Premise reading of Gloria Anzaldua’s “La Conciencia de la Mestiza”: Life in the Borderlands
Throughout the duration of this course, we have explored many streams of feminist theory, some more historical pieces, and others more contemporary. Gloria Anzaldua, in particular, is among the many feminist theorists that move into the realm o
f addressing post-modern identities. In her articulation of a new emerging consciousness in La Conciencia de la Mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness, Anzaldua posits the construction of identities as multiple, hybrid, and more specifically created as a result of the Borderlands. This paper explores Anzaldua’s proposition of the new consciousness through discussions of the Borderlands and its implications for ‘identity,’ mediating social relations, revolutionary social change, and its wider relevance to feminist theory.
“From this racial, ideological, cultural, and biological cross-pollinization, an ‘alien’ consciousness is presently in the making — a new mestiza consciousness, una conciencia de mujer. It is a consciousness of the Borderlands. (Anzaldua, 1987: 420)”
To begin to tease out the ideas inherent in this quote from Anzaldua, a description of the Borderlands is essential. The Borderland is not completely physical, and not completely abstract. It is any space where multiple identities, histories, and cultures overlap. Moreover, the Borderlands are any space where those in the lower, middle, and upper classes approximate each other, where people of different races live together socially, and where cultures merge. Furthermore, it is where cultures currently collide and is the result of the “coming together of two self-consistent but habitually incompatible frames of reference (Anzaldua, 1987: 421).” Anzaldua describes la mestiza’s internal conflict created by the convergence of cultures, ambiguity, and struggle in the Borderlands. Often torn between incompatible cultures, la mestiza struggles to distinguish which collectivity that she belongs to. Torn somewhere in the mix between two or more histories, cultures, sets of values, and ways of being in the world, at different moments in time, la mestiza is forced to choose between them but is never quite a part of either; she is outside of culture. This choice not only renders other parts of her identity and culture invisible, it positions her in one box, one category (defined by the dominant culture) into a dualistic Western way of thinking; either as oppressed or oppressor, on the offense or defense.
As a result of her gender, la mestiza is placed in opposition to masculinit. As a result of her sexual identity, she is placed in opposition to her racial identity. Moreover, her indigenous identity places her in contradiction to her Spanish identity. For Anzaldua, the new consciousness arising out of this struggle over borders creates a non-dualistic way of thinking and being. This new consciousness transcends the boundaries constructed by Western myths such as: subject/object, white/colored, male/female, heterosexual/queer, etc, and is thus hybrid (Anzaldua, 1987: 422). Anzaldua’s mention of identity as hybrid can be understood as similar to Donna Haraway’s (1991) metaphor of the cyborg for post-modern identity. Both Anzaldua and Haraway argue for a cricual recognition among feminists of those instances and spaces where the boundaries embedded in binaries, established by dominant Western myth, are transgressed and breached. This is a recurring theoretical stance in post-modern feminist writings: that revolutionary social change will only unfold through a ‘massive uprooting of dualistic thinking in the individual and collective consciousness. (Anzaldua, 1987: 422).
As was previously mentioned, the Borderland is a space where cultures collide, often with incompatible values, opposing histories, and contradictory experiences. It can be difficult to be an individual, or member, of several social, classed, gendered, racialized groups but never feeling quite at home in either. An example of the contradictions of which she speaks is through a brief discussion of the identities of women of colour. For instance, if an African-American woman advocates for women’s rights, does this mean that femininity and the struggle against gender oppression takes precedence over her racial identity and her struggle against colonization and racial oppression? The inverse question can also be asked. If an African-American woman of colour takes a political stance for the end of her racial oppression, does this mean that she devalues her experience as being oppressed by her gender identity? Anzaldua makes a plea to feminists to bridge identities and to understand identities as always being constituted in the Borderlands. The sorting out the contradictions embedded between these social identities requires a tolerance for ambiguity (Anzaldua, 1987: 421). The new consciousness, through the transcendence of dualistic thinking, is capable of embracing these contradictions and creating new culture with ‘a new value system with images and symbols that connect us to each other and the planet. (Anzaldua, 1987: 422).’ Creating this new culture requires a rethinking of the stances embedded in the oppressor/oppressed binary frame, that is, developing a consciousness which is neither against oppressive culture with rage, or in a state of defense in shame and silence brought on by the rejection of oppressive culture. Moreover, Anzaldua proposes that we all live in the Borderlands; the space between being inside or outside of culture. Butler (1990) would perhaps use the language of not having to choose between being intelligible or unintelligible, as either being on the outside or inside of culture.
