La Frontera By Gloria Anzaldua: The Question Of Race, Ethnicity, And Gender

Anzaldua’s use of two languages and refraining from translations in several areas of the work accentuates her search for an identity, one that has liberated itself from the colonial influence. For emphasizing on the themes of exclusion and belonging, Anzaldua focuses on gender stereotypes, revealing the perils of being woman and homosexual since they are pushed further into the periphery. What comes across powerfully after a close reading of the text is the concept of borders, geographical or otherwise, socially produced as an instrument of routine segregation. Through her work, Anzaldua sought to accomplish the decolonization of the inner self, as she allows herself to pour out the anxiety of exclusion she has always felt as a writer belonging from the margins. She declares her argument in the opening chapter of the work, titled The Homeland, where she argues against the notion of Anglos and reveals how the differentiation is deliberately initiated by influential people of the West, for robbing the indigenous people of their rights (Anzaldua: Ch1, 28-29). Gloria Anzaldua is consistent with her portrayal of the “white superiority” but differs in treatment, style, and content when writing about the cultural expectations and their (the oppressed) continued adherence to the same. The beginning chapters are less complicated with regard to language and structure, the author is clear about her stance, revealing strategically the gambits of the “superior”, challenging the notions of the cultural expectations imposed on the marginalized by the powerful.

As she progresses, the political undertones become explicit, the struggle for acknowledgement more intense. The latter chapters are characterized by complex vocabulary, esoteric topics of discussion and authoritarian style of writing. The spatial and historical dynamics of the topographical border between the United States and Mexico, massively shaped by the expansionist agenda of the US, cost Mexico a significant loss of most its territory, and the consequent stigmatization of the Chicanos as foreign “others” (Anzaldua: Ch1, 29). This “othering” was the result of their non-conformity to the predominant culture, values, religion, tradition and skin color of the Anglo-Saxons. Anzaldua developed her borderland theory after observing and experiencing continued racism, exploitation, marginalization, and exclusion of the Chicanos, as she sought to liberate herself and the rest of the community from the shackles of a colonized identity. She paints a poignant and honest picture of a search for identity in an unfeeling world, that refuses to grant one to marginalized people. The physical border between the US and Mexico only concretizes the psychological fence a person is entrapped with, when denied a place and culture in society. Her inherent anxiety is informed with rich rhetoric in lines like “She has this fear that she has no names… that she has many names that she does not know her names. " (Anzaldua: 65).

Indeed, it is difficult for a woman to grow up in an atmosphere of confusion and oppression, to survive in a land of contradictions, of anger, hatred and unspeakable exploitation. It is also a society where the question of the self is not easily answered. The cultural institutions impose restrictions under the garb of protection, suffocating the individual enough to make her stop seeking for a concrete identity. The traditional institution exercises its power, according to Foucault, by forcing self-policing thoughts in people’s minds (Yarbro: 11). The whole agenda behind this is to keep the marginalized in the shadow and disarm them from taking any action against oppression. In various parts of the book, Anzaldua demonstrates deep awareness of a hegemonic discourse and attempts to break free from the hierarchical ties, for letting loose the “Shadow Beast” (Anzaldua: Ch 2, 42). The author opens up the minds of the readers to the revelation that people, on a majority, submit to authority because they are unaware that authority has never proved its validity; the impositions forced on Anzaldua and the women of her kind arise from a need to control, in the disguise of benevolent acts of protection. Culture, she says, is created by men for ensuring that women keep to the rigidly defined roles formulated by men for perpetuating power and oppression. The fear associated with the need to control and separate is one of the “deviant” aspects of oppression. The queer holds up a mirror reflecting the fear of the heterosexual tribe; their difference propels the majority to categorize them as sub-human, or non-human (Fowlkes: 105).

To be more precise, people fear that which is different, and it stems from their inability to acknowledge differences without the impulse towards control and dominance over this “other” race (Anzaldua: 62). Humankind is perennially threatened by everything that is unfamiliar and not in their power, Anzaldua attempts to demonstrate such age-old discriminations with real-life encounters and examples from History. The author is particularly fixated on describing society’s tendency to condition men in rigid gender roles. Anzaldua reflects in Towards a New Consciousness, on the dangers of toxic masculinity and the vulnerability of sensitive men, who are obligated to conform to the notions of the “Machismo”: "I've encountered a few scattered and isolated gentle ho straight men, the beginnings of a new breed, but they are confused, and entangled with sexist behaviors that they have not been able to eradicate. " (Anzaldua: 106) The author further addresses the issue of the marked differentiation between good and evil embodied by the female deities. The tendency of Western culture to paint all things evil and dark in the colors of femininity while the good and the protector is customarily portrayed as manly and just. The ones in power use shaming as a tool to condition the powerless, taking advantage of their innocence and ignorance to promote fear in the underprivileged and prejudice in the uninformed privileged (Perales: 163). The 5th chapter of the work, titled How to Tame a Wild Tongue focuses on language and details of linguistic specificities. Anzaldua delineates her experiences as an outlaw, forced to use American English, implying how language is often used as a weapon for oppression. She also reflects on her development as a writer, relating the artistic experience of creation with the psychic space of borderland. Anzaldua further voices the struggles of learning a second language, ”by speaking English, you are ruining the Spanish language,” and unlearning the mother tongue as the tutors in her school attempt to eradicate a significant part of her culture (Anzaldua: Ch5, 35). She insists on the internal identification with culture (food, language, film, and music) through childhood experience and the influence it has on the individual’s perception of the world. It is important to note that Gloria Anzaldua writes as a lesbian feminist, an American born Spanish descendant, which makes her a writer belonging from the periphery.

The voices heard so powerfully in the text are as much her own as that of the vast community of the marginalized, struggling to have their voices heard. The use of two languages, recurrent themes of exclusion, gender stereotypes, cultural duality are deliberate to herald a new consciousness of the oppressed; who will no longer succumb to the powerful and the majority for sustenance, now that they have acquired an identity of their own. Despite the noticeable differences in tones and writing style, what feels the same from the beginning to the end is the fact that the book is an extension of Anzaldua herself. She has been successful in penning down her anxiety and frustrations of residing in the periphery, her rebellion against the powerful and support of the oppressed.