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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
BORDERLANDS/LA FRONTERA is a text so explosive that I will let it speak for itself:
"So, don't give me your tenets and your laws. Don't give me your lukewarm gods. What I want is an accounting with all three cultures—white, Mexican, Indian. I want the freedom to carve and chisel my own face, to staunch the bleeding with ashes, to fashion my own gods out of my entrails. And if going home is denied me then I will have to stand claim my space, making a new culture—una cultura mestiza—with my own lumber, my own bricks and mortar and my own feminist architecture" (44).
"All reaction is limited by, and dependent on, what it is reacting against. Because the counterstance stems from a problem with authority—outer as well as inner—it's a step towards liberation from cultural domination. But it is not a way of life. At some point, on our way to a new consciousness, we will have to leave the opposite bank, the split between the two mortal combatants somehow healed so that we are on both shores at once and, at once, see through serpent and eagle eyes. Or perhaps we will decide to disengage from the dominant culture, write it off altogether as a lost cause, and cross the border into a wholly new and separate territory. Or we might go another route. The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react" (101).
"Soy un amasamiento, I am an act of kneading, of uniting and joining that not only has produced both a creature of darkness and a creature of light, but also a creature that questions the definitions of light and dark and gives them new meaning" (103).
"So, don't give me your tenets and your laws. Don't give me your lukewarm gods. What I want is an accounting with all three cultures—white, Mexican, Indian. I want the freedom to carve and chisel my own face, to staunch the bleeding with ashes, to fashion my own gods out of my entrails. And if going home is denied me then I will have to stand claim my space, making a new culture—una cultura mestiza—with my own lumber, my own bricks and mortar and my own feminist architecture" (44).
"All reaction is limited by, and dependent on, what it is reacting against. Because the counterstance stems from a problem with authority—outer as well as inner—it's a step towards liberation from cultural domination. But it is not a way of life. At some point, on our way to a new consciousness, we will have to leave the opposite bank, the split between the two mortal combatants somehow healed so that we are on both shores at once and, at once, see through serpent and eagle eyes. Or perhaps we will decide to disengage from the dominant culture, write it off altogether as a lost cause, and cross the border into a wholly new and separate territory. Or we might go another route. The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react" (101).
"Soy un amasamiento, I am an act of kneading, of uniting and joining that not only has produced both a creature of darkness and a creature of light, but also a creature that questions the definitions of light and dark and gives them new meaning" (103).
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
This was a hard book for me. Her writing style is tough to take in. Which is intentional. The material is also tough to take in. It’s meant to put you in the position that she has been in for much of her life. You’re confused, it’s not linear, it’s poems, it’s stories, it’s real life it’s fiction and it’s Spanish and English. The mixture made it hard for me to read and get through. But I’m happy I read it and I’m excited to discuss it with friends because I feel like there’s a lot I probably missed. Her explanations were so vivid and so much detail though so I appreciated the look into what a different life could be.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
The fetishization of indigenous people and anti-black racism of this book is horrific. When a book cites "La Raza Cosmica" in a positive light run in the opposite direction. Friendly reminder, that not all Latinos or Chicanos are mixed and the pushing of that myth is actively rooted in white supremacy.
This was an interlibrary loan and I ran out of time to read it. I also underestimated how challenging it would be with so much of it in Spanish.
I was initially intimidated by the fact that about 1/3 of this book is written in Spanish. Once I got past that - and any desire for a linear narrative that I totally understood (even when it was in English) - I loved this book. Anzaldua has a provocative way with words, images and ideas. This is definately a book I will go back to again and again.
Listen. This book changed my life. The way Anzaldúa discusses the particular struggles Chicanas face was so raw and so real. Having grown up in Texas, I’m disappointed, but unfortunately not surprised, that none of her work was taught in my school. Her writing is so eloquent and fierce and spoke to me in a way I’ve never experienced before. I’m saddened we lost her so early.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism
Moderate: Sexual violence, Violence