1) The document is an excerpt from Gloria Anzaldúa's book Borderlands/La Frontera, which deals with the cultural borderlands experienced by Chicanos and Mexican Americans living at the geographic border between the U.S. and Mexico. 2) Anzaldúa explores the history of Anglo conquest and colonization of Mexican territory in the Southwest U.S., which displaced indigenous and Mexican residents from their lands. She describes the borderlands as an open wound and the experiences of those who cross borders illegally. 3) Anzaldúa develops the concept of "mestizaje" or mixed heritage as a symbol of a new identity and consciousness for those of mult

1. Borderlands/La frontera
The New Mestiza (1987)
by Gloria Anzaldúa

2. Borderlands/La frontera
Which are the borderlands this
book deals with?

3. “The Homeland, Aztlán”
1,950 mile-long open wound (2)
This is my home
this thin edge of
barbwire. (3)

4. “The Homeland, Aztlán”
This land was Mexican once,
was Indian always
and is.
And will be again. (3)

5. “The Homeland, Aztlán”
“El otro México” por Los Tigres del Norte
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x0N6Ki58Jg

6. “The Homeland, Aztlán”
“El destierro/The Lost Land”
 The History of the Southwest:
 Anglo migration into Texas in the 1800s
 The Battle of the Alamo
 The Republic of Texas (1836)
 The Mexican-American war
 The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848)

7. “The Homeland, Aztlán”
“The Gringo, locked into the fiction of
white superiority, seized complete
political power, stripping Indians and
Mexicans of their land while their feet
were still rooted in it.” (7)
“My grandmother lost all her cattle,
they stole her land.” (8)

8. “The Homeland, Aztlán”
“El cruzar del mojado/Illegal crossing”
“Today we are witnessing la migración de los
pueblos mexicanos, the return odyssey to the
historical/mythological Aztlán.” (11)
http://www.borderfilmproject.com/en/

9. “Movimientos de rebeldía y las
culturas que traicionan”
What is Gloria Anzaldúa’s
rebellion against?

10. “Movimientos de rebeldía y las
culturas que traicionan”
The choice for women of color is to “feel
victim where someone else is in control
and therefore responsible and to blame
[…], or to feel strong, and, for the most
part, in control” (21).

11. “Movimientos de rebeldía y las
culturas que traicionan”
“Not me sold out my people but they me.
(21, 22)”.

12. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”
Which connections does Anzaldúa
establish between language,
identity and oppression?

13. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”
“Racially, culturally and linguistically
somos huérfanos—we speak an
orphan tongue.” (58)

14. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”
The languages of the Mexican-
American border:
 Standard English
 Working class and slang English
 Standard Spanish
 Standard Mexican Spanish
 North Mexican Spanish dialect
 Chicano Spanish
 Tex-Mex
 Pachuco

15. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”
What is the impact of popular
culture and literature on identity?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg9MOB71tWY

16. “La conciencia de la
mestiza/Towards a New
Consciousness”
 How is “mestizaje” defined?
 What is the path and the challenge for
the new mestiza?
 Which images are used by Anzaldúa to
describe the new mestiza?
 What is her explanation of Mexican
machismo?