Borderlands

The poetry by Gloria Anzaldua in the second part of the book is very interesting. They range from daily life situations to sexual relationships. The poem that I would like to focus on is "Cultures." The speaker is being told by their mother to go out into the field to work. As the speaker is shoveling and digging, she discovers many different kinds of trash that has been buried for who knows how long. The speaker is then revealed to be a female. "my brothers never helped / woman's work and beneath them." (142) She is doing everything that seems to involve manual labor. She is told by her mother that "trash replenishes the soil," but then this is where it gets a little confusing. (142) Although the trash replenishes the soil, she is told that "nothing would grow in / my small plots except / thistle sage and nettle." (142) I don't understand this ending. Isn't the point of tilling land to grow things in?