In the poem “To Live in the Boarderlands,” by Gloria Anzaldua, the stanza, “to survive the Boarderlands/ you must live sin fronteras/ be a crossroads” closes the poem. The poem discusses living in the borderland and not fully being one identity or another. Rather than identifying as one thing, the poet is a combination of thing. These different identities may be conflicting with each other. The poem discusses the poets confusion of these conflicting identities. This results in the confusion of where the poets place is within their community where they feel they may not fully belong. In the final stanza, sin fronteras translates to without boarders. This can be understood as to survive the borderlands you must live without borders. In other words, you must be able to cross over from one identity to the next. This is further displayed with the poets use of transitioning between the English and Spanish language. The poet never fully speaks English and never fully speaks Spanish. By doing so they are able to merge their identities and cultures into one. They are able to live in both situations. They can transition from one identity to the other because both identities are theirs.
Gloria Anzaldúa, “To Live In the Borderlands Means You,” in Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1987), 194-195.