The poem fully develops the idea of the limited of privileges that some might have according to the their races and the racial division. The “borderlands” is the division of a place, but in the eyes of Gloria she makes the character grow up in a place where there is a racial division. The character is in the middle of how of her race is important as her cultural ways get in the way of trying to practice each one of them. The poet writes in both english and spanish to explain how she speaks to the different races she carries. As you read the poem you can feel how the tone changes as the author is speaking of the different events that she goes through in her life. The poet uses visual imagery to illustrate to the reader how tough it is for a young person to pursue a specific tradition or religion without upsetting someone of their family.
The Gloria shows how she is in between a clash of cultures whom she is suppose to know and build on. She feels guilty from being who she is that she is white, mexican, and native american. In the poem, it revolves around her cultural life and the feeling of being trapped as she is “caught in the crossfire between camps while carrying all five races on your back not knowing which side to turn to”(stanza 1).This person is confused to what cultural group he/ she is
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Each culture requires her to be flexible in her time to be able to do each tradition that she is expected to do. In one of her culture she has to eat on their traditional plates where she has “to put Chile in the same borscht, eat whole wheat tortillas, speak Tex-Mex with a Brooklyn accent: be stopped by la migra at the border checkpoints”(stanza 4). The poet decides to use food as a way to illustrate the difficulties of having 5 different cultures to live on or to practice. The mixing of the racial groups can have a big affect on the person who has to live in this