En 101
4 February 2015
Inner Relief
Gloria Anzaldua uses words to describe how she felt just like many other people can relate to especially with discussing feelings of growing up. Anzaldua is an advocate and a realist. She was devastated, stuck between cultures and ancestries. She did not know which way to turn. She pushed forward and took action. Anzaldua describes herself, “As a Mestiza I have no country, my homeland cast me out, yet every country is mine because I am every woman’s sister or potential lover”(Anzaldua 102). In this depiction of who she is, she sees it as what it is. A common theme within Anzaldua is dialogue of being right or being happy. Acceptance is one thing that Anzaldua strives for, but cannot fully grasp. It is with this struggle Anzaldua constructs a new mestizo consciousness to deal with or combat such systemic marginalization. She sees the problems with society, culture, societal norms, and even herself. Chapter 7 in the beginning tries to focus on the, “struggle of flesh, a struggle of borders, and inner war”(Anzaldua 100). This is similar to the previous paragraphs quote of having no country. Alzaldua faces the dilemma of mix breed. Generations of her family are from Mexico, but now she is an American, where norms impressed upon her are much more radically different than of her ancestors. She is different from her family while also being different than the white American value system at that time. This is what the quote above is refereeing to, her struggle of who she is where she is placed in society. She does not understand her role, or the oppression upon her. Anzaldua is a Chicana, meaning she is Mexican but born here in the United States. Chicana was viewed as a negative connotation but Anzaldua was one who tried to change that into something positive, because ultimately these people knew where they were coming from, where as she did not know her background. She was not of the European Spanish, which at the time was better than being Mexican, especially in Texas where she grew up. Erika Aigner-Varoz of the University of New Mexico states “Anzaldua targets paradigms representing culturally determines roles imposed on individuals and peoples from the outside. Failure to conform to such paradigms, Anzaldua argues, results in the social ostracism of the transgressors”(Aigner-Varoz 47). Anzaldua emphasizes metaphor with her language to inspire the sense of reorganization the mutual conscious through semantic and visual means. Throughout the text it is clear to the reader and to her, there is no feminine words in language, everything is masculine. Everything is macho, no vulnerability whatsoever. Anzaldua discusses the steps in formation of a new consciousness. The first thing is taking inventory. Inventory is vital. Looking back at past experience develops who we are today. She talks about the baggage that weighs her down. This resonates as the image of the man holding the world on his shoulders. She talks about the baggage from her Mexican mother, her Spanish father, and the Anglo world. It is this type expectation of what people want from her that brings her down. That is only part of the case. Being a lesbian was a difficult struggle for conforming to religion. As we know, South America is predominantly Catholic. Catholicism implicitly states that no man lay with another man and vice-versa. She fells left out, like there is no place for her in this organized religion. She feels like she is now alone and abandoned. “She puts history through a sieve, winnows out the lies, looks at the forces that we as a race, as women, have been a part of” (Anzaldua 104). Anzaldua looks at the way she was raised, what she was inherited and, what was taught to her. This method of drawing on past experience helps her formulate who she has become and what she would like moving forward. Anzaldua is forming a new concept instead. The ways of appeasing both sides is something that is much too difficult. The new mestizo consciousness comes about through this, “Rigidity means death, she has discovered that she can’t hold concepts or ideas in rigid boundaries”(Anzaldua 102). She must be willing to keep an open mind. Open mindedness is the key to all reasoning. Instead of being blocked or impartial, having this open mind allows one to see things from a different frame of mind. It is much more inviting. Anzaldua eloquently describes the reasons, “the work of mestiza consciousness is to break down the subject-object duality that keeps her a prisoner and to show in the flesh and through the images in her how duality is transcended” (Anzaldua 102). She wants to break across the social norms of what people expect of her. As stated it is difficult for one to do. It is tough for her to figure out what the right course of action is. Her experience with people is exclusivity. The whites have oppressed her because of her background, just as the indigenous did as well, since she wasn’t one of them either. She was constantly being beaten down by everyone. She has learned how to live within cultures instead of one culture. This open mindedness does not ruin her, but expands her cognizance. It allows her to connect with countless others not just one group. This type of way in seeing things gives her freedom. It gives her the ability to pick and choose what she deems as something that is worthy for her beliefs. This way she is not appeasing anyone but herself, inner relief. She is now a cultured in many different aspects not just in one. It is not enough for her to just sit in uncertainty and let things go by, or as she calls it, “it is not enough standing on the opposite river bank, shouting questions, challenging patriarchal, white conventions”(Anzaldua 100). It is her duty to take action in which she does, creating the consciousness of culture that she can be proud of. Men and women are restrained to roles, while feminists are the outcast. Anzaldua discusses reasons for the change that has to occur, system marginalization has been happening in the society since the age of hunting and gathering. There needs to be a movement for new men to shed a light on a different masculinity. Anzaldua, a lesbian refers to the gays as, “ having the courage to expose themselves to the women inside them and to challenge the current masculinity”(Anzaldua 106). It is important for the new mestizo consciousness to incorporate all people, “our role is to link people with each other… It is to transfer ideas and information from one culture to another”(Anzaldua 106). What Anzaldua is trying to accomplish is of paramount importance. The strive for inclusivity is monumental. She was someone who had been ostracized and demoted her entire life. She wasn’t indigenous or white, leaving her within this ambiguity, and having no people to rely upon. This is her way of taking her own experiences of loneliness and now allowing people of whatever race to appreciate comradely. She knows no boundaries. An important characteristic that Anzaldua describes is the topic of vulnerability. The gringo world, “the Chicano suffers from excessive humility and self-effacement, shame of self and self-deprecation…Deconstruct construct”(Anzaldua 104). It is through the healing process the transformation can be evident. It is paralleled to the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, Where there is doubt, faith; to be consoled as to console. This type of vulnerability shows how important it is for barriers to be brought down. It is relieve us of this machismo that Anzaldua describes. Being vulnerable allows us to be completely honest and open, something that, “she communicates that rupture, documents the struggle”(Anzaldua 103). She can be sincere here, which is taken for granted. “Anzaldúa writes a confession of someone who strives to preserve her cultural heritage and at the same time tries to grasp the contradictions that are intrinsic to the roots (and the self) which have sprung up from the border culture”(Kynclova 43). Anzaldua talks about these roots of culture like corn. They need to be planted firmly into the ground; the solidness of the plant comes from the beliefs. The stronger the belief the stronger the stance, which denies the demotion of white people into her life. In the end what Anzaldua is trying to depict a way of life that is a struggle. The battle has always been inner, but it has the external repercussion show. Anzaldua depicts the inner struggle and how to heal it. It is a process, it will take time, but she believes that is one of the most important things to do in order to obtain inner relief. B

Bibliography
1. Aigner-Varoz, Erika. "Anzaldua's Borderlands/ La Frontera." Metaphors of a Mestiza Consciousness. 2nd ed. Vol. 25. Oxford U on Behalf of The Society for the Study of the Multi Ethnic Literature of the United States, 2000. 47-62. Print.
2. Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 4th ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 2012. Print
3. Kynclová, Tereza (2006) "Constructing Mestiza Consciousness: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Literary Techniques in Borderlands/La
Frontera—The New Mestiza," Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge: Vol. 4: Iss. 3, Article 7.