Analysis Of Borderlands By Anzaldúa

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

Batlla argues that an “imaginary Mexico” exists, a minority culture within Mexico that represents Western, colonial interests. In opposition to this imaginary Mexico is the México profundo, or “deep” Mexico. México profundo underlies the imaginary Mexico and has its core in Mesoamerican culture, which reaches back into history for centuries upon centuries. According to Batalla, the relationship between these two cultures is fraught and, at times, violent, as “the imaginary Mexico tries to subordinate the rest of the population to its plans”. He argues a position different from that of the course’s themes, which emphasize the joining and mixing of Mesoamerican and colonial culture. According to Batalla, “[n]o room has been allowed for a convergence of civilizations through a slow fusion that gives rise to a new civilizational plan, different from the two original ones of arising from

It is a broad term that has yet to gain a set definition in the fields of anthropology or sociology. Nevertheless, it is an extremely important concept for understanding the history of Mexico. Many aspects of modern Mexico can be seen as examples of syncretism between the indigenous and Western, colonial traditions. For example, the Virgin of Guadalupe is a prominent Catholic religious symbol in Mexico. On one hand, she is a firmly Christian symbol and on the other she bares resemblance to the Aztec mother goddess and is depicted as indigenous in some cases . Syncretism can be seen as the process through which the Longue Durée is propagated, as it allows for traditions to grow and evolve over