This Bridge Called My Back By Gloria Anzaldúa Essay
Gloria Anzaldúa was an incredibly influential feminist, queer theorist, and scholar whose compilation of feminist works by radical women of color, This Bridge Called my Back, includes her critically acclaimed essay “La Prieta,” which chronicles Anzaldúa’s journey of coming to terms with her multiple identities. In this particular piece, Anzaldúa writes a pivotal statement: “I am a wind-swayed bridge, a crossroads inhabited by whirlwinds." (205) This metaphor implies how Anzaldúa feels as if she is stuck in a space in-between identities, and instead of fitting into society’s distinct boxes, she lies somewhere in the middle. The central theme of this essay is the idea of how one can navigate their life under the guise of multiple identities. Gloria Anzaldua explores this theme by recounting her own life …show more content…
For instance, Anzaldúa recalls a time in which two men yelled homophobic slurs at her brother and his partner on their first anniversary, to which she replies, “and they had to be Latinos.” (206) This is a prime example of two of Anzaldúa’s identities – her Latino and queer identities – at a clear collision. She wants to be able to support her fellow Latinos, however, when it is them who are threatening her queer identity, she feels ashamed and confused. However, she comes to terms with her conflicting identities by comparing herself to a “spider woman” with “one foot on brown soil, one on white, one in straight society, one in the gay world, the man’s world, the women’s, one limb I the literary world, another in the working class, the socialist, and the occult worlds.” (206) Through this way of viewing herself, it can be clearly seen that Gloria Anzaldúa has multiple moving parts that make up her identity, and each part is just as important as the
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How To Tame A Wild Tongue By Gloria Anzaldúa Analysis
1103 Words | 5 PagesAnzaldúa was a Mexican American who was a well-known writer and had a major impact on the fields of queer, feminist, and cultural theory. Her most famous work is Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza which includes poems, essays, and short stories. Anzaldúa was no stranger to the use of literary theories in her writing, which is evident in her short story “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Here, the author uses a combination of feminist, reader-response, and psychoanalytic theory to show the struggle of being oneself when they’re Mexican-American. Through the use of feminist theory, she explains how a female is labeled as an “habladora” when she tries to voice out her opinion about something; reader-response theory provides the reader with an understanding of the struggles of self-identity, which they are able to relate to, especially Mexican-Americans; and lastly, psychoanalytic theory illuminates on her childhood experiences, which could explain why Anzaldúa believes in what she does, such as the idea that Anglo people have tried to tame her tongue—in other words, her language.
The Myth Of The Latin Woman Analysis
1045 Words | 5 PagesCofer addresses the cultural barriers and challenges that Latinos experience through emotional appeal, anecdotal imagery, parallelism and the use of effective periodic sentences. In her article, Cofer assesses the difficult cultural hurdles of Latin Americans with emotional appeal. She provides insight on her cultural barriers by first conveying the way she had to dress and her struggle, as it shows in this piece of text, “That morning I had organized… which to base my decision” (Cofer 5). This poignancy works to stress an agonizing feeling of uncertainty and restraint towards the author.
La Prieta By Gloria Anzaldúa Summary
749 Words | 3 PagesGloria Anzaldúa’s “La Prieta” tell her struggles with identity by talking about prejudices she dealt with while growing up. These prejudices, such as colorism, sexism, and heteronormativity, were not only held by people outside her social groups but within them as well. Anzaldúa goes on to explain the way identity is formed by intersecting factors and not only one aspect of someone’s life therefore denying one factor of identity can cause isolation and self-hatred. The fact that Anzaldúa developed faster than is deemed normal the first struggle in forming her identity.
Gloria Steinem Intersectional Feminism
1090 Words | 5 PagesGloria Steinem: Female Activist Gloria Steinem rose to national fame as a feminist leader in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s for her work as a journalist, activist and political organizer. Her tireless efforts to lobby for social and economic equality allowed Gloria to emerge as an enduring symbol of female liberation. She advocates for intersectional feminism which examines the intersections where forms of oppression overlap and looks at the institutions and conditions hindering women from advancing as a whole. Gloria adapts her approach to issues as the social and political landscape transforms and she continues to promote an intersectional feminist agenda in a paradoxical world where many changes have occurred, but many issues remain.
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Analysis Of Gloria Anzaldua's To Live In The Borderlands
1054 Words | 5 PagesIn the poem “To live in the Borderlands means you”, the borderlands become a place of change, such as changing from just one culture or race into a diverse culture or race and not-belonging. (Singh, A., & Schmidt, P. 2000). The poem describes how the author’s own background ethnicity people, mixicanas, identifies people like her, chicanas, as “split or mixture that means to betray your word and they deny “Anlo inside you.” (Anzaldua, F. 1987). The poem describes that the borderland is a place of contradiction, such as of home not being a home.
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