atticmoth 's review for:

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

4.0

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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So I actually read this because I felt guilty about citing it in an essay without having actually read it when I applied to grad school recently. I had read the final essay in a media studies class, and the idea of the Mestiza Consciousness and embracing inherent contradictions in identity was very formative to me. I was expecting this book to be more historical or academic, but it actually was very theoretical. The first half consists of seven essays about Mestiza identity, and a lot of ground is covered: from the history of the Virgen de Guadalupe and her cultural synchronicity with Coatlicue, to meditations on Anzaldúa‘s own life. I wish these were actually expanded on more, because coming away from this I’m not actually sure how much I learned and a lot was repeated. It was a lot more spiritual than I expected though, and so that was an interesting internal glimpse of a culture I am not part of. 

The second half of this work, and to me the highlight, is a poetry collection entitled “Un Agitado Viento/Ehécatl, The Wind.” Poetry is a medium that can be so personal, but Anzaldúa easily takes on a myriad of voices in this collection, from a mother mourning her son to a border guard, from goddesses to cannibals. My favorite poem in this collection was called “Interface (for Frances Doughty),” which was about falling in love with a literal alien. This demonstrates her capacity for wit and humor while still meditating on the intersection between race and her lesbian identity. A lot of this poetry was in Spanish, or a mixture between Spanish and English, which although I don’t speak it I admire the commitment to writing something that’s for mestizas and how something as deceptively simple as language can be a barrier in itself.