For this assignment, you will read chapter 7 from the same book, which is posted in the final module. Rather than simply explain the text as you did in Week 3, this assignment asks you to apply it to something else you have learned about in this class or to an artist/artwork of your choosing and, if you feel comfortable doing so, to your personal story.
As we saw in the Week 3 Module, in Borderlands/La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldúa uses the concept of the border to discuss issues of language, migration, race, and sexuality. She describes the physical border between the U.S. and Mexico as a historically shifting geographical barrier. While Anzaldúa makes clear the cultural significance of the border, the concept of borderlands has additional meanings. Borderlands may be psychological as much as physical. Borderlands represent spaces in the mind, in the spirit, and/or in society where meanings shift and where there is no clear separation between cultures, ethnicities, or identities. For Anzaldúa, borderlands are places where understandings of the self and of one’s social world are constantly in flux. Anzaldúa writes about many kinds of borders in her own life, using the term “new mestiza” to describe a person of mixed/multiple cultures:
“the new mestiza copes by developing a tolerance for contradictions, a tolerance for ambiguity. She learns to be an Indian in Mexican culture, to be Mexican from an Anglo point of view. She learns to juggle cultures. She has a plural personality, she operates in a pluralistic mode—nothing is thrust out, the good the bad and the ugly, nothing rejected, nothing abandoned. Not only does she sustain contradictions, she turns the ambivalence into something else (101).”
Anzaldúa further explains that embracing multiple aspects of identity and creating new ways of being in the world leads to “a new consciousness”:
“En unas pocas centurias, the future will belong to the mestiza. Because the future depends on the breaking down of paradigms, it depends on the straddling of two or more cultures. By creating a new mythos—that is, a change in the way we perceive reality, the way we see ourselves, and the ways we behave—la mestiza creates a new consciousness (102).”
Artists of all kinds (writers, poets, musicians, etc.) often work with ideas of ambiguity (i.e., uncertainty, or having more than one meaning) and ambivalence (i.e., contradiction, fluctuation, uncertainty) in their identities and in society more broadly. With this in mind, you will apply Anzaldúa’s ideas about borderlands and the new mestiza to the work of an artist or cultural figure you have learned about in this class (or one of your choosing). Please follow the steps below:
Choose one of the Los Angeles artists, poets, writers, musicians, or cultural figures covered in the modules of this course or choose another artist who is connected to/based in Los Angeles you are interested in writing about.
Write a 3-4 page (word count 750-1000 words), 12-point font paper explaining how the artist you chose straddles cultures, identities, or social ways of being in relation to Anzaldúa’s concepts of borderlands/la frontera and la mestiza. Your paper should include all of the following elements in order to receive full credit:
Paragraph 1: In your own words, explain Anzaldúa’s concepts of lamestiza and la frontera/borderlands. Use quote from the text (other than/in addition to the quotes I have provided above) to explain these concepts. Note: You may re-use some of the ideas you wrote about in the portion of the Week 3 discussion on Chapter 1 of Anzaldúa’s book, but you must present new material and draw on Chapter 7 of her book more specifically.
Paragraph 2: Introduce the person/work you are going to be discussing in this paper. Who is the artist/cultural figure and what is their work about? If it is a work of art, describe it in detail. If it is a poem, explain the overall meaning using examples. If it is a cultural worker, explain what they do to add to Los Angeles culture using examples.
Paragraph 3: Explain how the idea of la frontera/borderlands relates to the person/work you chose using at least 2-3 specific examples that connect the concept to the person/work. You may also use further quotes from the text, from the other articles in this course, or from outside sources (if found through a reliable source like a journal article, respectable news source, or museum/gallery website) to support the connections you are making. Be sure to cite any text you use.
Questions to address in this paragraph: How does the artist/work relate to the concept of borderlands? Is there a psychological, spiritual, or cultural element in the work that relates to this concept? What ambivalences or ambiguities does the artist/work reveal to us?
Paragraph 4: Explain how the idea of the new mestiza/la mestiza relates to the person/work you chose using at least 2-3 specific examples that connect the concept to the person/work. You may also use further quotes from the text, from the other articles in this course, or from outside sources (if found through a reliable source like a journal article, respectable news source, or museum/gallery website) to support the connections you are making. Be sure to cite any text you use.
Questions to address in this paragraph: How does the artist present more than one identity or social world in their work? How might the artist demonstrate a break with social paradigms (i.e., typical/dominant models for how to be in the world)? Does the artist present new ways to understand themselves, their culture(s), and/or their social world(s)? If so, how?
Paragraph 5: Explain how the connections you are making between the person/work you chose and Anzaldúa’s concepts relate to Los Angeles history and culture more broadly. In other words, how does everything you have been writing about in the first three paragraphs apply to the longer history of Los Angeles? What about this artist/cultural figure resonates with that history, and how does Anzaldúa’s concepts also resonate with that history? For this paragraph, you may again draw on the things you have learned about the history/culture of Los Angeles in the various articles from this course. Please be sure to cite where appropriate.
Paragraph 6: In this final paragraph, include a discussion about your own experience with the concepts of borderlands and la mestiza. How do you negotiate or renegotiate the various borders of your own social identity? Do you ever feel that you are straddling two ways of being in the world? For example, you might discuss these concepts as they relate to your history of migration, your gender expression, sexuality, race/ethnicity, language, and/or the different social worlds you have inhabited (e.g., work vs. home vs. school, adolescence vs. adulthood, etc.). Does your own experience with borderlands/la mestiza relate to what you have learned about Los Angeles history and culture in this class? If so, how? Note: If you already began to tell your story in the Week 4 discussion post around diasporas and migration, you can draw on that or add to it here. Also note: If you are not comfortable sharing more about yourself, you may instead choose to add an additional paragraph expanding on or adding to the examples and connections you have already written about in the above paragraphs.
