2. Imply / Infer
Imply means to
suggest indirectly
(you’re sending a
subtle message).
To infer is to come to
a conclusion based
on information
(you’re interpreting a
message).
6. Intersections of identity and oppression
As a Mestiza I have no country, my homeland cast me out; yet all
countries are mine because I am every woman’s sister or potential
lover. (As a lesbian I have no race, my own people disclaim me; but I
am all races because there is the queer of me in all races.) I am
cultureless because, as a feminist, I challenge the collective
cultural/religious male-derived beliefs of Indo-Hispanics and
Anglos, yet I am cultured because I am participating in the creation of
yet another culture, a new story to explain the world and our
participation in it, a new value system with images and symbols that
connect us to each other and to the planet. Soy un amasamiento, I
am an act of kneading, of uniting, and joining that not only has
produced both a creature of darkness and a creature of light, but also
a creature that questions the definitions of light and dark and gives
them new meanings. (841)
7. Gloria Anzaldua is among the many feminist theorists that
move into the realm of addressing postmodern
identities. In her discussion of a new emerging
consciousness in La conciencia de la mestiza: Towards a
New Consciousness, Anzaldua suggests the construction of
identities as multiple, hybrid, and more
specifically, created as a result of the Borderlands, those
spaces that intersect. While the people who live in the
intersections are privy to a world others don’t see or
understand, it is a space where cultures collide, often with
incompatible values, opposing histories, and contradictory
experiences. It can be difficult to be an individual, or
member, of several social, classed, gendered, racialized
groups but never feeling quite at home in either.
8. An example of the contradictions of which she speaks is through a brief
discussion of the identities of women of color. For instance, if an
African-American woman advocates for women’s rights, does this
mean that femininity and the struggle against gender oppression takes
precedence over her racial identity and her struggle against
colonization and racial oppression?
The inverse question can also be asked. If an African-American woman
of color takes a political stance for the end of her racial
oppression, does this mean that she devalues her experience as being
oppressed by her gender identity?
Anzaldua makes a plea to feminists to bridge identities and to
understand identities as always being constituted in the Borderlands.
The sorting out the contradictions embedded between these social
identities requires a tolerance for ambiguity.
9. Discuss Postmodernism or Minority Theory in
terms of Anzuldua
Multiple Languages
Not understanding
Mixed Genres
Embracing change
Acknowledging difference
Blended Identities
Living in ambiguity
Living a narrative of fragmentation—not a neat
beginning, middle, and end.
10. My initial reaction was to wonder why she then also refers to this
fusion-identity as leading to a new culture, a new
consciousness—why would it be new, wouldn’t it more
accurately and inclusively be called fusion, the pieces welded
but distinct and—which is when I realized her answer is already in
her metaphor, of “cross-pollinization,” and that to liken all of our
identity to our genetics is in this way apt. A nectarine is its own
fruit; it was a cross between a plum and a peach at one point,
and resembles both, but there is no part of a nectarine to isolate
and say “that’s the plum!” nor “and that’s the peach!”
Anzaldúa discusses how to be a
mestiza is to be someone who
“operates in a pluralistic mode,”
(840), who is “at the confluence of
two or more genetic streams…
racial, ideological, cultural, and
biological cross-pollinization” (838).
11. QHQ: “La Conciencia de la
Mestiza”
In the beginning of La Conciencia De La
Mestiza, what are the four and five races?
What is a new Mestiza?
The author embraces the idea that many
changes need to happen in order to stop the
struggle of the Mestiza race but out off all the
ways to stop the struggle, which is the first idea
that needs to happen?
discuss your own experience of la mestiza, having
to “constantly shift out of habitual formation; from
convergent thinking, analytical reasoning.”p.840
12. Why does Anzaldua choose not to include
translations for most of her Spanish text?
How is Anzuldua’s “tolerance for ambiguity” (840)
expressed in her writing style or content?
How does being feminist help her to develop her
work and strength on what she wants say?
La conciencia de la mestiza feels like a call for
action to improve tolerance of both the female
(mestiza) and for minorities overall. It is written in a
mix of English and Spanish so why is the call one
sided, for the minority to change their actions and
some cultural values?
how is the “dominant white culture… killing us
slowly with its ignorance”? how does this affect
immigrants?
13. Discuss themes or meaning in
“El Sonavabitche”
In El Sonavabitche, I recognize the themes of power
and
powerlessness, dehumanization, fear, injustice, anger,
and courage.
The main theme I am seeing in “El Sonavabitche” is
power and powerlessness.
I also agree with everyone that mentioned the theme
powerlessness in el sonavabitche. I also felt there was
isolation, bitterness, and pride in this poem.
I think the main theme behind “El sonavabitche” is
about Mexico being pushed around by authority.
In El Sonavabitche, I noticed the theme of braveness
and a switch of gender roles.
14. Author Introduction: Maxine Hong
Kingston
Maxine "Ting Ting" Hong Kingston grew up in a
working-class neighborhood in
Stockton, California. Born in 1940 to Tom Hong
and Brave Orchid, Kingston is the oldest of her
parents' six American-born children. Kingston's
parents serve as the primary sources for the
imaginative stories she writes. Part 1 of Kingston’s
autobiography Warrior Woman is “No Name
Woman,” a secret story of an aunt from China that
she never knew she had.
15. HOMEWORK
Read Maxine Hong Kingston
Warrior Woman: Part 1 “No Name Woman
793-801
Post #34: Choose one
Discuss a theme or symbol from the reading
QHQ
Comment on the text via a critical lens.
