Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, written by Gloria E. Anzaldúa, offers insight to the life and struggles of a Chicana lesbian living on the Texas-Mexico border. She uses this border as a metaphor to how her identities intersect, and how living within the border, a gray area in a world of black and white, has both oppressed her and empowered her. The following will address Anzaldúa’s main themes and points within Borderlands, as well as compare it to other works by influential authors in regards to identity, intersectionality, and marginality.
The term intersectionality was first introduced by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, using the term to describe how multiple aspects of one’s identity combine to create a unique experience and person.
…show more content…
In her piece,“Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color”, she focuses on intersectionality in regards to women of color, explaining how the experience of women of color is not a sum of the experience of white women and the experience of men of color. By being on the intersection an oppressed race and an oppressed gender, women of color have dual oppression, and cannot seek the comfort of the white feminist or the man of color, who each belong to an oppressive class. Crenshaw, however, also emphasises the idea that this intersection is not simply a place of oppression, but also a place of liberation. She states, “...difference need not be the power of domination; it can instead be the source of political empowerment and social reconstruction.”. In Chapter 7 of Borderlands/La Frontera, Anzaldúa also expresses the importance of differences, and shuns the idea of one or the other. She states, “This assembly is not one where severed or separated pieces merely come together. Nor is it a balancing of opposing powers. In attempting to work out a synthesis, the self has added a third element which is greater than the sum of its severed parts. That third element is a new consciousness -- a mestiza consciousness...” A new experience is born out of the intersection of identity. Anzaldúa’s intersection of American and Mexican, of English speaking and Spanish speaking, and existing as a Chicana, has created tension from those on either side.
Anglo teachers reprimanded her for speaking Spanish, her mother encouraged her to speak English, to protect her from those like the teachers. She was forced to take speech classes to rid her accent. All around her tried to assimilate her language. At the same time however, Spanish speakers would tell her she was betraying her culture. By speaking the oppressor's language, she was giving in. In Chapter 5, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, she writes, “Chicano Spanish is considered by the purist and by most Latinos deficient, a mutilation of Spanish. But Chicano Spanish is a border tongue… Chicano Spanish is not incorrect, it is a living language.” Language has been a source of oppression from those on each side of the spectrum. In bell hooks’, “Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness”, she emphasizes the idea of language as a barrier. She repeats throughout the piece, “Language is also a place of struggle”. She recognizes that language can be used to oppress and force assimilation. She says, “Everywhere we go there is pressure to silence our voices, to co-opt and undermine them.”. Those who are marginalized have their voices and language stolen from them. The idea of the margin, and marginality is a main focus of this piece, and very much coincides with Anzaldúa’s idea of borderlands. They both see the …show more content…
margin/borderlands as a place of resistance and empowerment. Anzaldúa emphasizes the idea of resisting assimilation into the mainstream, and disconnecting from identity. She references the “American Melting Pot” and how dangerous this idea can be. This “melting pot”, is not bringing us together, but eliminating our differences and uniqueness. We must keep our culture, and acknowledge our differences before we can come together. She writes, “They’d like to think I’ve melted into the pot. But I haven't. We haven’t.” The “melting pot” is not a blend of culture, but instead a way of assimilating those with differences into the “normal” or “right” way of being, which is simply just a white way of living. Audre Lorde’s, “The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House”, also emphasizes the idea of using our differences as tools of strength rather than separation, saying “In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.”