lugones- on borderlands
TRANSCRIPT
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On Borderlands/La Frontera: An Interpretive EssayAuthor(s): Maria Lugones
Source: Hypatia, Vol. 7, No. 4, Lesbian Philosophy (Autumn, 1992), pp. 31-37Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3810075
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On Borderlands/Larontera:
An
Interpretive
ssay
MARIALUGONES
Borderlands/La
rontera
deals
with
the
psychology f
resistance
o
oppression.
The
possibility
f
resistances revealed
y
perceiving
he
self
in
the
process
f being
oppressed
s another
ace
of
the
self
in
the
process
f resisting
ppression.
he
new
mestiza
onsciousness
s
bor
from
his
nterplay
etween
ppression
nd
resistance.
Resistances understoodssocial,collectivectivity,byaddingoAnzaldua'sheory
thedistinction
etween heact and the
process
f
resistance.
Borderlandsas been a
very
important
ext for me.
I
have found
company
n
it. Desde
el
primer
momento
enseque
eramoshermanas
n
pensamiento.
have
carried
Anzaldua's
nsights
and
metaphors
with me
for
several
years
n
my daily
ruminationsand
in
my
daily
exercise of
triple
vision.
I
could
say
that
I
have
lost
perspective
on
this
text
in
making
t
mine,
or
I
could
say
that
I
have
gained
perspective
in
finding
borderdwelling
riendship
in
it.
I
find her
thinking
intertwinedwith
my
own. Thus this
essay
s
highly
interpretive.
will
explain
what
I
learned
rom
Borderlands
nd
I
will
try
to
think
my way
around
ome of
the troublethat
I
have with
some of the
living
that it
suggests
o me.
Work
on
oppressed
ubjectivity
ocuseson
the
subject
at the
"moment"of
oppression
nd as
oppressed.
Oppression
heorymay
have as its
intent
to
depict
the effects of
oppression
(alienation,
ossification,
arrogation,
psychological
oppression,
etc.),
without an
intention to rule
out
resistance.
But within
the
logical
framework f the
theory,
esistance
o
oppression
ppears
nintellligible
because t
lacks
a
theoreticalbase.
Anzaldua's
Borderlands
s
a
work
creating
a
theoretical
space
for
resistance.
Anzaldua
focuses on the
oppressed
subject
at the
"moment"
of
being
oppressed.
Thus she
can
capture
both an
everyday
history
of
oppression
and
an
everydayhistory
of
resistance.Her
culture,
hough oppressive,
also
grounds
her resistance:
Hypatia
ol.
7,
no.
4
(Fall
1992)
?
by
Maria
Lugones
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Hypatia
At
a
very early
age
I
had a
strong
sense of who
I
was and
what
I
was
about and what
was
fair....
Every
bit of
self-faith
I'd
painstakingly
gathered
took a
beating
daily. Nothing
in
my
culture
approved
of
me.
(16)
But
also,
When
I
was
seven,
eight,
nine, fifteen,
sixteen
years
old,
I
would
read
in
bed with a
flashlight
under
the
covers,
hiding
my
self-imposed
nsomnia from
my
mother....
My
sister,
Hilda,
who slept
in
the same bed with me, would threatento tell my
mother unless
I
told her a
story.... Nudge
a
Mexican
and
she
or
he
will breakout with a
story.
So,
huddling
underthe
covers,
I
made
up
stories or
my
sister
night
after
night
....
It
musthave
been then that I decided to
put
stories
on
paper.
65)
Anzalduadescribes wo statesof
the self
being
ppressed:
he
state of
intimate
terrorism
nd the Coatlicue tate. These states are two
sides
of
the
experience
of
being
oppressed.
n
expressing
his
experience,
Anzaldiiathinks of
the self
asmultiple.Thereisthe selfoppressedn andbythe traditionalMexicanworld;
the
self
oppressed
n and
by
the
Anglo
world;
and
the
self-in-between-the
Self-herself
in
resistance o
oppression,
he
self
in
germination
n
the
border-
lands.
