Day: February 19, 2018

In the poem “To Live in the Borderlands”, Gloria Anzaldua speaks about “the Borderlands” as both the land surrounding a border (presumably between the U.S. and Mexico due to the juxtaposition of Spanish and English) and a personal direction for processing feelings of being from multiple cultures. The aforementioned usage of Spanish and English interchangeably is sometimes to insert words that do not have accurate translations in English and to simply translate the English words (“To live in the Borderlands/Cuando vives en la frontera”). In both situations, though, this juxtaposition appears to highlight the difference and difficulty between switching languages rapidly in the same way that being multicultural might cause a confusion of identity, especially in the context of a society like the U.S. that integrates elements of other cultures just as easily as it rejects them (i.e. elements of other cultures being strong in many sections of the U.S., sometimes existing alongside intense xenophobia and racism towards them).

In this context, the poem rejects the notion that this means defeat. Anzaldua does not hide the pain of this dilemma, exploring violence (“the mill with the razor…”) and addiction (“fight hard to resist the gold elixir beckoning from the bottle…”), but the poem ends with a more hopeful message: “To survive the Borderlands/you must live sin fronteras/be a crossroads.” Because the Spanish translates to “without borders”, I believe that Anzaldua is arguing that in order to fight against a society that defines culture, identity, and citizenship as being separated by borders, you must internalize the notion that borders do not exist, welcoming everything else in.

CITATIONS

Anzaldúa, Gloria. “To Live in the Borderlands.” Power Poetry, www.powerpoetry.org/content/live-borderlands.

Gloria Anzaldúa’s poem, “To Live in the Borderlands,” illustrates the conflicting identity of those living in borderlands.  In these regions, there is a great deal of mixing of different cultures, races and political views.  This poem seems to focus on displaying these differences and the interplay of these differences on the borderland people’s identities.  The transitions between English and Spanish is indicative of this interaction of cultures and races. These transitions speak to tell us that the poet and border people have almost this dual sense of identity. They move between languages, cultures and places.  Switching between these two languages also serves to hit home with those that are currently living in the Borderlands. It is indicative of their lives and the interconnection of languages and cultures. Borders are not just physical divides between places as they can exist inside of us. They can be emotional borders, psychological and spiritual borders.  All these borders shape who these people are as individuals and as a society. To survive living in such a place as the “Borderlands,” Anzaldúa suggests that people fight the status quo but that in do so “you must live sin fronteras/ be a crossroads.”   From this last stanza, Anzaldúa is telling her readers to live without borders and be a crossroads.  In other words, you must fight helplessness, adapt to your situation and finally accept your dual identity.

Source:

Gloria Anzaldúa, “To Live In the Borderlands Means You,” in Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1987), 194-195.