Borderlands By Gloria Anzaldua Sparknotes

In her novel Borderlands, Gloria Anzaldua explores the nuances and complications that come with being a member of the Mexican-American community. Her physical home is the border between Mexico and the United States, but she acknowledges that the “psychological borderlands, the sexual borderlands and the spiritual borderlands are not particular to the Southwest” (Anzaldua 19). “In fact,” she continues, “the Borderlands are physically present wherever two or more cultures edge each other…”(Anzaldua 19). Such is the focus of her text, the frequently uncomfortable meeting space between mainstream white culture in the United States and the indigenous culture of Mexico. The clashing of these two civilizations is personified in the mestizas, people

She reminisces about being punished as a young girl for speaking Spanish at recess, for trying to tell her teacher how to correctly pronounce her name; even her own mother was embarrassed that she “spoke English like a Mexican” (Anzaldua 76). And so she, and others like her, learned to speak English. That was not good enough for some Latinos, however, who accused the Chicanos of being cultural traitors who were ruining the Spanish language. And so, they learned to speak Spanish. By the time they finished accommodating everyone that demanded something from them, Chicanos learned to speak a plethora of languages, none of which they could truly claim as their own. Chicano Spanish is the result of this, a language developed by the people of the border because they needed one to connect to their identity. “Chicano Spanish is not incorrect,” Anzaldua explains, “it is a living language” (Anzaldua 77). The different languages that are included in Borderlands are the organs that make up the Chicano language. The use of them in the text provides a richer cultural context for readers to help them understand what the Chicano voice is comprised

Because they are a divergent people, they are the weakest when dominating Anglo or Mexican cultures butt up against them. Anzaldua says, “The new mestiza copes by developing a tolerance for contradictions, a tolerance for ambiguity. She learns to be an Indian in Mexican culture, to be Mexican from an Anglo point of view” (Anzaldua 101). In the same way that Chicanos are forced to adapt, Anzaldua forces her readers to adapt by mixing in a wide array of unfamiliar languages without giving them translations or explanations. Readers are thrown into the cultural pool and expected to swim; the power is fully in Anzaldua’s hands, and she seems to relish it. The linguistic confusion that comes with reading Borderlands equalizes, if only for a moment, those who are part of a mainstream culture with those who are not. Readers who are used to having everything provided to them in their native language are finally able to feel what it is like to see whole paragraphs written using words that they do not understand. At the same time, readers, like those from the Chicano community, who do understand the language will be able to breeze through the novel, reading the Spanish poetry without a problem and picking up on the slang term and idioms that confuse non-Spanish speakers. Anzaldua flips the script through her choice to write in multiple languages; the