Borderlands La Frontera By Gloria Anzaldúa

The discovery of self-identity is a reoccuring theme in a multitude of Chicano and Race and Ethnicity literature. Gloria Anzaldúa’s compilation of essays and poetry, Borderlands La Frontera, best exemplifies this example as the author gives her story to finding herself in as a lesbian chicana in a predominantly white and straight society. Anzaldúa drags the reader through this by not limiting the problems she faces, but problems that everyone could face. She addresses the importance of overcoming conflicts with not only oneself, but society as well. Though these messages she portrays in her writing are not just hers, other popular authors such as August Wilson and Thomas King epitomize them in their writings as well. August Wilson’s African

American play, Fences, portrays the struggle of an African American woman, Rose, with not only herself, but with societal norms that lead her to conform to them. Rose struggles with being a strong and self respecting woman while giving up her wants and needs for those of her husbands. Thomas King’s Native American novel, Green Grass, Running Water, illustrates a story of Native American blooded characters that enter white culture and submerge themselves forcefully in it, forgetting and abandoning their true sense of selves. Though they realize their errors and go back to their cultures, it is not without a few lessons learned from the harsh reality of life. Anzaldúa addresses an important issues when it comes to people dividing themselves culturally and socially through a both figurative and literal wall. Her compilation of essays and poetry, Borderlands La Frontera, directly explores this through self reflection. She discusses the plurality of beliefs and traditions amongst different races. Thomas King’s Native American novel, Green Grass, Running Water, supports Anzaldúa’s message by showing how one group of people can stray so far from themselves that they forced to change and assimilate thus unable to grasp full acceptance in dominant society in a different culture losing their identities.
Anzaldúa speaks of a big wall dividing America and México, but the wall is more figurative than anything. She perceives the wall as something people have created to separate cultures and traditions:
The psychological borderlands, the sexual borderlands and the spiritual borderlands are not particular to the Southwest. In fact, the Borderlands are physically present wherever two or more cultures edge each other, where people of different races occupy the same territory, where under, lower, middle and upper classes touch, where the space between two individuals shrinks with intimacy. (Anzaldúa 1)
The way the wall is implemented cuts off communication and the sharing of cultures leading to ignorances that separate people. She feels the borderlands physical presence by how she feels the division from herself and the society in which she was born in. To Anzaldúa, she feels that a wall is present and active no matter where someone is and who they are around, as there is always something to split someone, or a group of people. Her struggles with herself cause her only to view the wall and its presence as negative, but that is not always the case. The idea of a wall is important because it does not only symbolize something negative, but something positive as well. Instead of representing division and separation a wall can also symbolize the preservation of certain beliefs and traditions without the tainting of others. This is not always bad as it prevents someone from losing their touch with themselves when they assimilate themselves in another culture. King’s novel best exemplifies this through the Sun Dance Festival the characters go to, to celebrate their cultures. Despite how they lose touch with their Native American side they still respect and cherish the festival as it is one that they have attended since a young age. The presence of a wall can give certain groups of people a sense of belonging and unity as the ‘white man’ does not take everything from them, “Karen told all of their friends that they were going back to Alberta to the Sun Dance that summer…” (King 381). Eli had lost all touch with his old life as he even assimilated himself into White society and married a white woman, in his efforts to runaway from not only his past, but also a large part of his life. While his wife is very excited to see and attend the Sun Dance, Eli brushes it off as if it is nothing, showing a great sense of irony as someone outside of culture is more into his culture than he who is part of it is. Eli takes it for granted and has lost touch with his Native American side so much so that he has not gone back to Alberta, his home, since he has married Karen. Though Eli does not realize the extent to the blasphemous act he is about to commit as he is going to let Karen come and view the Sun Dance. Because Karen is not Native American she is not allowed to come and watch, but Eli does not understand the history and the gravity behind this rule. As a wall can be bad in this case it is necessary as it provides, in this case, Native Americans with something that the white man will not take from them like they did their land throughout history.
A wall also offers a division in a culture between spouses as it sets gender roles that the man or woman has to adhere to.

This was evident in Anzaldúa’s case as she was a lesbian woman who always challenged her duties of being a woman making her life a lot harder, “To this day I’m not sure where I found the strength to leave the source, the mother, disengage from my family, mi tierra, mi gente, and all that picture stood for. I had to leave home so I could find myself…” (Anzaldua 38). Anzaldua goes against her roles of a woman and leaves her household to further discover herself as a chicana in another confusing society. As a woman she is expected to live with her family and help with cooking and cleaning until she is married. Though Anzaldúa realizes that this is not the life for her and that for her to grow and really find herself she has to leave her family and find her own path rather than just be given one. While this seems scary for a woman to go off into the world not knowing what to really expect, it really reflects the strength to her character. She leaves her patriarchal household to find her own path in society veering off from the path that many women choose to follow. This closely relates to the character Rose Maxwell in Thomas King’s African American novel, Fences. Rose put up with a lot of her her husbands, Troy, immature behavior as he cheated on her, and even had a child out of wedlock with his mistress. This strength in character shows how empowered she is as she does not just let him walk all over him, but rather leaves him and finds her own path, leaving behind that strong patriarchal influence, “ ” (Wilson

).

… conclusion is about to start, but there will be a lot of previous paragraphs before this point

In conclusion, the preservation of self-identity is an underlying factor in a lot of Race and Ethnicity, as well as Chicano literature. With characters choosing to assimilate themselves into white society and disregard their past lives the idea of a wall becomes very important to maintaining your identity and your beliefs. While it can be very negative and counter-productive at times it can lead to bringing and keeping people together as King showed in his novel, Green Grass, Running Water, with direct examples from the lives of Eli and Karen, and Iron Eye Screeching Eagle (Portland). While the road to finding yourself can be long and hard you have to address conflicts that are in your way whether they come from oneself, as they did with Rose, or from themselves, as they did in Anzaldúa’s compilation of essays and poetry, Borderlands, La Frontera.