Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands (1-91)
Reading assignment for Monday, March 5. Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. Remember, you don’t need to answer all or even any of the questions, but your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.
What are the theories of the Borderlands / La Frontera? How do you see Gloria Anzaldúa’s borderlands theories evolving out of her writings for This Bridge Called My Back?
What would your borderlands be? What intersects in your borderland location?
“Caught between the sudden contradiction, the breath
sucked in and the endless space, the brown woman stands
still, looks at the sky. She decides to go down, digging her
shakes them to see if there is any marrow in them. ” (Anzaldua, 104)
One theory of the borderlands in Gloria Anzaldua’s “Borderlands/La Frontera The New Mestiza” is the underlying space between the past and the present. Anzaldua references indigenous spirituality-Coatlicue and goddesses of duality- to provide “historical” information along with the experiences of subjugated Mexicans. Borderlands is more than the physical space of land, it embodies experiences of displaced mexicans, Chicana women; with ideas deriving from Mexico but challenged from a new perspective in a new space.
“Every increment of consciousness, every step forward is a travesia, a crossing […] [k]nowing’ is painful because after ‘it’ happens I can’t stay in the same place and be comfortable. I am no longer the same person I was before.” (Anzaldua, 70)
Reflecting upon my 3.75 years of college, I know I have grown to find better words to articulate my social consciousness. I cannot sit and watch a movie (or any form of media) that depicts women as sexual objects and be comfortable with it. My educational training does not allow a space for that; I am constantly on radar. I will share that one time I went dancing with friends, and at the club they had big screens showing music videos of the music they were playing. As much as I tried to have a good time I could not get over the fact that they were showing these videos. I think I can better handle listening to the music than having a visual image of what the lyrics are portraying.
Gloria Anzaldú mentions in her book many types of borders either physical, spiritual, emotional, etc., but in chapter one I was very interested by the actual Mexican Border which she discusses in detail. She briefly mentions about the abuse and risk women are placed in everyday when crossing the border. Coyotes target specifically young women which is the harsh reality about the human trafficking trade going on globally. Many of these sex traffickers recruit in poor areas like pueblos and towns in Mexico and all over Latin America. They convince naive and trusting families to allow their daughters to come to the U.S. with a complete stranger. Men trap families with the promise of a better future for them and their daughters but when they arrive in the U.S. thousand of women’s dreams are shattered. Anzaldú says “la mujer indocumentada, is doubly threatened […] not only does she have to contend with sexual violence, but like all women, she is prey to a sense of of physical helplessness (Borderlands 12). These women are sold into sex slavery that brings in huge revenue for men who run the illicit industry. Women cannot escape emotionally but most importantly physically because they are isolated from their families and in a complete foreign country. They don’t have any networks established to reach out to and are not aware about the resources that exist. FEAR is a huge factor in preventing women from escaping. Also fear of being deported back and of disappointing their families keep women mentally trap. The news are that human trafficking does not only happen in Thailand or somewhere distant in East Asia but right here in the United States. Women are used for forced labor and prostitution like Anzaldú mentions. The issue about the border needs to be addressed more aggressively by politicians because human rights are being violated. These women are not receiving any type of victim services because if they speak up they are deported immediately.
There are the borderlands between countries that people can physically live inside, and there are the borderlands that can ideologically live inside us. Gloria Anzaldua has experienced both. She grew up in the region of Texas close to the Mexican border, and she grew up a strong, independently minded lesbian in the toxically heteronormative machismo Chicano culture. She draws beautiful connections between these physical and emotional borderlands, demonstrating the pain of trying to straddle cultures and ideologies that do not always mix well. While I did grow up a lesbian in a heteronormative society, I grew up in Queens, far from the Texas borderlands, so what was it about her descriptions of physical borderlands that resonated so easily and so clearly with me?
Though not physically bordering any foreign countries, Queens definitely can have a borderland feel. It is the most ethnically diverse place in the entire world. Cramped into one borough in New York City, hundreds of languages and countries and cultures are represented. The truth is, however, that Queens is more or less divided along ethnic lines. You’re Colombian? You probably live in Jackson Heights. You’re Chinese? You probably live in Flushing. You’re Greek? You probably live in Astoria. Cloistered more or less into one area, these ethnic groups have been able to maintain their languages and cultures. It is like a hundred different countries bordering each other in one small location. So what does this mean? How is it anything like the borderlands of Texas? Well, for one, sometimes leaving your ethnic neighborhood and venturing into the next means trouble. They can tell that you don’t belong and you might get taken advantage of for it. Furthermore, there is a sort of hovering anxiety about the Anglo world that the rest of America is. Generations pass, and the descendants of immigrants start to want to assimilate, and always present is the latent (and sometimes not so latent) tension that comes from old traditions clashing with the new world.
I think one of the things that I noticed that appeared in both Borderlands/La Frontera and This Bridge Called My Back is the image of oneself. In the book, Anzaldúa states that there is no on set image of how a certain people should be like. Along with this is the idea that language is such an important of who we are. Just like there is no set image, there are multiple versions of the same language. Her idea that there is not set image of how a certain people should look like and speak really hit home for me. Early in my childhood I always felt self-conscious that I wasn’t a “real” Mexican because others said I looked white and my Spanish didn’t sound right. But later on I realized that I am who I am. Glad to read that other people feel the same way.
