Gloria Anzaldua questions PDF

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Gloria Anzaldúa. “Borderlands” (La Frontera) Study Guide’s questions about the text. 1. What is the psychological effect, according to Anzaldúa to live among several cultures? This ambivalence results in mental and emotional states of perplexity, insecurity and indeciveness. The mestiza’s dual or multiple personality is plagued by psychic restlessness. 2. What metaphors does the author employ to this situation? The physical borders between the two countries where she grew in. (Mexico and the USA) 3. What are the benefits of cultural ambiguity? She learns to be an Indian in Mexican culture, to be Mexican from an Anglo point of view. She has a plural personality and she operates in a pluralistic mode. Divergent thinking characterized by movement away from set patterns. A perspective that includes rather than excludes. 4. In “Don’t forget men”, What explanation does Anzaldúa give to sexism? What are the results of a sexist society? She thinks that “machismo” (sexism) is actually an Anglo invention. For men like her father, being a “macho” meant being strong enough to protect and support her mother and them and being ale to show love. But according to her, today’s macho has doubts about his ability to feed and protect his family. His “machismo” is an adaptation to oppression and poverty and low self-esteem. The result of hierarchical male dominance. 5. Why does she see “mestizas” and homosexuals as forces for change? Because homosexuals like the mestizas have strong bonds with other races and cultures: Queer white, black, Asian, Native-American, Latino… and the rest of the planet. The role of both mestizas and homosexuals is to link people with each other, to transfer ideas and information from one culture to another. Coloured homosexuals have always been at the forefront of all liberation struggles and have suffered more injustices and have survived them. 6. Can we compare Andalzúa to bell hooks or Judith Butler? In what sense? Yes. All of them are feminists. The comparison with bell hooks apart from being women and feminists is due to their race. They are non-white women who feel more marginalized because of their race and culture being “out of the canon”, more in “the margins” than in the centre, as bell hooks claims. In the case of Judith Butler, both are feminists and lesbians and they search for their real identity defending the multiplicity of human beings, Queer theories and the different cultures, identities and adopt a view of breaking the established “heteronormativity”, power and stereotypes.

A brief summary of Borderlands and Gloria Anzaldúa’s life. Born in Texas 1942, she is an American scholar of Chicana cultural theory, Feminist theory and Queer theory. Gowing up on the Mexican-Texas border, “Borderlands” examines the condition of women in Chicano and Latino culture. Heteronormativity/colonialism/male dominance. The book talks about the search for identity. The physical borderland between the US and Mexico helps to create the psychological “fence” that a person is put on when they are denied a culture and a place in society. The book is written with the mixture of English and Spanish languages in some paragraphs to make clearer the miscegenation (mestizaje) in where she lives. She, as a woman and Chicana, grew up in an atmosphere of oppression and confusion. It’s not a comfortable territory to live in. Hatred, anger and exploitation are the prominent features of this landscape. Highlighted question: WHO AM I? The culture and the Church insist that women are subservient to males. Anzaldúa demonstrates her awareness of the Hegemonic Discourse. All Chicanas, all women, came from a need to control, benevolent act of “protection” “culture” (read males) professes to protect women. There is more than one way of being, its existence as the “Other” is what defines them as what they consider “The Norm”. The fear that the “Other” may challenge the existing power. A married woman who loved women in a world increasingly threatened by the potential alternative to patriarchal control that lesbianism could with independence and autonomy for women. We fear that which is not “us” that which threatens our power. Men attempting to break out of the hegemonic discourse are hard to find, and they are not readily accepted, be they gay or straight....