33 pages 1 hour read

Gloria E. Anzaldua

Borderlands La Frontera

Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 1987

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Themes

Contradiction as Mestiza Consciousness

Anzaldúa opens her text with contradictions, describing the borderland as an “open wound” and “thin edge of barbwire” (24–5) that is her home. The borderland is a place defined by strict borders, but it is also vague, fluid, evolving. It is an unwelcoming homeland, an oxymoron. As she delves into the power of Coatlicue and the history of the Virgin de Guadalupe, she describes the dual dark and light/ masculine and feminine energies residing in the indigenous goddess, emphasizing that the goddess’s power comes from her contradictory energy.

Later, as Anzaldúa explains her experience of the Coatlicue state, another contradiction emerges: the pain caused by Coatlicue is also a source of healing—the wound caused by the serpent is healed by the serpent. Language, too, becomes a source of contradictory information, as Chicanos meld English and Spanish, never able to speak perfectly in either language, and instead crafting a patois of “Tex-Mex.”

It is just this ability to tolerate multiplicity and ambiguity in the self, Anzaldúa argues, that positions themestiza to develop a new perspective on the world, a new consciousness that is inclusive, alien, and plural.