After reading Anzaldua’s novel in its entirety I struggle with what impression I am supposed to be left with of the Borderland people and culture. Throughout the first part of the novel Anzaldua makes heavy and audacious statements about her sexuality and heritage and the oppression of the white man. I assumed that the second part would only further her claims and perhaps reveal more about her family history and struggles. Instead however we are given a collection of poems and songs authored by a variety of different people. Could it be her intention to make us not focus as readers on the logic and history of race relations but instead to be overwhelmed with the value of language?
Because there is no character or plot development to analyze in the second half, I began to evaluate why Anzaldua chose to format the book the way she did. Why give us an open ended historical and personal narrative of life as a Chicano first and then stray to the form of poetry in the second half? I found that for the most part each poem identified an aspect of her life which she mentioned Part 1. “In the Borderlands you are the battleground where enemies are kin to each other…you are at home, a stranger.” The poems whether written by her or someone else emphasize the misogyny and the loss she narrates. However I don’t believe this was her only intention. By mirroring her experiences with various forms of language, mainly poetry, she is giving us a reasoning and maybe even a solution to her identity crisis. Yes she struggles but it is through her voice that she survives. She can be stripped of her land, stripped of a functional household, however with a language that she understands and speaks she reigns wherever she may choose to go. What is surprising is that by the end of this novel I was not left with this desire to save “Mexico” like many of the other novels but instead I began to appreciate and understand language as a system and even as a currency.
Maybe this constant notion of choice and choosing the thing that makes life more difficult isn’t just about testing her strength and ability to carry a shadow monster but instead it is her way of revealing that every choice becomes seamlessly less absurd and difficult when having the ability to communicate in a language that is your own. “I am mad but I choose this madness.” It is as if she is not trying to steer her readers into believing that choices can be right and wrong but instead that if it is what you speak and understand it isn’t a matter of choosing to be gay or Chicano but choosing to be a part of something whose language you speak and understand.
Also I don’t know if anyone is interested in Hollywood interpretations of historical events but if you are here’s a video about a movie called Bordertown starring Jennifer Lopez and Martin Sheen.
This movie clip offers another look at the way media is sculpted to victimize some and hide the victimizers:
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After reading Anzaldua’s Borderlands, unlike Dhipinder’s impression, I was able to establish a clear understanding of how the Borderland people felt towards society, and their culture. I felt horrible for those living on the Borderlands. For example, the author mentions living in the Borderlands “you are the battleground where enemies are kin to each other…you are wounded, lost in action, dead, fighting back”(Anzaldua 194). From this section, I felt that living in the Borderlands was a struggle. There are constant disputes, and conflicts which occur, and innocent people seemed to get involved. Also the author implies that one who lives in the Borderlands is neither “Hispania India negra Espanola, ni gabacha eres mestiza, mulata, half breed…while carrying all five races on your back not knowing which side to turn to, or run from”(Anzaldua 194). This section makes evident that one living in the Borderlands has trouble finding their identity. As a result of the Borderland inhabitants being of mixed breed, they are forced to live separately from others.
ReplyDeleteI found it was clever for the author to personify the feeling of “pain” in her poem titled “La Curancera”. For example, “Juan Davila saw pain crawling towards him… pain sliding down his leg… the pain crawling towards the door”(Anzaldua 177). The personification which I found to be enjoyable, described the direction in which the pain was felt, I could actually imagine where Juan felt his pain. Perhaps this poem not only describes the pain in which Juan Davila felt, but also the pain and similar issues those living on the Borderlands faced.
Between quoting Anzaldua's narrative, and explaining her use of language and the importance of language, you wrote "The poems whether written by her or someone else emphasize the misogyny and the loss she narrates." I want to expand on that because I think it's an important point. Dhipinder explained that the first half of the book is Anzaldua's narrative, and the second half is made up of poems not necessarily written by her. And, like Dhipinder said, the poems somewhat echo Anzaldua's narrative. But I think those poems are there more for the importance of the stories the tell and the messages they relate than for the emphasis on language, like you explain. By putting these poems there, poems that, like you said, emphasize loss, experiences and emotions that Anzaldua herself went to, I think Anzaldua tried to make her narrative more universal and familiar. She is esentially saying, look at these people not necesarily from the same walks of life as me, and look how they share my pain as well. DO you, reader, feel my pain? For example, I personally can't relate to her loss as a Chicana woman, but I full understand the pain portrayed in the Holocaust poem we discussed in class, because I grew up learning about the Holocaust and my family and my friends' family suffered from the Holocaust. I may not fully appreciate the pain Anzaldua felt when discussing how she she felt silenced by not being able to speak her native tongue, but I understand the silence of the Holocaust all too well. I think this was Anzaldua's purpose, in many ways: to incorporate poems that relate to her story, that emphasize silence and loss and pain, thereby making her experiences more universal and understandable, effectively spreading her message further, past the Chicana world to anybody that can identify with her experiences, like the poets she chooses.
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