Gloria Anzaldúa
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Introduction by Esteban Crespo Jaramillo
Gloria Anzaldua (1942–2004) describes her seminal Borderlands/La Frontera with poignant honesty. “This almost finished product,” says Anzaldua, “seems an assemblage, a montage, a beaded work with several leitmotifs and with a central core, now appearing, now disappearing in a crazy dance” (66). The assemblage of materials she refers to as “a mosaic pattern (Aztec-like)” reminds me of a once-popular literary genre called prosimetrum. Like Dante’s, Sannazaro’s or William Carlos Williams’, Anzaldua’s prosimetrum, or prose-verse assemblage, exploits philosophical thought through autobiography.
Borderlands/La Frontera’s intimately weaved theory has become a classic in Chicana feminism and is still widely quoted today. Anzaldua aimed to use a new language, the Borderlands’ language, to recreate new mythic narratives, rooted in her individual and collective experiences. In an attempt to give textual expression to the variegated and multilayered identity at the U.S. Southwest/Mexican border, the book showcases Tex-Mex music and Aztec history, but also the author’s own childhood and the U.S. conquest of Mexico. The switching of topics as well as the reciprocity between poetry and prose is mirrored by the switching of linguistic codes, mainly Spanish, English, and Nahuatl. Borderlands/La Frontera’s virtuosic mixture of genres, writing techniques and languages dramatizes the book’s central tenet concerning mestizaje’s creative power.
As a consequence of this pluralistic and liminal mode, Anzaldua is able to go beyond dichotomic explanations. Early Modern Colonialism is met with Aztec patriarchal polities and machismo can be also explained as a tactic to protect one’s family. The “new mestiza consciousness” she proposes has the same tolerance for ambiguity that “people who cross cultures by necessity possess” (30), and can turn ambivalence “into something else” (79). The book ends with a call to action that looks at liminal experiences, like mestizaje, migration or queerness, as possible ways out. However, Anzaldua also acknowledges that not everyone is willing to use their energy to serve as mediators between colliding cultures.
The workshop’s ongoing discussion about non-violence encounters new issues in Borderlands/La Frontera, like glottopolitics and feminism with mystic and psychoanalytical nuances. Since music plays an important role in the book, I have prepared a Spotify Playlist with some of the songs Anzaldua quotes, and others that may help illustrate some historical moments referred to in the book. Finally, it is almost impossible to find a recording of Anzaldua, but if you want to meet her, here you can find a lecture she gave at Oregon State University, a year before she passed away: https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/0_wkv89qm9.
