Haylee: Seq 7 Assn 5

What is the author saying that is experimental?

Anzaldua speaks of her cultural heritage mixing history and mythology. She makes bold statements about violence, feminity, religion.

"My family, like most Chicanos, did not practice Roman Catholicism but a folk Catholicism with many pagan elements." (p.65)

"The male-dominated Azteca-Mexica culture drove the powerful female deities undergound by giving them monstorous attributes and by substituting male deities in their place, thus splitting the female Self and the female deities." (p.65)

"Thus the Aztec nation fell not because malinali (la Chingada) interpreted for and slept with Cortes, but because the ruling elite had subverted the solidarity between men and women and between noble and commoner." (71)

"The Catholic and protestant religions encourage fear and distrust of life and of the body; they encourage a split between the body and the spirit and totally ignore the soul; they encourage us to kill off parts of ourselves." (p.74)



Anzaldua says "The whole thing has had a mind of its own, escaping me and insisting on puttion together the pieces of its own puzzle with minimal direction from my will."



She approaches is as if it took her by surprise. She is writing about being in a cultural purgatory; not American, not Mexican, or Spanish; being separated from her language. She combines poetry with history with personal story. She is angry and the audience is not necessarily her friend. While many authors tend to try to connect with the audience, Anzaldua writes wholly from her own perspective, many times alienating a reader; but nevertheless, needing to tell her story her way. It can be uncomfortable to read and try to relate to her. It can be offensive or aggressive. She is a wisewoman, a confused girl, an angry feminist. She writes many times in a different language, without interpreting; combining English with Chicano Spanish.

I think this essay is a very effective as far as it shows the weaving of history and myth. The tough truths to tell. The first time I read through this essay, I felt like I was being insulted. The more and more I turned back to it, I found elements of myself rising to the top.