Gloria Anzaldúa

Anzaldúa, born 1942 in Texas, is a mestiza, a combination of Mexican, Indian, and Anglo. Her writings combine English, Spanish, northern Mexican dialect, Tex-Mex and Nahuatl, a Native-American dialect. She is concerned with how we cross borders in a physical, psychological and spiritual sense.

To Live In The Borderlands Means You

 

To live in the Borderlands means you
are neither hispana india negr Espanola
ni gabacha, eres mestiza, mulata, half breed

caught in the crossfire between camps

while carrying all five races on your back

not knowing which side to turn to, run from;

 

To live in the Borderlands means knowing
      that the india in you,
        betrayed for 500 years,
is no longer speaking to you,
   that mexicanas call you rajetas,
   that denying the Anglo inside you
     is as bad as having denied
       the Indian or Black; 

Cuando vives en la frontera
 people walk through you, the wind
    steals your voice,
 you're a burra, buey, scapegoat,
forerunner of a new race,
 half and half—both woman and man,
     neither—
 a new gender;

To live in the Borderlands means to

 put chile in the borscht,
eat whole wheat tortillas,

 speak Tex-Mex with a Brooklyn accent;
be stopped by la migra at the border checkpoints;

Living in the Borderlands means you fight hard to
resist the gold elixir beckoning from the bottle,
 the pull of the gun barrel,
 the rope crushing the hollow of your throat;

In the Borderlands
   you are the battleground
   where the enemies are kin to each other;
   you are at home, a stranger,
   the border disputes have been settled
   the volley of shots have shattered the truce
   you are wounded, lost in action
   dead, fighting back;

 

To live in the Borderlands means
   the mill with the razor white teeth wants
     to shred off
   your olive-red skin, crush out the kernel,
     your heart
   pound you, pinch you roll you out
   smelling like white bread but dead;

 

To survive the Borderlands
   you must live sin fronteras
   be a crossroads.

 

gabacha—a Chicano term for a white woman

rajetas—literally ,"split," that is, having betrayed your word

burra—donkey

buey—oxen

sin fronteras—without borders