. However, she also stresses the importance of education of differences. It is the responsibility of oppressors to educated themselves on issues and experiences of the oppressed. More often than not, oppressors will have an epiphany of sorts about the injustice enacted upon the oppressed, then seek out those belonging to those groups for information. What they do not realize, that it is not the job of the oppressed to teach their oppressors. In this day and age, there is plenty of information and resources that can give a person the information they seek. Those in an oppressive role must explore how privilege influences their everyday life, and how simple acts can be oppressive and discriminatory. They also must acknowledge that learning and growth will never be done, and that some spaces are simply not available to them. As a LGBTQ+ individual, I am often approached with questions about my identity, questions about my designated sex, and questions about the sexual activity of LGBTQ+ people. Not only are these questions sometimes offensive, they are also invasive, and a complete disregard for privacy. I try to answer questions of genuine curiosity and personal growth, but I don’t feel as if they realize how many times I have been asked these questions. When I do not wish to answer, then I get, “I’m just trying to learn”, or “I’m trying to be an ally”. I understand this sentiment, but in a world with a multitude of information on the internet, I am left only feeling as if they are only seeking information when it is convenient for them. I am also left bewildered when I hear people referring to the “A” in LGBTQIA+ as “ally”. Being an ally does not grant you a space in our community. Being an ally does not put you in the same space of discrimination that we face on a daily basis. I understand, as a white person, that being someone who is committed to the dismantle of a white centric power structure, does not admit me into the spaces of people of color. No matter how much I educate myself or rally towards equality, I still have privilege, and the system is still rigged in my favor. “The Combahee River Collective Statement” written by the Combahee River Collective focuses on this idea of spaces for those who are oppressed, especially those whose identity intersect.
As a black, lesbian inclusive, feminist group, they created their organization to give voices to black women. They state, “This may seem so obvious as to sound simplistic, but it is apparent that no other ostensibly progressive movement has ever consIdered our specific oppression as a priority or worked seriously for the ending of that oppression.”. Often those in the intersections try to focus on the “broader” categories, and do not acknowledge the differences and needs of the people within that group. For women of color, they have been left out by the feminist movement lead by white women, but also out of the antiracist movement by men of color. This space gave a space where their voices are heard, where they can connect with those who have similar experiences, and so they can dismantle the systems that oppress them. They emphasize the importance that this dismantling must start with them. They write, “We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression.”. While, as mentioned earlier, education and speaking out must be done by oppressive groups, the real action and decisions must be lead by the groups directly affected by that oppression. They know the most important issues
and what needs to be done, and they must be the ones to lead the resistance. In Chapter 7, Anzaldúa writes, “I think we need to allow whites to be our allies. … They will see that they are not helping us, but following our lead.”. When a problem does not affect a person, they have no business dictating how that problem is solved. I find Anzaldúa’s most impactful idea to be as a border dweller, so not choose a side. Living in the grey area is a perfectly acceptable thing, and is how society is shifting. This world often seems so black and white, that when someone rejects this notion, it gives me courage. As someone who identifies as both queer and genderfluid, I live in a world of ambiguity. When I was younger, I was constantly trying to work myself out. “Am I a girl or a boy?”, “ Am I gay or straight? Am I bisexual?”. I found no comfort in any of these labels. I felt more complex than any of the options presented to me. I had no idea there were more options. Others question my gender and sexuality, trying to pinpoint where I am on their binary spectrum, but they do not realized that I am ever shifting, and do not exist at a place on a line. Anzaldúa’s idea of borderlands made everything click, that I do not have to be on one side or the other. I can be a border dweller, and I can exist in the gray area.
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’s unique writing style in Borderlands/La Frontera creates a more simple understanding of the complexities of identity through the eyes of a feminist-Chicana writer. Anzaldúa uses long, fast paced descriptions, alternating languages, and feminist perspective to really keep readers engaged throughout the passages. Anzaldúa often allows readers into her intimate memories to create a better understanding of living as a Mexican-American in Texas.
Gloria Anzaldua, wrote the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” communicating and describing her adolescence in a society brimming with sexism, cultural imperialism, racism, low self-esteem, and identity formation. The reason one comes to America is to finer themselves academically, and intellectually. One must learn to speak English to live among the American’s, because that is the language they speak. Though, no one has the right to deprive you of your familiar tongue. At a young age, Anzaldua was scolded, even mistreated for speaking her native “Chicano” tongue. Anzaldúa described this ignorance, cruelty, and discrimination when she states: “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess – that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler.” She overcomes this hostility throughout her life.
