In addition, women have more pressure to maintain many aspects of their culture and pass it on to their children. Girls must learn be wary of men from the dominant culture. These expectations can create problems of identity for young women who are forced to set themselves apart from the larger group. Identity is an even larger issue for children of mixed parentage. “Who am I?” “Must I take sides?” The story of Julia Sanchez, by Latin American Studies Professor Renya Ramirez, argues that gender perspectives as well as the transnational perspectives should be considered so that other women like Julia Sanchez can achieve a sense of belonging. She narrates the personal life story of Julia Sanchez, born from a Mexican mother and Indian father. As migrant workers, Julia as a young child helped her parents by taking care of her siblings instead of going to school. Julia shares her many struggles as a child but mostly dealing with the discrimination from both sides of the family. When visiting her fathers side at the Indian reservation, she was rejected, “The kids on the reservation did not accept us too well either. We spoke Spanish and they said we did not belong up there” (Ramirez). This same rejection was felt when visiting her mother’s side of the family; she knew that her father was not welcomed because he was Indian. Julia Sanchez was living her childhood filled with confusion and a sense of not belonging, “So what are we supposed to do. The Mexicans in town would say that we were Indians, and the Indians would say that we were Mexican” (Ramirez). Julia and her family lived in the borderlands, but their conflicts were not so much with the Anglo-Saxon, but with their own culture, “Their mixed identity put them in the borderlands, between “authentic” identities neither Mexican not Indian” (Ramirez).
Additionally, sensitivity toward other cultures does not imply unquestioning acceptance of patriarchal definitions of cultural identities and behaviors. We should ask ourselves why is the focus placed on women’s roles rather than other aspects of culture and traditions. Living in the borderlands is a cross between emotional and behavioral boundaries. Boundaries that most women living in geographical border rarely anticipate they will confront. We know that the sexual and gender role behaviors of women serve a larger social function beyond the personal. In most societies, women's sexual behavior and their conformity to traditional gender roles signify that of a family’s value system. Many women learn to contest the patriarchal narratives of ethnic solidarity and thus, change the content of some of those narratives. Ethnic Studies Professor Pablo Vila argues that there is an association between identity and gender, he focus on two classes of Hispanic women living in the borderlands, the fronteriza, (American born with Mexican ancestry) and the Mexican. He points out that stigmatization exists between these two races and the discourse in the complexity of gender, has created a distinction between the fronteriza women from the Mexican, neither of them fond of the other. Both classes battling against each other to construct a complex identity by using the elements of race, ethnicity, nation and class. Through his studies of women from both sides of the border, he concludes that identities are constructed from the inside.