Bordrlands/La Frontera

In my English class we are currently reading Borderlands/La Frontera. This novel is written by Gloria Anzaldua; a Chicana, lesbian, activist who writes about her life and the culture she is beginning to adopt. Chapter four begins with Gloria explaining how she discovers that she is different from everyone else. She explains how through her parents she could tell that she was different from her brothers and sisters. She says that, “by the worried look on my parents’ faces I learned early that something was fundamentally wrong with me” (Anzaldua 64). She felt betrayed by her own body and was filled with shame for feeling and being different from all those that surrounded her. Many people would take the rejection and neglection that Gloria dealt with and fall apart, but Gloria decided to turn her difference into something that could help others. “Our greatest disappointments and painful experiences – if we make meaning out of them – can lead us toward becoming more of who we are. Or they can remain meaningless” (Anzaldua 68). In her novel Gloria stressed that in order to help change the world you must first change yourself. You must be comfortable with who you are in order to get people to listen to what you have to say. As an activist, Gloria brings great insight into how to get people to care about your thoughts and ideas. Gloria constantly put herself in new situations with different people in order to get her ideas out about race, sex and the mestiza.

An interesting theme that I found in the novel is the decision on how to balance different cultures. Gloria speaks of a “duality” that must be taken up in order to keep a healthy balance of the many cultures you may hold. For Chicanos and Mexicans in America they are constantly being told they are inadequate and pushed to drop their heritage and adopt the “American way.” This is something that was also talked about in my Race and Ethnics class. When immigration was at a peak, immigrants were forced to lose their culture from their homeland and adopt the American/white culture in order to survive in America. In schools white teachers tell Spanish-speaking students that, “If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong” (Anzaldua 75). The Spanish youth are receiving mixed messages; pressure at school to learn English and pressure form home to keep their culture alive. Gloria stresses how important language is to your identity and who you are. She says that, “if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language. Until I take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself” (Anzaldua 81). I find this especially true to my family and myself. We are 2nd generation Mexican and none of my cousins can speak Spanish. I feel this has helped in us have becoming disconnected from our culture; we have adopted English in order to conform to the white way in America. In a way I feel I do not belong to any culture because I do not fully fit with either. Through her novel I feel Gloria is trying to show the importance in understanding who you are in order to stay true to who you are. “Identity is the essential core of who we are as individuals, the conscious experience of the self” (Kaufman 84).