Ethnic Studies Texts - Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldua (1987)

Anzaldua mixes Spanish and English, poetry and theory, autobiography and history in this text, which challenges all kinds of borders.

  1. This book does not fit easily into any genre. It's a theoretical text, sure, but it's also a lot more than that. Why do you think Anzaldua mixes so many genres in writing about the U.S.-Mexico border? What's she trying to achieve by blurring the line between poetry and theory, for example, or between autobiography and history?
  2. According to Anzaldua, what other types of borders (besides the physical border between Mexico and the U.S.) exist for Chicano/as? Think of language, culture and economics.