45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A complex tapestry exploring the many facets of "mestiza.", September 22, 1998
By A Customer
Anzaldua weaves a richly complex tapestry which explores many facets of "mestiza" -- of being "caught between" a variety of binary oppositions. Of course, the complicated cultural issues of mestiza are thoroughly addressed in this brilliant, spell-binding book. Also, issues of language (as she weaves a variety of languages and linguistic modes of expression in her text), sexual identity (as a lesbian woman), shamanic consciousness (which she describes as her "waking dream" or the Coatlicue state," and later as the "shamanic state"), and more. The political implications of the book are powerful and engagingly complex. Yet at the same time, the personal and spiritual dimensions of the book are intensly satisfying. I find this book opening up doors of consciousness for me in my own spiritual and creative life. I strongly recommend reading this book at night before going to sleep. It is the kind of literature that expands in the dreaming consciousness.
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38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Borderlands: A place where people can meet, May 13, 1998
By A Customer
Borderlands/ La Frontera: the new Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldua is a wonderful piece of literature that refreshes and revitalizes the image of both Chicana/os and lesbians in a refreshing manner that exalts the power and possibilities immanent in both these marginalized perspectives. To reader who are skeptical of the legitimacy behind these positions beware, the immediacy of her prose and poetry may just convert you. But, regardless of ones knowledge of either contemporary issues in the more academic realm of queer theory and Chicano studies. The book is a wonderful achievement and insight into both of these very different and yet connected worlds, which are interlaced throughout the work. The English speaking reader may be wary of a book that does not cater to us as a reader-the book contains both passages in English and Spanish-however, even without access to the Spanish passages the book is a good way of getting to know a very different world than what most straight white middle class America is used to.
The Book is composed of seven essays, which is followed by selections of her poetry. However, do not make the mistake that these essays are only dry theoretical, or historical tales, to inform the reader about the plight of lesbians and Chicana/os, even though this is in some sense what these pieces are about. But Anzaldua's means of presenting of factual material is more akin to the poetry in the second half of the book than what we might normally expect. Her mixing of these genre's serves simultaneously to explore new frontiers both in an aesthetic sense and to truly give new life to her subject matter. The result is a work which defies traditional modes of classification while simultaneously breathing an electric passion into the representation of peoples we might easily not have an opportunity to see or hear.
The metaphor of the Borderlands is an apt description of the book as a totality, while within the text this in-between space is central to her understanding of h! erself as a Queer Chicana writer. Anzaldua resists the temptation to stand in either the sexually exclusive camp of Lesbian, or within the Ethnic label of Chicano. Indeed much of the book deals with the discrepancy and reconciliation between these two, and many other, seemingly irreconcilable position. However, the author does not want to leave either of these positions by the wayside. Seeing instead that the uniqueness of her position gives her a power to critique her culture while simultaneously doing so from the very position that often removes her from it, i.e. her sexual orientation. Thus the uniqueness of the work grows out of this lively and powerful acceptance of herself and though we might believe that such a position is foreign to "us," whoever this "us" might be. The reality is that this desire to not lock-down her identity into neat and tidy closed categories might serve to benefit all people regardless of sexual preference, ethnicity, class, gender, age, etc.
Beyond this central theme the essays also present a good source of understanding part of the Chicana/o experience through the dynamic sharing of their mythology, language, and culture. Though we might preface these essays with the notion that this is a creative work the scholarship behind them is evident as well, though not in any sense dry or boring, as some might "naturally" come to associate with academically acceptable material. And though some might come to her book with the assumption that its "just another whining minority voice," such a claim would find little grounds for support within the text, whose tone is more close to political forthrightness than complaining.
But politics aside the reason it is a great read is that it does not fall into an easy category, while at the same time stimulating a lot of thought particularly with regard to assumptions all of us make about sexuality and ethnicity, but also about language and religion. It challenges many and most of our usual way of looking at things. And thoug! h it does question traditional western/American institutions it does so in a way that opens up the possibility for change rather than decrying America as an innately evil, rather it gives us quite an impetus to rethink what we have learned about Chicana/os and people of alternative sexual orientation.
The book is a must read, ultimately not because of who is writing it, but rather because it has something, an energy and authenticity about it, that should appeal to any open minded reader out there. This is not to try to nail her down in a traditional sense as speaking from one selective pulpit, because the authenticity and legitimacy really is something that bleeds out of the truth of her own experiences. As a middle-class white heterosexual man I find the piece refreshing rather than threatening, precisely because it more fully articulates a way of tolerance and understanding of all people, and yet doesn't lead us into a position of loosing a foundation from which to speak words which challenge and insight.
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24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Borderlands/La Frontera's Philosophical import, May 2, 2006
This review is from: Borderlands: The New Mestiza = La Frontera (Paperback)
Other reviewers have covered many of the qualities of the work, so I want to dwell on just one point - don't be fooled into thinking that this work is useful only as a personal study on Anzaldua's cultural/gender/queer theory.
Anzaldua is of high importance to any philosophy of the social; within her writing you can find the key insights of figures such as Derrida and Nietzsche, as they relate to personal identity crafted out of a fractured heritage. Her point is that we are ALL borderlanders given that the human condition involves being stretched across a chasm of self-alterity. Only through a full recognition of this can a critical inventory of the self be undertaken, which is a prerequisite to responsibility and genuine care of the self.
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