Gloria Anzaldua's Cihuatlyotl, Woman Alone

The portrayal of minority groups is always difficult to represent in one aspect, let alone multiple. This can be applied when lesbian or other LGBTQ writers express their experiences through multiple lenses of intersectionality. One can see herself as an impoverished ethnic lesbian, but only be acknowledged for one at a time depending on the community she is talking to. Also, when one is not the ‘ideal type’ for her identification groups, those she wishes to relate to can further reject her. Gloria Anzaldua is a Chicana lesbian woman from Native American descent and writes of her struggles. In her piece “Cihuatlyotl, Woman Alone,” the speaker expresses the exile from her identified groups, yet she simultaneously rejects and accepts her identities. I believe the speaker of this poem, although just in her emotions, neglects how violent her words are in deterring from her point in accepting identities. Therefore, the tone …show more content…
Without evening reading the piece and just looking visually at the structure, you see what appear to be sporadic gaps and randomized italic words. However, once carefully reading the piece, you know the gaps and italics words are there to emphasize certain words. Nonetheless, the emphasis is on individual Spanish words and these harsh words. To me, line 14 was perhaps the harshest by emphasizing “Raza” and using the phrase “to cleave flesh from flesh” (Anzaldua 14). This line emphasizes her race is somehow figuratively butchering the speaker up like a pig, and only picking the select cuts of the speaker they wish to have. The speaker again references this near the end of the poem stating, “there’s nothing more you can chop off or graft on me that will change my soul” (Anzaldua 28-30). This appears to be a resolution yet emphasizes again the figurative butchering of her soul. It appears to further give the poem much aggression even if the speaker has come to terms with herself