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The New Mestiza By Gloria Anzaldúa

1028 Words5 Pages

Identity has been discussed about for a very long time. People debate what shapes a person’s identity such as their clothing, their personality, or their culture. People can’t decide if they shape their identity or their identity shapes them. The truth is that people will decide what a person’s true identity is almost as soon as they meet them. It doesn’t matter how much a person flaunts or pretends to be someone different afterwards. Each person’s individual identity is unwavering and it never changes because of the social pressure of society. A person believes that to truly feel good about themselves, they must be wanted by the rest of society.
Society has turned into a type of modern caste system in places like school or work. People are …show more content…

People may have to hide their race or language because otherwise they unfortunately have to face racism. People have no filter when they’re bullying others and it’ll cut deep easily. Those that get bullied are usually already easy targets. They are frail and it won’t be hard to get to them. They may hide their feelings but deep down, all they would like is someone to be a friend. Author Gloria Anzaldúa is seen going through something like this in her book The New Mestiza where in an excerpt in the book ReMix she says, “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess and that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler.”(Anzaldúa, 71) Anzaldúa had to go through a physical punishment in an attempt to silence her heritage. Her teachers try to force her to speak English and forget where she came from. Everyone tells her to stop speaking a foreign tongue and that if she wants to be “normal”, then she should speak English like everyone else. Anzaldúa also says in the excerpt that, “Chicano Spanish is considered by the purest and most Latinos deficient, a mutilation of Spanish.”(Anzaldúa, 72). Even other Latinos and Latinas don’t truly accept her just because Chicano Spanish is slightly different than normal. Chicanos don’t really belong to any one group and instead of being considered a part of many different cultures, they aren’t a part of any

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