Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza
Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza book cover

Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza

Price
$34.00
Format
Paperback
Pages
312
Publisher
Aunt Lute Books
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1879960855
Dimensions
5.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
Weight
14.1 ounces

Description

About the Author Gloria Anzaldúa was a Chicana-tejana-lesbian-feminist poet, theorist, and fiction writer from south Texas. She was the editor of the critical anthology MAKING FACE, MAKING SOUL/HACIENDO CARAS: CREATIVE AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES BY FEMINISTS OF COLOR (Aunt Lute Books, 1990), co-editor of This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color , and winner of the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award. She taught creative writing, Chicano studies, and feminist studies at University of Texas, San Francisco State University, Vermont College of Norwich University, and University of California Santa Cruz. Anzaldúa passed away in 2004 and was honored around the world for shedding visionary light on the Chicana experience by receiving the National Association for Chicano Studies Scholar Award in 2005. Gloria was also posthumously awarded her doctoral degree in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. A number of scholarships and book awards, including the Anzaldúa Scholar Activist Award and the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Award for Independent Scholars, are awarded in her name every year.

Features & Highlights

  • Rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa's experience as a Chicana, a lesbian, an activist, and a writer, the essays and poems in this volume profoundly challenged, and continue to challenge, how we think about identity.
  • Borderlands / La Frontera
  • remaps our understanding of what a "border" is, presenting it not as a simple divide between here and there, us and them, but as a psychic, social, and cultural terrain that we inhabit, and that inhabits all of us.
  • This twenty-fifth anniversary edition features a new introduction by scholars Norma Cantú (University of Texas at San Antonio) and Aída Hurtado (University of California at Santa Cruz) as well as a revised critical bibliography.
  • Gloria Anzaldúa
  • was a Chicana-tejana-lesbian-feminist poet, theorist, and fiction writer from south Texas. She was the editor of the critical anthology
  • Making Face/Making Soul: Haciendo Caras
  • (Aunt Lute Books, 1990), co-editor of
  • This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color
  • , and winner of the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award. She taught creative writing, Chicano studies, and feminist studies at University of Texas, San Francisco State University, Vermont College of Norwich University, and University of California Santa Cruz. Anzaldúa passed away in 2004 and was honored around the world for shedding visionary light on the Chicana experience by receiving the National Association for Chicano Studies Scholar Award in 2005. Gloria was also posthumously awarded her doctoral degree in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. A number of scholarships and book awards, including the Anzaldúa Scholar Activist Award and the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Award for Independent Scholars, are awarded in her name every year.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(479)
★★★★
25%
(200)
★★★
15%
(120)
★★
7%
(56)
-7%
(-57)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Powerful read, meaningful read

This product was bought for, and reviewed by, Soul Cooke.

I studying this book in one of my college classes and I fell in love with it. It's so emotional, intense, and angry. It's visceral and real. I think everyone who wants to better themselves and combat the racism in our society and in themselves should read this book and learn about Anzaldua's life. Any marginalized person is going to connect with something in the text, and anyone of privilege is going to gain some new perspective. Since, in someway, we are all marginalized and privileged it means there is so, so much to learn.

The text itself is also incredibly beautiful and evocative. It is not always a joy to read, no, sometimes it's too painful for that. But it is a powerful read, a meaningful read.
42 people found this helpful
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I don't know why it's taken me so long to read this book

This book changed my life. I think Anzaldua should be assigned reading for any Hispanic populated area because it invites one into the realm of academia with a language that speaks to our culture and gives understanding to the borders that comprise our selves. She creates a language that is not limited to the mixed nature of hybridity or "mestiza" of race, but any group that finds themselves at the borders of 2 or more races, classes, sexes, genders...and so on.
20 people found this helpful
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Great book to own!

I really enjoyed the historical aspect of the work and her command of language(s). Her descriptions of the "between worlds" (borderlands) is outstanding! Her philosophy regarding people, gender, religion, and also, specific to people of color is a breath of fresh air, when considering the punitive and puritan attitudes of so many people today.
8 people found this helpful
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I was disappointed. The problem I had with this reading was ...

I'm always excited to read books written by Latinas because there is not much representation on a literary front. I purchased this book for a class at UNLV and after reading a couple of chapters, I was disappointed. The problem I had with this reading was the melodrama. I felt like I was reading a "telenovela" or Spanish-language soap opera. It bugged me so much that I caught myself rolling my eyes. The exaggerated descriptions and sprinkling of spanish language sayings, to me, took away from the message the author was trying to convey. I was expecting a powerful and inspiring message instead, I saw the author as vain and narcissistic in her description of suffering. I'm grateful that my professor asked questions relating to the topics the author writes about rather than my opinion of the reading. It leaves me annoyed when I am finished reading and I shutter everytime I see I have a reading assigned from it. It is torture.
8 people found this helpful
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>I liked how she explored the topic of being stuck between ...

PURPOSE: I had to read it for my immigrant/ethnic class.

CONS:
>Like the title suggests, half the book is in Spanish and the other half in English.
>There is no real plot. It's just topic essays and some poems.

PROS:
>I liked how she explored the topic of being stuck between two different cultures.
>Very befitting title.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:
>I didn't appreciate how much Spanish was used. After constantly trying to translate the meaning on Google, I gave up. So I probably only understood 1/3 of the book. Also sometimes the translated meaning cannot be taken literally. However, maybe I wasn't her intended audience.
>I didn't like how there was no plot to it.
>I would not have read it if it were not for class.
5 people found this helpful
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Classic Hispanic feminist text

I bought this to use in a class I taught, and even 30 years after its original publication date, it's still a relevant text on subaltern cultures. Whether you're looking for linguistic, cultural or gendered/sexual subalternity, you'll find all of it in here.
5 people found this helpful
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An unexpected surprise

I'll be honest, I was required to purchase this book for a class, but I had never so much looked forward to reading for homework before, and I looked forward to each class discussion for that week. I think everyone should read this book. I love the content and the point of view from which it's told. I loved it so much that this is my first Amazon review LOL. But seriously, everyone should read this book! Learn more about Chicanos, the culture, and its place in the U.S.!
4 people found this helpful
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Different culture , but great book

I read this for class, this book was an eye opener from someone else's perspective in life as a Mexican who is lesbian
4 people found this helpful
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Five Stars

Good book! Would read more from Gloria Anzaldua! Very empowering woman.
3 people found this helpful
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Replace Columbus Day with ANZALDUA DAY, yes?

Latina Lesbian Women's Studies Scholar, with Cherrie Moraga,
also from other works. We should rename Columbus Day
ANZALDUA Day! Why not?
3 people found this helpful