Compose a personal response to the following passage from Borderlands, Chapter 7:
“In a constant state of “nepantilism,” an Aztec word meaning “torn between ways,” la mestiza is a product of the transfer of the cultural and spiritual values of one group to another. Being tri-cultural, monolingual, bilingual, or multilingual, speaking a patois, and in a state of perpetual transition, the mestiza faces the dilemma of the mixed breed; which collectivity does the daughter of a darkskinned mother listen to?”
What is Anzaldua’s dilemma? What solutions does she propose?
Anzaldua’s dilemma is the constant state of flux that the mestiza occupies; the needing to change to fit into virtually all cultures because she is a home in none, the perpetual prodigal daughter. She asks how to deal with that, how to effortlessly and quietly fit into the many cultures one must interact with, without betraying who the really are. She is asking how to go from talking Aztec tongue and telling indigeneous tales with a grandmother to buying a clothes at Nordstroms and then going to visit with Chicana friends. She says you must juggle, the mestiza must create “a new consciousness,” one that could, she believes, “bring us to the end of rape, of violence, of war.” The New Mestiza sifts through her history, her people’s history, and reinterprets it, gleaning gems, and discarding pebbles. She must empower herself, show tenderness against the machismo, and teach how to do so to her brothers, who are all and any. She learns and she teaches whatever she can, and uses it to deconstruct and build herself anew, better, as a more cohesive whole, who is a proud and contributing member of the Human Race.
Great post.