Lugones- On Borderlands

8/10/2019 Lugones- On Borderlands

1/8

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

Accessed: 23/03/2009 22:51

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2/8

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


3/8

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)

32


4/8

Maria

Lugones

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.

33


5/8

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)

34


6/8

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.

35


7/8

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)

36


8/8

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

Company.

Chin,

Frank.1991.

Come

all

ye

Asian Americanwriters.

n

The

big

aiiieee An

anthology

of

ChineseAmerican nd

Japanese

American

iterature,

d.

Jeffrey

Chan.

New York:

Meridian.

Lugones,

Maria.

1987.

Playfulness,"world"-travelling,

nd

loving

perception.Hypatia

2(2): 3-19.

.Forthcoming.

Pilgrimages/peregrinajes:ssays

n

pluralist

eminism.Binghamton:

SUNY

Press.

Madrid-Barela,

rturo.

1973.

In

search

of the authentic

pachuco.

Aztlan

4(1):

31-60.

Mendez-M.,

Miguel.

1979.

Peregrinos

e

Aztlan.

Berkeley:

Editorial

usta

Publications.

Rosaldo,

Renato. 1989. Culture

ndTruth.

Boston:BeaconPress.

37

Documents

Lugones- On Borderlands