Critic speak is tough, but we've got you covered.
Quote :Borderlands/La Frontera
In a constant state of mental nepantilism, an Aztec word meaning torn between ways, la mestiza is a product of the transfer of the cultural and spiritual values of one group to another. Being tricultural, monolingual, bilingual, or multilingual, speaking a patois, and in a state of perpetual transition, the mestiza faces the dilemma of the mixed breed: which collectivity does the daughter of a darkskinned mother listen to?....Cradled in one culture, sandwiched between two cultures, straddling all three cultures and their value systems, la mestiza undergoes a struggle of flesh, a struggle of borders, an inner war. Like all people, we perceive the version of reality that our culture communicates. Like others having or living in more than one culture, we get multiple, often opposing messages.
Gloria Anzaldúa's Borderlands/La Frontera is all about hybridity. Not only is she interested in thinking about cross-cultural identities, she also wants to explore ways of doing "theory" in hybrid genres. That's why she mixes personal histories, anecdotes, and bits of poetry with her academic writing. Plus, on behalf of the millions of Spanish-speaking Americans—many of them Mexican Americans, like her—Anzaldúa includes a lot of Spanish in the book too, and doesn't offer English translations. ¡Qué interesante!
Her hybrid use of language will mean different things to different readers: bilingual readers should be able to understand her arguments totally, but monolingual readers will sometimes come up short. Which is a great way not just to tell, but to show how everyone sees the world through the eyes of their culture, and when you have multiple cultures, it's hard to make sense of all the messages you get. Imagine trying to piece together a vision of the world by watching multiple news channels on multiple TV screens simultaneously: mestiza consciousness is something like that.
But hey, even though it's difficult, it's also a great source of power. Sometimes it's actually easier to see the truth when you can piece it together from lots of different sources. Especially if you're really good at reading between the lines. Which is what Alzaldúa's book makes you do if you don't know all the Spanish words, theory words, and poetry words she uses. You got it: the book literally performs Anzaldúa's argument by letting readers see how limiting it is to understand the world through just one perspective! Pretty awesome, right?