107761

tego. co ciągnie siła; Stable, że się nie rozleci, a nie że ma zdecydowane kształty, it doesn t disappear

■    P. 84 - Kultura graniczna wytwarza się by stawić się kulturze obowiązującej; kobiety kolorowe, lesbijki czuja się dyskryminowane; new consciousness also like a Project - stan umysłowy; ktoś coś osiągnie, ale trzeba nad tym pracować.

■ Mexican culture - patriarcha!

■    To bili ld sth constnictive

In the first chapter of Borderłands. Gloria E. Anzaldńa uses stnking imagery to illnstrate tlie pain tlie border has brought to the mesńzos by both dividing tlieir culture and fencing diem in - trapping them on one side. She then exemplifies the most important reason tlie deadly border exists: it is the gringo way of staying safe by separating us from them. Anzaldńa then inclndes a short history of tlie people who have inhabited the Mexico region, beginning with the oldest known inhabitants of what is now tlie United States and ending in tlie present day.

The book comprises a set of essays and poems exploring identity. each drawing on Anzaldua's experience as a Chi ca na. a lesbian. and an activisL Anzaldna challenges the conception of a border as a simple divide.

Anzaldńa opens Borderlaiids by talking about the ocean. She does dńs to contrast it witli the United States Mexico border. wliicli is nnnatnral and confining. Tlie border fence does not jnst separate two conntries, but it does something morę; it sociologically and psychologically affects us. She then uses imagery wliicli gives the reader a sense of the helplessness tiiat tlie mestizo feels pushed back from tlie land their ancestors lived on, and condemned to it. By switching from Spanish to English. Anzaldńa gives the impression tliat she is tied to both cultures.

According to Anzaldńa, tlie reason that borders exist is to separate tlie good from the bad, tlie safe from tlie dangerous, us from them. She claims that when tliose of color cross the border, whether legitimately or not, tliey are “raped, maimed, strangled, gassed, [and] shot.” Wliite people. on the otlier liand. have a free pass to cross the border as often as they like. legally or illegally.

In tlus semi-autobiographical account, Anzaldna comes to terms with her Chicana lesbian identity to recognize tlie components of its existence. Not only does her lesbian naturę have traces of both małe and female idenńties, but her culture is a mixture of many different races and cultures. By using both English and Spaiush in her writing. she demonstrates tliat the Chicana literaturę cannot be expressed in only one language. She even references eight of the otlier borderland languages wliicli she knows. Culmral identity is very important to Anzaldua, but she claims tliat "culture is madę by those in power -men. Males make tlie rules and laws; women transmit them." ¹¹¹ By emeiging beyond tlie limits of either American or Mexican culture, Chicana literaturę provides a voice to the people of the borderłands.

She also tells tlie story of tlie mesńzos’ descendants, beginning witli the Chicanos in wliat is now Texas in 35,000 B.C. In 1,000 B.C. diey moved south to what is now Mexico and Central America where tlieir children, tlie Aztecs were defeated by Cortes. At this ńme the mestizo, part Spanish, part native, arose. Tlie mestizo then traveled to wliat is now the Southwest United States and built their lives tliere. Later, as the United States began to grow in populańon, they began moving into Mexico (currently Texas) and forcibly taking tlieir lands. War broke out and Mexico eventually was defeated With the Treaty of Guadalupe in 1848 100,000 Mexicans became homeless. Although some tried to fight back and keep tlieir homes it resulted in lynching and terror. After the war American coinpanies began encroaching on Mexican turf agam. At tlie end of the nineteenth centuiy, they employed one fburth of Mexicans in factories, forcing tliem to work long hours and leani about American culmre and ideals. In doing tlus, tliey devalued tlie peso and created a liigh unemployment ratę throughout Mexico. For many Mexicans “the choice is to stay in Mexico and starve or move north and live.”