Borderlands La Frontera Analysis

Kinjal Patel
Professor Caressa
American Lit.
March 16, 2017
Midterm Paper
In a world we live in today what we allow is what will continue. For years we have learned about our history and how it came about to be. However, some of us never really thought about the concept beyond what was taught. Through reading the novels during lectures, I have gained a better perspective on how important American literature stands and what impact it can have in our history. So where did our nation came about to be and how does it affect us today? Manifest destiny’s mission was to expand the territory and grow in a way where the nation enhances the knowledge on the growth of our community’s awareness. Two of the main concerns during our nations development
She begins by describing the border between the U.S. and Mexico as where "the Third World grates against the first and bleeds" (Anzaldua). She states that a distinctive border culture is growing up in this region. Though it is now defined as white, this area was first Indian, Spanish, and mestizo and a place of migration from north to south, as Chicanos and mestizos moved from what is the U.S. to Mexico, and then south to north, as Mexicans returned to the U.S. as immigrants. She then explores the ways in which she rebelled against her culture by being a lesbian, and a woman who grew up in a cross-cultured area trying to understand her identity, but also to make us rethink about what a border is and what are the consequences which come with it. She writes, "I want to freedom to chisel my own face” (Anzaldua). She also identifies the female deities in Latina culture that men drove underground and the ways in which traditional culture once gave more power to women. She pries off the layers of history to find the multiple complex strands that compose her identity and calls for the people who are dominant in the borderland culture to recognize and empower those who are
However, when it was first founded it did not adhere to these principles. In more recent times the country has made significant improvements in terms of religious and pluralism. Benedict Anderson defines the nation as, an imagined political community and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. According to Anderson it is imagined because he believes that “the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (Anderson, p.6). An imagined community has limitations, which categorizes people to have certain identities. As a girl who was born in India, I feel as if I am categorized as an Indian, not because where I think I belong but because of my race. Anderson strongly explains that nationalism is not associated with racism; however, it is related to the shared history and values, which identifies who we are. We may not realize this, but everything we do is nationalism, from our careers to what we decide to wear. For example, the status level between nurses and doctors. Nurses are frowned upon because their title isn’t as important as the doctors. But according to the work they do, they should be respected. So based on our career paths were characterized into certain category as well. No matter what part of the world we come, were somehow related to one another