If
the
self
is
being
oppressed,
hen
she can feels its
limits,
its
capacity
or
response,
pushed
in, constrained,
denied. But
she
can also
push
back.
This is
not
a fantastic
or
metaphysical
eap
out of the
reality
of
oppressed.
Rather
Anzalduaknows the
weight
of
oppressed
worldsand the
hard,
risky
work of
resistance.
In the state of intimateterror,he Self feelsthe oppression;hefeelspetrified:
Alienated from her mother
culture,
"alien" n
the dominant
culture,
the woman of
color does not feel safe within the
inner
life of
her
Self.
Petrified,
she
can't
respond,
her face
caught
between
los
intersticios,
he
space
between the different
worlds
she
inhabits.
(20)
Anzaldua
sees the
ability
to
respond
as at the center of
responsibility.
She
connects the state of intimate terrorismwith a lack of abilityto respond, he
"very
movement of
life,
swifter han
lightning,
frozen"
21).
But as the
Self
is
beingoppressed,
he
is
at the crossroads f
choice
(21).
Anzaldua
made the choice to be
queer
...
It's
an
interesting
path,
one
that
continually
slips
in
and out of the
white,
the
Catholic,
the
Mexican,
the
indigenous,
he instincts.
In
and
out
of
my
head.
It makes
or
loqueria,
he crazies.
t
is
a
path
of
knowledge-one
of
knowing (and
of
learning)
the
historyof oppressionof our
raza.It is a
way
of
balancing,
of
mitigatingduality.
(19)
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Maria
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Anzalduia
hinks
of
homophobia
as "thefearof
going
home."
The fearof
being
caught
n the
intersticios,r the fearofbeingabandonedbyLaRaza.Abandoned
"for
being
unacceptable,
aulty,
damaged"
20).
The two fears
so
close,
since
abandonment
s a
powerfulweight
exercisedon the in-between-self
to
give
herself
up,
not to make full
use
of
her
faculties.
Anzalduia
ells
us
that
Coatlalopeuh
was an
early
Mesoamerican
creator
goddess
that
had
two
aspects:
the
underworld,
dark
aspect,
Coatlicue;
and
Tonantsi,
he
light,
the
upper.
Coatlicuewas driven
underground
with
other
powerful
emale deities
by
the male
dominated
Azteca-Mexica
culture,
and
Tonantsi,plitfromherdarkaspect,became hegoodmother(27). The Spanish
colonizers
and
the
colonizing
church
continued the
split
when
Tonantsi,
desexed,
became
Guadalupe,
he
chaste
protective
mother
(28).
Today
a
Virgen
e
Guadalupe
s
the
single
most
potent
religious,
political
and cultural
mage
of
the
Chicano/mexicano.
ecause
Guadalupe
ook
upon
herself the
psychological
and
physical
devastationof the
conquered
and the
oppressed
ndio,
he is our
spiritual,political andpyschologicalsymbol.Guadalupes the
symbol
of the
ethnic
identity
and
of the
tolerance or
ambiguity
that
Chicanos/mexicanos
..,
people
who
cross
cultures,
by
necessity
possess.
(30)
Anzalduia
mbracesa
decolonized
Guadalupe
ack into
her dark
and
light
ambiguity.
he
remembers he
name
Coatlicue
nd
rejects
the
mind/body
plit
imposed
on
Tonantsi
by
the Catholic
church as well
as her
desexualization.
Coatlicue s
remembered
n
resistance o oppression, n creation.
She,
the
symbol
of the dark
sexual
drive,
the
chthonic
(under-
world),
the
feminine,
the
serpentine
movement
of
sexuality,
of
creativity,
he
basisof all
energy
and
life.
(35)
The Coatlicue
state
is a
state of
creation.
The
self
being
oppressed,
the
self-in-between,
la
terca,
a
hocicona,
he
against-the-grain
toryteller
pushes
against
the
limits of
oppression.