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
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...
Martinez, Demetria. 2002. “Solidarity”. Border Women: Writing from la Frontera.. Castillo, Debra A & María Socorro Tabuenca Córdoba. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 168- 188.
In Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, an excerpt from her book Borderlands/La Fronter in 1987, she demonstrates that identity can be asserted through language. You can tell a lot about a person by their language. Language is your way of representing who you are as a person, and most importantly, your culture. Culture defines the most about a person. Anzaldúa shares her aggravation of not being able to speak her language, “until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself" (Anzaldúa 378). Being seen as an individual of English as Second Language (ESL), Anzaldúa does not appreciate how she has to assist in translating to English or Spanish, where she would rather speak Spanglish. “[A]s long as I have to accommodate the English speaker rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate” (Anzaldúa 378). Talking bad about her language severely impacts her identity, “I am my language” (Anzaldúa 378). A person’s identity should not be seen less because of the language they speak. Anzaldúa states that she will have her voice, though she cannot express her passion for her language with the restraint of no freedom act to embrace it, she will. Her audiences that she is reaching to are those who share the same struggle of their identities just like her, and also speaking out to people who do look down upon people like her because of where she is form and what language she speaks.
In the world of sociology and the studies of human interaction, the term intersectionality has been defined as, “the idea that various biological, social, and cultural categories – including gender, race, class, and ethnicity – interact and contribute towards systematic social inequality” (“Definition of Intersectionality – Sociology”). However, as Dr. White defined the term on the Spring 2014 Final Writing Assignment sheet, these categories that make up one’s identity can “intersect or interact in ways that can either advantage or disadvantage the person’s well-being and development” (White). In regards to the text, David M. Newman’s Identities & Inequalities: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality, Newman progressively explores the concept of intersectionality throughout the entirety of the text, but he does not ever actually define the term itself. Although an exact, clear-cut definition of the term “intersectionality” has not been officially established, the concept of the term is fairly simple to understand. Every person has different social identities that they carry to their name. Intersectionality is simply an analysis of how those different identities play off of each other and how they affect the person they are describing.
At the beginning of the essay, Anzaldúa recounts a time when she was at the dentist. He told her, “We’re going to have to control your tongue” (33). Although he was referring to her physical tongue, Anzaldúa uses this example as a metaphor for language. The dentist, who is trying to cap her tooth, symbolizes the U.S. who is similarly seeking to restrict the rights of minority groups. Nevertheless, the tongue is preventing the dentist from doing his job. Likewise, there are several minority groups who refuse to abide to the laws of dominant cultures and are fighting back. Anzaldúa also touches on a personal story that happened at school. When she was younger, she was sent to the corner because apparently, she spoke back to her Anglo teacher. The author argues that she was unfairly scolded because she was only telling her teacher how to pronounce her name. Her teacher warned her, “If you want to be American, speak American. If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong.” This short story provides an understanding of what Anzaldúa’s life was like. It demonstrates how even at a young age, she was continually pressured because of where comes
The Chicano people are lost in their identities as both Mexican and American people. In the 1960’s there was a rise in Chicano literature in response to the social and political changes in society. Chicano literature is often misunderstood due to cultural ambivalence, “Cultural ambivalence can be defined as an attitude that expresses the diverse nature of the Chicano experience in American Society. It expresses the central dilemma of the Chicano who is conscious of being a product of both Mexican and American cultures” (Treviño 1). The Chicano literature embraces the cultural ambivalence that is existent only with both cultures. In the United States literature that has Mexican lore or representation but still takes place in America making it relatable to all American citizens. In reference to the “Education of Popo” by Maria Cristina Mena, “Mena directly interprets the Chicana experience from this dual consciousness that incorporates elements of both the dominant culture and of her subculture. The theme of this satirical narration is the conflict that results when the value systems of Mexican culture are contrasted with those of Anglo-American culture” (Treviño 1). The drift between the cultures highlights the isolation Chicanos face in a literary social protest. The Chicano literature movement has helped American society by making a stand about not belonging to one culture and the beauty that can come from a diverse culture. “Don José María similarly is characterized as being representative of a unique cultural experience in the Southwest which early Chicano authors like Jovita González are attempting to define. The narrator states: "Monotonous and uninteresting from the outside, his home was the center of border culture--not the culture of Mexico, not the culture of the United States, but a culture peculiar to the
