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graciegrace1178 's review for:
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
by Gloria E. Anzaldúa
3.4 stars
I read this whole book?? WAIT??? I THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY CHAPTER EXCERPTS I DIDNT REALIZE THAT WAS THE WHOLE T H I NG.
PT: chicana lit/multiethnic lit, books for school, minority voices, code switching, Spanish language
WIL
1) Basque writer! MY FIRST EVER BASQUE AUTHOR. WOW. I didn't even realize I didn't know any Basque writers until I saw that she was one.
2) The new mestiza. Pretty nifty idea, I must say.
3) writing style as characteristic of the new mestiza. (AKA "yea that's pretty much what I'd expect")
4) writing on writing. NOICE.
5) [extracted reading note page 70] Every so often, I’ll open a book that magically finds me at the right time in my life. It’s usually hard to read bc it’s so heccin appropriate to my current situation, but I’m always glad to have read those Magical Room Of Requirement-Esque books. And uhhh this is def one of them. I mean really. It’s kind of ridiculous honestly how perfect this is for me rn. Chapters 5-6 are really something
WIDL
1) Goddess descriptions. I mean...what. What was that. That was bonkers. I had to re-read the descriptions of the goddesses like four times and it sTILL got all tangled up in my head bc the writing was (intentionally?) vague about delineations.
1b) actually you know what being "(intentionally?) vague" is a big part of the reason this took me forever to read. Me personally? I like words to make sense.**
2) Advocating for the displacement of cultures. One of the biggest problems I face when reading defining works of cultural movements like this is the call to action. Oftentimes, it's incendiary. That's fine. Actually, that's great. I'm glad nativist movements are experiencing some unification and cultural restoration. I'm all about that! BUT Anzaldua... I think she takes it a bit too far. Her rage seems to overcome her, and consequently, she wants to let it out upon a lot of people now who intend her no harm and would work towards her joy. Towards the very end, her statements hoping to reclaim her culture and her people evolve into statements against one enemy. And the enemy she paints doesn't seem to be a real one. It's one she's concocted for the sake of demonizing anyone who stands in her way. That's not a fair portrayal, and the fallout, at least in the analyses I read on Borderlands, is that readers become biased against whole cultures like Anzaldua. That's the opposite of her explicit intent. Her tone betrays her. She says moving towards a new mestiza is a move towards greater tolerance, but then she demonizes and slanders her enemies.
Neutral Ground
1) mestiza writings take some getting used to. Between the code switching into Spanish (which I am far more rusty at than I'd like to admit) the lyrical, flowery prose, and the themes that seem simultaneously far too surface level and far too esoteric, the whole experience of reading mestiza and latina* works is a look into what could've been had European writing styles not come to wipe out other writing styles. I think it's because I am so accustomed to that hero's journey/standard form of writing that's taught in school that this work bugges me so much. It felt lacking in a lot of ways, but I don't know if it's officially lacking, or if the metric by which I'm judging it is inherently biased towards eurocentrism.
*yes I am grouping them together bc my class is grouping them together
**Okay, yea, that's probably being too harsh on Anzaldua but this writing style really requires WORK to get through.
I read this whole book?? WAIT??? I THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY CHAPTER EXCERPTS I DIDNT REALIZE THAT WAS THE WHOLE T H I NG.
PT: chicana lit/multiethnic lit, books for school, minority voices, code switching, Spanish language
WIL
1) Basque writer! MY FIRST EVER BASQUE AUTHOR. WOW. I didn't even realize I didn't know any Basque writers until I saw that she was one.
2) The new mestiza. Pretty nifty idea, I must say.
3) writing style as characteristic of the new mestiza. (AKA "yea that's pretty much what I'd expect")
4) writing on writing. NOICE.
5) [extracted reading note page 70] Every so often, I’ll open a book that magically finds me at the right time in my life. It’s usually hard to read bc it’s so heccin appropriate to my current situation, but I’m always glad to have read those Magical Room Of Requirement-Esque books. And uhhh this is def one of them. I mean really. It’s kind of ridiculous honestly how perfect this is for me rn. Chapters 5-6 are really something
WIDL
1) Goddess descriptions. I mean...what. What was that. That was bonkers. I had to re-read the descriptions of the goddesses like four times and it sTILL got all tangled up in my head bc the writing was (intentionally?) vague about delineations.
1b) actually you know what being "(intentionally?) vague" is a big part of the reason this took me forever to read. Me personally? I like words to make sense.**
2) Advocating for the displacement of cultures. One of the biggest problems I face when reading defining works of cultural movements like this is the call to action. Oftentimes, it's incendiary. That's fine. Actually, that's great. I'm glad nativist movements are experiencing some unification and cultural restoration. I'm all about that! BUT Anzaldua... I think she takes it a bit too far. Her rage seems to overcome her, and consequently, she wants to let it out upon a lot of people now who intend her no harm and would work towards her joy. Towards the very end, her statements hoping to reclaim her culture and her people evolve into statements against one enemy. And the enemy she paints doesn't seem to be a real one. It's one she's concocted for the sake of demonizing anyone who stands in her way. That's not a fair portrayal, and the fallout, at least in the analyses I read on Borderlands, is that readers become biased against whole cultures like Anzaldua. That's the opposite of her explicit intent. Her tone betrays her. She says moving towards a new mestiza is a move towards greater tolerance, but then she demonizes and slanders her enemies.
Neutral Ground
1) mestiza writings take some getting used to. Between the code switching into Spanish (which I am far more rusty at than I'd like to admit) the lyrical, flowery prose, and the themes that seem simultaneously far too surface level and far too esoteric, the whole experience of reading mestiza and latina* works is a look into what could've been had European writing styles not come to wipe out other writing styles. I think it's because I am so accustomed to that hero's journey/standard form of writing that's taught in school that this work bugges me so much. It felt lacking in a lot of ways, but I don't know if it's officially lacking, or if the metric by which I'm judging it is inherently biased towards eurocentrism.
*yes I am grouping them together bc my class is grouping them together
**Okay, yea, that's probably being too harsh on Anzaldua but this writing style really requires WORK to get through.