“I collapse into myself- a delicious craving into myself…And I am not afraid” (Anzaldúa, 7). In La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldúa presents herself as a Chicano woman of many identities and cultural contributors. In addition she identifies the many aspects that shape her different identities and her ability to truly express herself through them. She assertively ensures her audience that she is who she is because she declared such identities. Therefore, Anzaldúa identifies identity as a concept that we control and constantly change identifying language and its cultural barriers within communities. She also identifies the difficulties of sexual orientation and its overlapping oppression with other identities and cultural/family expectations.
Anzaldúa …show more content…
Although language identifies us with home, it also segregates us from the cultures we identify with collectively; resulting in the need for the ChicanX to “identify ourselves as a distinct people” (Anzaldúa, 77) from their Mexican and American cultures. . Anzaldúa informs her readers on the creation of Chicano Spanish as an act of accepting their Mexican-American roots and of allowing themselves to celebrate their Mexican roots with equal appreciation for their American and Indigenous Ancestry. She then expresses the frustrations in Chicano culture when speaking Chicano Spanish amongst other Chicanos out of fear of not speaking Spanish good enough or not being a “good” Chicana. “If a person, Chicana or Latina, has a low estimation of my native tongue, she also has a low estimation of me” (Anzaldúa, 81), AnzaldÚa identifies the connection between her Chicana …show more content…
In attempting to show her readers what aspects shape and create her identity, Anzaldúa succeeds in establishing how we contribute to our individual identities and how where we come from and who we surround ourselves with effect the ways that we express these identities to the world. Although Anzaldúa identifies her homeland and language as the greatest bearers of her culture, our identities aren’t limited to the way we communicate or the soil that we share with our native communities. Despite what or how many things we identify as we have the greatest effect on how our identities are perceived and we live our lives through these identities according to society’s standards. It isn’t until we truly learn to accept every part of our self for what we are as opposed to what we are supposed to be based on society’s standards. Alike Anzaldúa’s pride for her many Spanish lingos, we must grow to accept and ultimately connect our identities. It is when we learn that we have the ultimate influence and control that we’ll be able to relieve ourselves from the oppression of society and its expectations. Anzaldúa’s perspective allows us to explore ourselves without fear and it reminds us that we are ultimately in control of our lives. She allows herself to be vulnerable by revealing her identities to her readers and she encourages us to learn from her
Anzaldúa …show more content…
Although language identifies us with home, it also segregates us from the cultures we identify with collectively; resulting in the need for the ChicanX to “identify ourselves as a distinct people” (Anzaldúa, 77) from their Mexican and American cultures. . Anzaldúa informs her readers on the creation of Chicano Spanish as an act of accepting their Mexican-American roots and of allowing themselves to celebrate their Mexican roots with equal appreciation for their American and Indigenous Ancestry. She then expresses the frustrations in Chicano culture when speaking Chicano Spanish amongst other Chicanos out of fear of not speaking Spanish good enough or not being a “good” Chicana. “If a person, Chicana or Latina, has a low estimation of my native tongue, she also has a low estimation of me” (Anzaldúa, 81), AnzaldÚa identifies the connection between her Chicana …show more content…
In attempting to show her readers what aspects shape and create her identity, Anzaldúa succeeds in establishing how we contribute to our individual identities and how where we come from and who we surround ourselves with effect the ways that we express these identities to the world. Although Anzaldúa identifies her homeland and language as the greatest bearers of her culture, our identities aren’t limited to the way we communicate or the soil that we share with our native communities. Despite what or how many things we identify as we have the greatest effect on how our identities are perceived and we live our lives through these identities according to society’s standards. It isn’t until we truly learn to accept every part of our self for what we are as opposed to what we are supposed to be based on society’s standards. Alike Anzaldúa’s pride for her many Spanish lingos, we must grow to accept and ultimately connect our identities. It is when we learn that we have the ultimate influence and control that we’ll be able to relieve ourselves from the oppression of society and its expectations. Anzaldúa’s perspective allows us to explore ourselves without fear and it reminds us that we are ultimately in control of our lives. She allows herself to be vulnerable by revealing her identities to her readers and she encourages us to learn from her