Caught
in-between
two
harmful
worlds
of
sense that
deny
her
ability
to
respond,
he self-in-between ashions
herself in
a
quiet
state.
Anzalduia
recognizes
here
that the
possibility
of
resistance
depends
on this
creationof
a new
identity,
a
new
worldof
sense,
in
the
borders.
The
Coatlicue
tate is
one of
stasis
because
t is
a
state of
making
new
sense.
It
is
a
state
of
isolation,
separation
from
harmful
sense.
This
creation
is
a
dangerous
hing.
The
self
risksher
own
familiarity
and
her
being
familiar
o
others.
Though
in
intimate
terror he
is
not
safe but
"a
victim
where
someone
else is in
control,"
the
in-between-self
at the
moment of
germinationmaybe
unable to
make
new
sense,
and
that
is a
terrifying
possibility.
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Hypatia
She has this
fear
that
she has
no
names
that she
has
manynames that she doesn'tknowhernames.... She has
this fear that
if
she takes
off her clothes
shoves her
brain
aside peels
off her skin...
strips
he flesh fromthe bone
...
that
when
she does reach
herself...
she
won't
find
anyone
...
She
has
this
fear that
she
won't find
the
way
back
(43)
So
the self-in-between
in
the
Coatlicue
tate,
the resistant
state,
needs to
enact
both
strategies
of
defense
against
worlds hat mark
her with the
inability
to
respond
and distractive
trategies
o
keep
at
bay
the
fearof
having
no names.
The
strategies
of defense
against
harmfulsense are
insulating
strategies:
he
uses
rage
to
drive others
away
and to
insulate
herself
against exposure;
she
reciprocates
with
contempt
for
those who have roused
hame
n
her;
etc.
(45).1
Since
she cannot
respond
in
their
terms,
because
in their
terms
she is
not
responsible,
he must make a
space
apart
or creation.
Anzalduasees
repetitious
activity
and
depression
as
distracting
trategies:
At
first
I
feel
exposed
and
opened
to the
depth
of
my
dissatis-
faction. Then I feel myself closing, hiding, holding myself
together
rather han
allowing
myself
to fall
apart.
Sweating,
with
a
headache,
unwilling
to
communicate,
right-
ened
by
sudden
noises,
estoy
asustada.
48)
The new
mestiza,
an
ambiguousbeing,
is the
borderdwelling
elf
that
emerges
rom
the
Coatlicue
tate:
It is
this
learning
to live with la Coatlicue hat transforms
iving
in
the Borderlands
rom a
nightmare
nto a numinous
experi-
ence.
It is
always
a
path/state
to
something
else.
(73)
This
path
leads
to
a
consciousness that is
bor
from
"racial,
ideological,
cultural,
and
biologicalcross-pollinization"
77).
The mestiza
consciousness
s
characterized
y
the
development
of
a tolerance
for contradictionand
ambi-
guity,
by
the
transgression
f
rigidconceptual
boundaries,
and
by
the
creative
breakingof the new unitary aspectof new and old paradigms.The mestiza
consciousness
participates
n
the creation of a new value
system through
an
"uprooting
f dualistic
thinking"
(80).
Lamestiza
s
captive
of more
than
one
collectivity,
andher dilemma
s which
collectivity
to
listen to. She crossesfrom one
collectivity
to
the other
and
decides
to stake herself
in
the
borderbetween the
two,
where she can
take
a
critical
stance and take stock
of her
plural
personality.
Peroesdificildifferentiating etween loheredado,oadquirido,o
impuesto.
82)
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Maria
Lugones
She
throwsout what is
worthless,
he
lies,
the
dulling
of
life,
the
runaways.
She
effects a
rupture
with all
oppressive raditionsat the sametime that she
makesherself vulnerable o
foreign
ways
of
thinking,
relinquishing
afety.
