Prompt response

Prompt response

Prompt 1: Find the Anzaldúa quote that is most meaningful to you because it opened your mind to new ways of thinking, and challenged your old ways of thinking. Write the quote out word for word – include the page number(s) where you found the quote.

“Nobody’s going to save you. No one’s going to cut you down, cut the thorns thick around you. No one’s going to storm the castle walls nor kiss awake your birth, climb down your hair, nor mount you onto the white steed. No one will feed the yearning. Face it. You will have to do, do it yourself.”
― Gloria Anzaldua

This quote opened my mind and changed my thinking and perspective in life as it emphasizes on the need to work your way up the ladder as opposed to depending on other individuals for prosperity and success.

Prompt 2: Identify the quote(s) from one or more of the other reading(s) to which you compared/contrasted Anzaldúa’s quote. Why and how did the comparison increase your appreciation of Anzaldúa’s words? Did the contrast heighten the intensity and value of Anzaldúa’s words?

“The Gringo, locked into the fiction of white superiority, seized complete political power, stripping Indians and Mexicans of their lands while their feet were still rooted in it” (Pg.7). In this quote, Anzaldua creates an image of Gringo that is tyrannical, obsessed with his quest for complete obedience and own self-worth from those that appear purportedly inferior.  Anzaldua depicts the white colonist as being wrong through a list of systemic and personal contraventions against the Chicanos. The “fiction of white superiority” must have originated from a fearful place. Fear of different values and different people might have proved a powerful motive to eradicating the native culture for the white race while trying to exploit the effort.

This comparison increases my appreciation of Anzaldua’s words, especially on page 105, where she references the machismo as exhibited by her father that included his support to the family having an energetic attitude, nonetheless allowing love to prosper. Anglos changed that meaning and converted it into something wrong and diverse since they felt “inferior and inadequate and powerless” (P.g 105) in the presence of the Chicano people. All these adversities haven’t broken the Chicanos. I am surprised by the faith Anzaldua exhibits to this group of individuals that has much hardship. She holds the belief that what is of more importance is the image of an adaptive, robust and multicultural person who, despite living on the edge, hasn’t given up when compared to the image depicted by the white aggressor.

The contrast heightens the intensity of Anzaldua’s words as she inscribes them from the angle viewpoint of the person who experiences the hardships first hand and is living on the borders daily. It is not comfortable living between worlds, and this is well conveyed through her writings. She does this when she sprinkles Spanish words to those of English, and this adds some perspective to whatever people experience daily.

Prompt 3: Describe and explain in specific terms how and why the quote is meaningful to you. How does it connect to your lived experience, to your ideas and intuitions?

“She learns to transform the small ‘I’ into the total Self” (Pg. 104) This quote is meaningful to me since I hold the belief that it summarizes the principal of the mestiza awareness; when we own up to our conflicting narratives in creating a sense of self-empowerment, we not only convert to full entities but also become part of expansive togetherness. In our quest to achieve this, we have to assemble the many pieces forming our identities, then embrace the differences holding the trust that they will lead to our development. The idea of stirring understanding and bringing together opposites through empathy is at the center of Anzaldua’s philosophy. She uses her writing not only to emphasize the need to adhere to new consciousness but also as a platform that embodies these beliefs. Her books connect to my lived experience, my ideas, and intuition since it combines the multitudes of ancestry and her experiences coupled with elements of Catholic prayers and Aztec folklore, natural philosophies with Afro Latino creeds, her Chicana identity, and white cultural capital. In “El Camino de la mestiza/The Mestiza Way” (P.g 104), for instance, she refers to the philosophy of Tolteca which creates a harmonious bond with oneself while disposing of her elements of American persona – hers dollars and the “mumi-bart metro maps” Gloria Anzaldua tells her story in a unique method especially her objects personification and surplus of visual imagery. She exemplifies the literary and cultural texts forcing us to challenge the presumptions we hold on identity and borders.