The contrast between the Mexican world versus the Anglo world has led Anzaldua to a new form of self and consciousness in which she calls the “New Mestiza” (one that recognizes and understands her duality of race). Anzaldua lives in a constant place of duality where she is on the opposite end of a border that is home to those that are considered “the queer, the troublesome, the mongrel and the mulato” (25). It is the inevitable and grueling clash of two very distinct cultures that produces the fear of the “unknown”; ultimately resulting in alienation and social hierarchy. Anzaldua, as an undocumented woman, is at the bottom of the hierarchy. Not only is she a woman that is openly queer, she is also carrying the burden of being “undocumented”. Women of the borderlands are forced to carry two degrading labels: their gender that makes them seem nothing more than a body and their “legal” status in this world. Many of these women only have two options due to their lack of English speaking abilities: either leave their homeland – or submit themselves to the constant objectification and oppression. According to Anzaldua, Mestizo culture was created by men because many of its traditions encourage women to become “subservient to males” (39). Although Coatlicue is a powerful Aztec figure, in a male-dominated society, she was still seen
According to Anzaldua, “ Chicano Spanish is considered by the purist and by most Latinos deficient, a mutilation of Spanish”(Anzaldua 32). The Chicano Spanish versus Spanish conflict that occurs in Latino society is a prime example of people considering themselves to be right in a situation where there is not a right answer. The Latino’s who speak Spanish that they believe to be normal are disturbed by the Spanish language changing. They believe that their own views are being challenged, they believe that they are correct, and they believe that anyone who challenges their views is inferior. The people who view all other views are, in reality, just trying to make themselves look more powerful. Like in Tan’s essay, people demeaned others in order to promote their own views, therefore, gaining power over the others who they demeaned. According to Tan, “ She said they would not give her any more information(...) And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect english-- lo and behold-- we had assurances the CAT scan would be found”(Tan 2). The doctors treated Tan’s mother differently due to her use of what they considered “broken language”, leading to her being treated inadequately. People have an image of what they consider to be the right English, anyone who does not speak the right English is usually considered to be uneducated. In both Tan’s and Anzaldua’s essays, the lack of open-mindedness is one of the reasons that people want to become more powerful than others. People fail to realize that what they believe in is not always the right answer, like with stereotypes, the people are trying to gain power over others in order to make themselves seem more
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).
According to the textbook, intersectionality is “a sociological perspective that holds that our multiple group memberships affect our lives in ways that are distinct from single group memberships” (page 205). Intersectionality begins with social stratification. Social stratification is “the existence of structured inequalities between groups in the society in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards” (page 205). For example, some social stratifications include gender, age, and race. Statuses due to social stratification interact in which the inequalities become additive. The interacting effects of inequalities due to these sources creates an extra oppression on those who are facing it. Through social stratifications, intersectionality
When Gloria Anzaldua writes in The Homeland Aztlan “this land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is and will be again” one can assume or conclude that she recognizes that the land was taken away from the Indians by Americans. Therefore, you can say that she catecterize the border as Indian Land. To my way of thinking,Gloria Anzaldua blends poetry, personal narrative and history to present the view and experiences of people affected by living in the borderlands and to establish credibility to the poem. On the other hand, this chapter and the two poems present a connection because the three of them express the drwabacks of being Mexican- American.