Anzaldua makes it clear that
remaining
a
being
in two worlds
without
"cross-pollinization"
s
deadly
for Chicanas and other women
of color. It is
to
become
a
hyphenated
being,
a dual
personality
enacted
from the
outside,
without
the
ability
to fashion
her own
responses.
She would
agree
with
the
Pachuco
speaking
in
Peregrinos
e
Aztlan
by
Miguel
Mendez-M.
When
the
Pachuco
asks
the
question
"que
semos
ese?"
(what
are
we?)
and
hears
the
response
"Bueno
.
.
pues
mexico
americanos,"
e
responds:
Chale,
ese,
es
purapinchi
madera,
a
demexicano
omas
pa'meterlo
al
surco,
a las
minas,nel,
pos
otra
chinga ior.
Lo
de
americanos,
pos ya
te daras
ola,
camarada,
a'darnos
n la madre
n
sus
pinchis
guerras uercas.
[Roughly:
Mexicanos
to be
put
to workthe
land,
or the
mines,
or somethingworse.Americansto kill us in their filthy wars.]
(Mendez-M.
1979, 25)
Because
I
think
it
is
important
o
distinguish
his dual
personality2
romthe
plural
personality
and
the
operating
n
a
pluralistic
mode of new
mestiza,
will
venture
my
own sense
of
the
distinction.
I
think this
sense fits
Anzaldua's ext
well.
The
dual,
hyphenated,
personality
s an
Anglo
creation.
According
to
this
concept,
there
is no
hybrid
cultural elf. It is
part
of
the
Anglo imagination
that we can keep ourcultureandassimilate,a positionthat would be contra-
dictory
if
both cultures were
understood
as
informing
the "real"
abric of
everyday
ife.
But
in
thinking
of a
Mexican-American,
he
Anglo
imagination
construes
"Mexican"
as the name
for a
superexploitable
being
who
is
a
practitioner
of a
superfluous,
rnamental,
culture.
Being
"American"
s
what
supposedlygives
us
(dubious)
membership
n
that
"real"
ulture,
the
culture
of the
ideally
culturally-unified-through-assimilation
olls
illegitimately
alled
"America."
Being
American is
what
makesus
functioning
citizens.
The Mexicanand the American in the dual-personalityonstructareboth
animated
from the
outside;
that
is
why
there is
no cultural
"cross-polliniza-
tion."
But the
plurality
of the
new
mestiza s
anchored
n
the
borders,
n
that
space
where
critique,rupture,
nd
hybridization
ake
place.
Though
she
cannot
choose not
to be
read,
constructed,
with a
logic
of
hyphenation,
demoraliza-
tion,
instrumentality,
tereotyping,
nd
devaluation,
he can
imbue
hat
person
with
a
sense of
conflicted
subjectivity
and
ambiguity.3
o the
dual,
hyphenated,
personality
is
externally
animated
and
characterized
by
an
absence
of
the
ability
to
respondand create. The pluralpersonalityof the new mestiza s a
self-critical,
self-animated
plurality.
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Hypatia
A
difficult
question
to answer
in
Anzaldua's ext is the
question
of
the
company hat the Self-in-between, he borderSelf,keepsin resistantcreation.
A
borderland
s
a
vague
and undetermined
lace
created
by
the
emotional residueof an
unnatural
boundary...
a constant state
of
transition.Losatravesadosive here ... those
who
cross
over,
pass
over,
or
go through
he confines of the
"normal.(3)
A
social
history
of both
despojamiento
nd resistance
in
the
meetings
between
gringos
and
mexicanos
risscrosses
Anzaldula's
nderstanding
of
the
borderdweller'situation.
iQuien
estd
protegiendo
os ranchos
de
mi
gente?
iQuien
estd
tratandode cerrar a
fisura
entre
a
india
y
el blancoen nuestra
sangre?
El
Chicano, i,
el Chicano
que
andacomoun ladron n su
propiacasa.
63)
Anzaldua
also tells us of
the
cultural
backings
for her
own resistance
in
ancient Mesoamerican ultureandin contemporarymexicano,Tejano,Chicano
cultures.
