Solsen Summary of “La conciencia de la mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness.” Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza

Gloria Anzaldua's writings in the chapter of Borderlands/La Frontera shows a unique blend of various ways of writing and useage of both English and Spanish to immerse the reader into what seems to be her experience of a woman of chicana background along the border of Texas and Mexico. The ideology behind her words document not only the cultural differences between race and way of life, but also for gender and sexuality. There are apparent struggles not only physically for her, but a mental anguish as well. Her view point seems to stem for a quest for change not just for tolerance and acceptance but a change of the norms for those that travel well beyond the borderlands.

Her method of study is by observation and through her own experiences as well as those family members for which she accounts for in her childhood memories as she narrates in the third person. She uses much symbolism to describe emotions and outlook for not only her future but for those in her culture. As descriptive as her story unfolds not only past struggles but she foretells of current and future struggles for not only success but for a livelihood. Unfortunately, her struggles only mentions that of a divide of gender equality for her subculture of immigrant farmers and not of others that may be in the same culture of Mexican-American heritage along the borderlands, which would include other trades or skills to tell the entire story of why certain struggles remains.

On page 109, she brings up the question about blending and what can get lost without an insight of what could be gained. There is a hybrid message that seems to reconstruct the thought of oneself rather than the expansion of the culture as a whole. Her writing does provide a substantial history as to why some things are the way that they are and the consequences of intolerance of both the outsiders and those within her subculture to prosper having to know the pains and have scars both on the inside and out. The only hope is in using the farm lands where even in the dirt where it seems nothing will grow, with actions and hope another growth is imminent even though it may not be how one imagined.

My questions are still, how does one prepare to read the works in this book? Is a knowledge of some of the culture and history  required as well as a dictionary in order to understand the direct approach of the writer since she uses cross blending of both English and Spanish?

Living in El Paso, I have come to some of the ideals and descriptions she had written, but if I had not, would I have the same level of consciousness of her message?