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Bordering fires

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Erick Peisker
Erick Peisker

The document summarizes several works from Chicano/a literature. It discusses Gloria Anzald炭a's essay "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" about her struggle with identity as a Chicana and her border language. It also mentions Richard Rodriguez's piece pondering ethnicity and whether Native American culture has assimilated. Two works by women authors addressing Chicana identity and gender roles are summarized. The document concludes with brief overviews of pieces that portray the Mexican immigrant experience and search for identity along the US-Mexico border.

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Chicano/a Voices I: Language Gloria Anzald炭a in How to Tame a Wild Tongue writes about her personal struggle as a Chicana. She argues that the border language is a language all its own. She argues trying to attack her language is like attacking her. Her language is an infusion of Spanish, English and Native American sounds. Learning English is like being a traitor to Mexico, and Spanish with its lack of a feminine plural tense robs her of her identity as a woman. She identifies with the cross identities of Mexicans on both sides of the border and the space in between where she was from.
Chicano/a Voices I: Ethnicity India by Richard Rodriguez ponders the question of ethnicity. Using Native Americans as an example he showcases that over time the culture has become assimilated with our modern one. He is as much Aztec and Mexican as he is Indian and American. An Indian can also be a Mestizo. Mexico he argues values the Indian as its mother and the harsh Europeans as its father. Finally he questions whether the European conquest was successful or was it the quiet ways of the native Indians that have persevered and become the face of a language and influenced religion?
Chicano/a Voices II: Chicana Women Ana Castillo in Daddy with Chesterfields in a Rolled Up Sleeve tells of a young girls struggle with her father going off and living with a white woman. It tells of her angst of abandonment and sense of anger to traditional male roles in Latin society. Sandra Cisneros in Never Marry a Mexican writes about a young woman haunted with a myth in which la Malinche is a whore and a traitor and she defies being passive by being sexually aggressive. It is her way of finding her voice and fighting off conceived notions of her culture. She confronts her deeply rooted Mexican values that provide a narrow definition of womanhood and a lower position to men.
Chicano/a Voices II: A Mans View Daboberto Gilb in Maria de Covina tells of a young man s life as he works hard at two jobs and is tempted by his traditional Mexican machismo. Trying to impress the women of his life while trying to be faithful to the one he loves. The actions he takes come with consequences and ultimately you are left at a crossroads whether he learned from his mistakes or is his natural romantic machismo to strong to reign in? Ruben Martinez in an excerpt from Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail tells of the difficult life so many cast off children see today as they live in the tunnels of the borderlands. Escaping the Mexican and American immigration officials they form their own society and structure down in the tunnels. Carlos Monsivais in Identity Hour or What Photos Would you take of the Endless City? is a quick glimpse, almost a travelogue of what Mexico City is like today. The author paints a visual picture out of the good and the bad and why so many people would never think of living anyplace else. B. Traven Is Alive and Well in Cuernavaca by Rudolfo Anaya focuses on the search for the author of The Treasure of Sierra Madre. Anaya had retreated to Mexico to find his voice after some writer s block. The search for the mysterious author provides this author an adventure all his own. He finds a place where he can dream and where outright lies become folklore. Mexico is a strong inner spirit he taps into. Meditations on the South Valley: Poem IX by Jimmy Santiago Baca shows how difficult it can be to be living as a Chicano along the border. The hard life of assimilation and being torn between cultures allows someone to fall into the darker side of poverty: drugs, guns, and street life.

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Bordering fires

  • 1. 油
  • 2. Chicano/a Voices I: Language Gloria Anzald炭a in How to Tame a Wild Tongue writes about her personal struggle as a Chicana. She argues that the border language is a language all its own. She argues trying to attack her language is like attacking her. Her language is an infusion of Spanish, English and Native American sounds. Learning English is like being a traitor to Mexico, and Spanish with its lack of a feminine plural tense robs her of her identity as a woman. She identifies with the cross identities of Mexicans on both sides of the border and the space in between where she was from.
  • 3. Chicano/a Voices I: Ethnicity India by Richard Rodriguez ponders the question of ethnicity. Using Native Americans as an example he showcases that over time the culture has become assimilated with our modern one. He is as much Aztec and Mexican as he is Indian and American. An Indian can also be a Mestizo. Mexico he argues values the Indian as its mother and the harsh Europeans as its father. Finally he questions whether the European conquest was successful or was it the quiet ways of the native Indians that have persevered and become the face of a language and influenced religion?
  • 4. Chicano/a Voices II: Chicana Women Ana Castillo in Daddy with Chesterfields in a Rolled Up Sleeve tells of a young girls struggle with her father going off and living with a white woman. It tells of her angst of abandonment and sense of anger to traditional male roles in Latin society. Sandra Cisneros in Never Marry a Mexican writes about a young woman haunted with a myth in which la Malinche is a whore and a traitor and she defies being passive by being sexually aggressive. It is her way of finding her voice and fighting off conceived notions of her culture. She confronts her deeply rooted Mexican values that provide a narrow definition of womanhood and a lower position to men.
  • 5. Chicano/a Voices II: A Mans View Daboberto Gilb in Maria de Covina tells of a young man s life as he works hard at two jobs and is tempted by his traditional Mexican machismo. Trying to impress the women of his life while trying to be faithful to the one he loves. The actions he takes come with consequences and ultimately you are left at a crossroads whether he learned from his mistakes or is his natural romantic machismo to strong to reign in? Ruben Martinez in an excerpt from Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail tells of the difficult life so many cast off children see today as they live in the tunnels of the borderlands. Escaping the Mexican and American immigration officials they form their own society and structure down in the tunnels. Carlos Monsivais in Identity Hour or What Photos Would you take of the Endless City? is a quick glimpse, almost a travelogue of what Mexico City is like today. The author paints a visual picture out of the good and the bad and why so many people would never think of living anyplace else. B. Traven Is Alive and Well in Cuernavaca by Rudolfo Anaya focuses on the search for the author of The Treasure of Sierra Madre. Anaya had retreated to Mexico to find his voice after some writer s block. The search for the mysterious author provides this author an adventure all his own. He finds a place where he can dream and where outright lies become folklore. Mexico is a strong inner spirit he taps into. Meditations on the South Valley: Poem IX by Jimmy Santiago Baca shows how difficult it can be to be living as a Chicano along the border. The hard life of assimilation and being torn between cultures allows someone to fall into the darker side of poverty: drugs, guns, and street life.