Anzaldua discusses the importance of shifting from a convergent thinking that is always attempting to move forward toward a single, unified, political goal to divergent thinking which embraces a whole, inclusive perspective (421) The new consciousness, similar to Haraway’s articulation of the cyborg (1991), is one which breaks down the convergent thinking of categories and dualisms and instead embraces difference, contradiction and partiality. This is what makes Anzaldua’s argument strong, inclusive, and critical. It is inclusive insofar as it understands identity as being beyond dualisms and Western binary constructs. We all live in the Borderlands and instead of responding to the collision of culture by taking a stance on either side of the border, rendering us part of these Western constructs, we can include and embrace our identities as contradictory, different, and ambiguous. This supercedes the need to identify either as oppressed or take on the position of the oppressor.
Like Haraway, Anzaldua goes against the current trajectory of feminism(s) and her aim is to redirect feminism. She uses some of Butler’s concepts and language of inside and outside of culture to contextualize the Borderlands as a space where cultures merge. Moreover, Anzaldua makes a plea for the recognition of the post-modern human. These feminist, post-modernist and post-structuralist theories are all working toward redirecting feminism to make it more inclusive. They are inclusive in that they pinpoint or try to make visible a new consciousness that is freed from the power and value systems embedded in Western myths and constructs. Furthermore, through la mestiza’s ‘cultural baggage’, Anzaldua posits that a social revolution cannot emerge out of a totalizing force that unites all individuals, but only from a new consciousness predicated on the understanding of identities as partial, contradictory, and capable of transcending the rigid cultural boundaries placed superimposed on them.
Anzaldua also takes up masculinity as a fragmented identity and recognizes that new masculinities emerge out of the transmission of cultures in the Borderlands. Masculinity is often essentially equated with men and Anzaldua disagrees due to the fact that it essentializes all men and pits them in juxtaposition to women. More specifically, she articulates how queer men illustrate the extent to which the boundaries between male/female and masculine/feminine have been transcended. By embracing the ‘feminine,’ queer men illuminate the common problematic propensity within feminism to situate and categorize men and masculinity solely as oppressors or participating in a force of oppression. Anzaldua also emphasizes the need for all racialized cultures to acknowledge and respect those who identify as queer as there is queer in all cultures (Anzaldua, 1987: 424).
Anzaldua’s understanding of identity as fluid and contradictory while emphasizing the intersections of race, class, gender within and between culture through the Borderlands shows the extent to which her theory of a new consciousness is heading in a more inclusive and holistic direction for feminism. Moreover, like Butler (1990) and Haraway (1991), she is blatantly against the idea of an inner essence or an inner core identity and argues for a divergent way of thinking about identity as being constituted in a plurality of experiences, histories, and cultures. Identities, or people rather, learn to live in all cultures and in the Borderlands by not having to choose between cultures. Her argument is such that the only way to revolutionize and create social change is if the individual and collective consciousness actively breaks down and uproots dualistic thinking (Anzaldua, 1987: 422). As opposed to either being inside of oppressive culture or on the constitutive outside, Anzaldua understands identity as being completely immersed in the Borderlands, the space where cultures not only merge and collide but also where difference, diversity, and contradiction is celebrated. The consciousness of the Borderlands neither knows or upholds boundaries. Ultimately, it is in a constant state of ambiguity, and this ambiguity must be tolerated.
Even though Anzaldua writes from a different place than other theorists like Haraway and Butler, it seems as though she influences and is influenced by their post-modern writings of identity. This realm of feminist theory attempts to not only move feminism forward, but to redirect it in a more inclusive direction by addressing difference and drawing attention to the ways in which identities have shifted in the late twentieth century. Within this sphere of feminist thought, it is crucial for feminism(s) to embrace the contradictory identities and cultures that emerge from the Borderlands which are made visible only through seeing passed the dominant Western myths and constructs put in place by the pervasiveness of modernity. Only then can we see a way out of oppression through social revolution. It has to occur between people and individual frames of consciousness; having a consciousness of the Borderlands.
References
Anzaldua, G. (1987). La Conciencia de la Mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness. In W. Kolmar & F. Bartowski (Eds.), Feminist Theory: A Reader (pp. 420-426)
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. In W. Kolmar & F. Bartowski (Eds.), Feminist Theory: A Reader (pp. 496-504)
Haraway, D. (1991). Chapter Eight: A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology & Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. In Donna Haraway Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London: Routledge (pp. 149-182)
Discourse, utterance, and madness 