andreacastillo 's review for:

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria E. Anzaldúa

4.0

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I will need to read this several more times before I fully grasp and appreciate this, but what does stick out to me is excellent. The feeling of being part of two worlds and neither of them at once is something I've been able to relate to my whole life, and she describes it beautifully. Her thoughts on language are eloquent. Growing up, I've essentially spoken English/Spanish/Spanglish, both because I was a girl of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent growing up in the U.S., and Puerto Rican Spanish tends to mix English and Spanish rather liberally. This felt natural until I met Spanish speakers from other countries and learned that Spanglish, especially Puerto Rican Spanish, is sometimes looked down upon as inferior or less pure. I enjoyed reading Anzaldúa's take on communication in English vs. Spanish vs. hybrids of the two, and her experience as a Chicana, with her perspective that all versions of these are OK.