Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera

Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa has been my favorite reading thus far. This novel is written by a woman who identifies with so many cultures that can often conflict with eachother. She also reflects on the individual challenges that face each different culture. Anzaldúa was born into a family of Mexican and Indian descent. She is a woman, and must always struggle with the dominance of men. She is Tejana, because she lives in Texas and is Spanish. She is Chicana because she is a Mexican living in the Unites States. She is American, because this is the country in which she was born. And finally, arguably her hardest identity to deal with is that she is a lesbian. I want to focus the blog post on her struggles with her sexual orientation.

One of the most memorable moments in the book is when Anzaldúa discusses homophobia. A student of hers, who is also a lesbian, thought homophobia was the fear of going home. We know that this is not true, and that homophobia is actually the fear or hatred of homosexuals. Despite the error, Anzaldúa agreed with this new definition and found it very relatable. Her traditional family did not accept her as a lesbian and she often does not visit them in her adult life. This reveals the grim truth about what many lesbians and gay men must deal with. Many are uprooted from the lives they have experienced in their childhood once they come out, and are forced start a new life with their new identities. As someone who is not part of the gay community, I like to believe that how gays are treated by the community has improved, even since this book was published, but this is probably not true. It pains me to think that someone can be discriminated against for a characteristic they are born with.

Discrimination spreads farther than judging people for their sexual orientation, there is also discrimination is our society against someone for their race. Anzaldúa has witnessed, first hand, this type of discrimination. She is angered that her family has been living on the land that is now Texas before the land was part of the United States – before the United States were even a conceivable idea. In the time of her ancestors, the nomadic Indians were able to move to wherever they desired, usually traveling with the animals that supplied their food, and where there were the most natural resources. Anzaldúa calls the border at the edge of Texas, diving the United States and Mexico, is a scar in the land. It is harsh and defies the idea of nature, and it should not be there. Borders go against America’s representation of ‘the land of the free’- but who is free to come in? It is not fair that the first Americans to come over from Europe set in place an example of discrimination against the natives the still plagues our country until this day. Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera is the prime example of the other side of discrimination, the victims.