Gloria Anzaldua
The Beginning of a Coming Together
Gloria Anzaldua’s short essay, Towards a New Consciousness, begins with the description of her mixed culture, a mestiza, and the conflicts she faces in being torn between being Mexican and Native American. Anzaldua expresses her struggle of her torn heritages by describing herself as being caught between two cultures and their values. Instead of being able to love and respect both cultures, Anzaldua feels as if we people feel the need to take up one side of our heritage and end up hating the other part. She paints an image as standing on an opposite side of a riverbank, yelling back and forth answers and questions showing that we eventually end up favoring one side and only getting pieces of the other side of the “river” or other culture. Anzaldua’s aspiration is that somehow we can eventually be on both sides of this riverbank, or even veer off and not choose either side but begin a new river. Anzaldua portrays that we do not have to choose one culture or one belief, because if we do, we will eventually hate ourselves for choosing one side of us that we are ashamed to show. In Anzaldua’s section under “Tolerance for Ambiguity”, she goes on to say that when we, mestizas, feel comfortable with what we know and what we are costumed to believing. When we continue with this one way of thinking and one way of culture, we put up borders or walls that block all of the other wonderful possibilities and other ideas of custom that we could be exploring. In order to “break down the duality that keeps her a prisoner” (Anzaldua 100), a mestiza must start with herself and the struggles of herself and the inner consciousness. Anzaldua believes that once one is able to accomplish the inner self, the end to rape, war, and violence in the world can come to a stop. We all must stop and answer the problems within ourselves then we will be able to address problems between people of all races and also the differences between men and women.
Gloria Anzaldua’s short essay, Towards a New Consciousness, begins with the description of her mixed culture, a mestiza, and the conflicts she faces in being torn between being Mexican and Native American. Anzaldua expresses her struggle of her torn heritages by describing herself as being caught between two cultures and their values. Instead of being able to love and respect both cultures, Anzaldua feels as if we people feel the need to take up one side of our heritage and end up hating the other part. She paints an image as standing on an opposite side of a riverbank, yelling back and forth answers and questions showing that we eventually end up favoring one side and only getting pieces of the other side of the “river” or other culture. Anzaldua’s aspiration is that somehow we can eventually be on both sides of this riverbank, or even veer off and not choose either side but begin a new river. Anzaldua portrays that we do not have to choose one culture or one belief, because if we do, we will eventually hate ourselves for choosing one side of us that we are ashamed to show. In Anzaldua’s section under “Tolerance for Ambiguity”, she goes on to say that when we, mestizas, feel comfortable with what we know and what we are costumed to believing. When we continue with this one way of thinking and one way of culture, we put up borders or walls that block all of the other wonderful possibilities and other ideas of custom that we could be exploring. In order to “break down the duality that keeps her a prisoner” (Anzaldua 100), a mestiza must start with herself and the struggles of herself and the inner consciousness. Anzaldua believes that once one is able to accomplish the inner self, the end to rape, war, and violence in the world can come to a stop. We all must stop and answer the problems within ourselves then we will be able to address problems between people of all races and also the differences between men and women.
Cited: 1. Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderlands: the New Mestiza=La frontera. “Towards a New Consciousness” San Francisco, CA 1987.