Gloria Anzaldúa Que Traiciona Analysis

Part I: Resistiendo la cultura que me empuja hacia lo liminal

Between here and there, we embody the conflicting reality that we live in, in which patriarchal paradigms reign. In given world women are suppressed via culture. But it is the woman of color who carries most of the burden, for she is typically separated from her homeland and marginalized in Western society. Nevertheless, she is known for her resistance, not her captivity. In “Movimientos de rebeldía y culturas que traicionan,” Gloria Anzaldúa discusses; cultural tyranny, liminality, and resistance, all of which are highly relevant topics in both of Sandra Cisneros’ stories; “Woman Hollering Creek” and “Never Marry a Mexican.”

According to Anzaldúa, cultural tyranny shapes our beliefs

Referring to women of color, Anzaldúa reveals, “Alienated from her mother culture, “allien” in the dominant culture, the woman of color does not feel safe within the inner life of her Self” (42). In “Woman Hollering Creek,” the previous is evident when Cleofilas doesn’t react after her husband hits her. She recalls how “in her own home her parents had never raised a hand to each other or to their children” (Cisneros 47). The problem is she left the place and culture she associated with home. Now, she was in an unfamiliar place, one hostile towards women. Between her native land and the land she later came to inhabit, Cleofilas’ inability to respond to the domestic violence she was subjected to shows just how liminality can instill fear in women. Moreover, liminality is brought up throughout “Never Marry a Mexican,” especially when Cisneros draws distinctions between Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Americans. Clemencia, as a product of the liminal, being the daughter of a Mexican-American mother and a Mexican born and raised father, embodies the confusion that comes with a lack of belonging. Accordingly she says, “I’m amphibious. I’m a person who doesn’t belong to any class” (71). And, although she says it in an almost proud tone it doesn’t take away from her positionality as an outcast. In other words, the liminality Anzaldúa makes reference to can have dire

“I feel perfectly free to rebel and to rail against my culture. I fear no betrayal on my part,” she says (Anzaldúa 43). Unlike Anzaldúa, Cisneros’ character, Cleofilas fears what her culture and more specifically her father and neighbors would say if she returned home pregnant, with a child, and no husband (50). Despite this, she gathered the strength to escape the beatings her husband used to give her and embarked on a journey to San Antonio. When her and Felice crossed the river, Felice hollered (Cisneros 55). Perhaps Felice like Anzaldúa, wasn’t afraid to rebel against her culture, and the holler, which can be compared to what Anzaldúa refers to as the “wailing” of La Llorona was a way of protesting the unfair ways that position women as inferior to men (43). Furthermore, in “Never Marry a Mexican,” the juxtaposition of Clemencia with Malinche who at times is also intermixed with the legend of “La Llorona,” speaks to what can be interpreted as Clemencia’s disloyalty to her own people. After all, she did not consider Mexican men to be worthy romantic partners. However, given interpretation seems to line up with patriarchal patterns, in which women are portrayed as the betrayer, the disloyal one, or “the bad woman.” Conversely, rejecting marriage, claiming to be in control, and choosing which ethnic group or culture to associate with, could be Clemencia’s way of resisting or rebelling against her culture.