Her
text
draws
rom
corridos,
ncient
myths,
dichos, antares,
ontem-
porary
exts
by
Chicano/a
and Latin American writers.She draws
rom Los
Tigres
del
Norte as well as from
Andres Gonzales
Guerrero;
romGina
Valdes
and
Alfonsina
Storni;
from
El
Puma
and
Miguel
Leon-Portilla.
In
depicting
the
borderlands,
he tells
us of
a
"place"
or
state
populated
by
"the
people
who
leap
in
the dark"
81),
a
people
who are
a
new mixture of
races,
"la
primera
aza
sintesisdel
globo,
una
raza
mestiza"
77).
YetAnzalduaalsodepictsthe crossing-over s asolitaryact,anact ofsolitary
rebellion.
Maybe
because he Coatlicue
tate
and the
state
of intimate
terrorism
are
described
s statesof the
inner
ife of the
self,
becauseAnzalduias
describing
states
in
the
psychology
f
oppression
and
liberation,
she does not
reveal the
sociality
of
resistance.
Yet,
unless resistance s a
social
activity,
the
resister s
doomed
to
failure
n
the
creationof a new universe
of
meaning,
a
new
identity,
a
raza
mestiza.
Meaning
that
is not
in
response
o and
looking
for a
response
fails
as
meaning.
I see enoughevidence in her text to developan accountof the socialityof
resistance.
If
rebellion
and
creation are
understoodas
processes
rather
han as
acts,
then each act of
solitary
rebellion
and creation
is
anchored
in
and
responsive
o
a
collective,
even if
disorganized, rocess
of
resistance.
Los
Chicanos,
how
patient
we
seem,
how
very
patient....
We
know
how
to survive.
When
other races
have
given up
their
tongue,
we've
kept
ours....
Stubborn,
persevering, mpenetra-
ble as stone, yet possessinga malleability that renders us
unbreakable,
we,
the
mestizas nd mestizoswill remain.
(63-64)
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Maria
Lugones
This
society
places
borderdwellers
n
profound
solation.
The barriers
o
creativecollectivity and collective creationappear nsurmountable.But that
is
only
if
we think
of
the act and
not of the
process
of creation. As we
author
every
act
of
resistance
we can understand t as
meaningful
because t is
inserted
in a
process
of
resistance
that
is
collective,
but we can also
aspire
to acts
of
collective
resistance,
breaking
down
our isolation
against
the odds
prescribed
by
"the confines
of
the
normal."
NOTES
1. I
have
analyzed
hese defense
strategies
n
"Liberatory
trategies
of the Chicana
Lesbian:Active
Subjectivity
n
the
Absence
of
Agency,"
nd
in
"Hard o Handle
Anger,"
to
appear
n
(Lugones, orthcoming).
2.
For work
on dual
personality,
ee Rosaldo
(1989),
Madrid-Barela
1973),
Chin
(1991)
and
my
"Colonization",
npublished
manuscript.
3.
I have
developed
hese ideas
urther
n
Lugones
1987).
REFERENCES
Anzaldua,
Gloria.
1987.Borderlands/la
rontera.
an Francisco:
pinsters/Aunt
Lute
Book
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Chin,
Frank.1991.
Come
all
ye
Asian Americanwriters.
n
The
big
aiiieee An
anthology
of
ChineseAmerican nd
Japanese
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iterature,
d.
Jeffrey
Chan.
New York:
Meridian.
Lugones,
Maria.
1987.
Playfulness,"world"-travelling,
nd
loving
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2(2): 3-19.
.Forthcoming.
Pilgrimages/peregrinajes:ssays
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pluralist
eminism.Binghamton:
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Madrid-Barela,
rturo.
1973.
In
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Aztlan
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Mendez-M.,
Miguel.
1979.
Peregrinos
e
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usta
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Renato. 1989. Culture
ndTruth.
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37