Another way that I never thought before is the how the idea of learning more takes you out of your comfort zone. I always thought learning new stuff was good and at time was challenging, but I never really thought of it as stepping our of my comfort zone. But I can see how it is, because you get used to something than you are introduced to something new. It’s a little scary at firs, but then you get more comfortable.
My favorite section of Borderlands was Chapter 2, “Movimentos de Rebeldia y Las Culturas Que Traicionan.” Immediately I could relate to Gloria Anzaldúa story. She was the first in her family to leave home and she had other interests disassociating from the stereotype of a housewife; she liked to study, read, and paint. She calls herself a rebel but I don’t believe its rebellion toward the norm it’s wanting more than what one has planned for you. Every individual has their own dreams and goals and Gloria Anzaldúa was striving for hers. Going on to the next section of chapter two: “Cultural Tyranny” she discusses that culture is made by those in power and she states men are the particular individuals in power. I agree to some extent. Men do take a powerful role but it takes both men and women to leave a legacy. Men did make the laws and rules and women did transmit them however in today’s society the roles have changed and women are taking part in the cultural experience. And I found it surprising that the church too believes that women are subservient to males. I was never taught this notion and I guess for good reason. However the church should be sensitive to women because women follow the church just as much as their male counterparts and they should have a positive stance to life, equality for all.
Its really hard for me not to find a passage or line to relate with in the Borderlands/La Frontera. Which is weird since this book was written a while ago and it explores different themes that don’t directly have to do with me but here I stand, nodding my head as I read. Underlining lines I feel relate to me. I am a Chicana who moved away from home and every time she returns home, it seems a little distant even if there is no physical change. My mom worries that I am becoming too independent, changing from the girl she used to know, but its more like the little girl she educated and loves is evolving. For me the borderlands is that place in between what my parents expect of me, what my culture imposes on me and who I want to be and what my lifestyle craves to be. Its a mix of paradoxes, a place where logic sometimes doesn’t make sense. I want to stand on my own two feet but I still fall back to the days when I used to watch black and white old school Mexican movies with my parents and dreamed of the day I would be swept away by my very own serenade as the mariachi played under my window. I walk my borderland, mapless; no guide at my disposal but my faith to keep me going.
In Gloria’s Anzaldua’s Borderlands, she talks about many types of borderlands not necessarily having to do with a physical borderland of two countries. However, the first chapter struck me the most, where she talks about the physical borderland between the U.S and Mexico. Being Mexican-American, I was surprised that I didn’t know much about my Mexican history. I knew that the Anglos had taken the land (Texas, Arizona, California, and Colorado) away from the Mexican Indians, but I didn’t know how it had evolved to that point. Anzaldua also mentions the emotion state of a borderland, this place between cultures. I can relate to her on that level because I feel the same way. I feel like being Mexican and American I can’t be one more than the other. It’s hard to find this balance because I love my Mexican culture and traditions, but of course there are certain aspects that I don’t agree with like women being subordinate to men. This is where my American culture starts to mix in and I struggle to find that independence and break those stereotypes of Latina women. I am glad to have a mother that early on established her own independence and has pushed me to continue educating myself and let myself become dependent of any man.
“The culture and the church insist that women are subservient to males” (17). I thought this was a very interesting statement because just yesterday morning I went to a Spanish mass and the priest was talking about the importance of obedience in our faith and inclination to go to Heaven some day and it was very interesting because he started to talk about marriage as an example and he said to the women “When a man puts in 100% into the marriage, the woman needs to bring 150% into it.” This really stood out to me, because it could be interpreted in more than one way. I went to church with a group and when we were all out we were all puzzled by that statement. I think this is what is highlighted in Anzaldua’s “Borderlands/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza” because his statement clearly shows that sense of submissiveness that a woman should accommodate to by being a “Buena mujer” through her actions as a good wife and mother, and this is what sets this “cultural tyranny.” We talked to the priest more about this after mass, and he clarified that he had said this because in today’s society, it is well known that a woman always does above and beyond the roles of the husband. Especially in the traditional Latino culture, the husband is typically responsible for being the breadwinner and the woman is responsible for being a good housewife, mother and wife. So our culture itself emphasizes this subordination of women.
I think this also ties in perfectly to the idea that because a woman is expected to be so busy trying to master these three jobs, it wasn’t until more recently that a young lady is expected to use up all her time studying and reading and not in the kitchen trying to help make dinner and learning how to be a good housewife. I think this also connects to my personal experience because I remember when I was still in high school, there was seriously days when I would spend my evenings in my room reading and studying and at the beginning, I would hear from my mom, that back when she was young the girls in the house were always helping her mom in the kitchen trying to learn how to cook and such, trying to imply that I should do the same. For a long time this bothered me because I thought myself that it was more important to be dedicated to school and I know it took this a while to get her approval for it, but I think now she realizes that times are changing and that it has become “a fourth option” as Anzaldua says, for women to want a career and strive for a college education.
Gloria talks about many borders in the text, and even though the only physical border is the Mexican border, I think it still connects to the other figurative borders. The message I think Gloria is trying to get across regarding borders in throughout the text is that there is always risk that you take when you cross any border. For example, when she talked of the physical dangers that were associated with crossing the U.S border, she is risking being potentially hurt if she crosses the border. Gloria also crossed the invisible border that was set to stereotype that women should be housewives and only men could be independent and educated. She once again took the risk of being shunned by society when she crossed this border.I thought Gloria is showing throughout the text that you can play it safe and not cross any border, or you can take the risk of failure and ridicule to achieve what your goals are.