Gloria Anzauldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera:
The New Mestiza is a wonderful book that allows the reader to
enter the world of being in between. The
author offers two parts to the book (prose and poetry) as she relays her
autobiography of growing up in the lands between Mexico and the U.S. (south of
California). The community in these
lands were disadvantaged by changes in American policy that held the natives
from crossing the border.
In the first part of the book, there are a number of
chapters focused on the historical background on how the Chicano community was
formed from their native ancestors (3500 BC).
Anzauldua depicts much of the ruthlessness that the Chicano community
experienced, such as the farmers who continually lost money against the
American purchasing economy. Anzualda
also emphasizes the impact of the Catholic faith in the community as well as
the male dominated culture. With this
background, she delves into her personal journey in Mexico as a lesbian woman,
where both homosexuality and women were oppressed, disadvantaged, and recipients
of aggressive behavior.
Her approach in writing, melding both Spanish and English
language throughout most all of her stories, made it difficult for
non-bilingual readers to engage in the entirety of the book. I enjoyed the two very different styles of
prose and the short poems throughout the second half of the book. Anzualda’s use of intermixing language, form
of style, story-telling through vivid description, and at times loaded word
choice provide a raw experience for the reader.
Clearly there is a great deal of pain in her upbringing, and as a
reader, I felt it throughout this moving piece of writing. I highly recommend Borderlands as it highlights a piece of American history that most
people are not even aware of. As the US
community becomes even more diverse with a larger Hispanic/Latino/Chicano
community, it is critically important that this group within our society have
their story told and ingrained on the history of the nation.
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