To Live in The Borderlands is an eight-stanza poem published in a 1987 semi-autobiographical book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldua. The work investigates the meaning of mixed heritage and its implications on one’s self-identification. The author explores her understanding of being a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual individual through extensive use of literary devices to connect with her audience. In its essence, the poem represents the confusion a person with a diverse ancestry faces on a social and individual level when trying to strictly define their identity.
The author turns to a variety of poetic devices to present to her audience what the internal conflict of a person of a mixed racial identity is. Anzaldua opts to share her experience through the lens of the second-person narration rather than first-person singular. Having conveyed her perspective to the reader on a deeper level, the author is then able to effectively reinforce the confusion and contradiction by switching between English and Spanish throughout the poem. For instance, Anzaldua’s use of insults, such as “burra” or “buey,” in their original form creates a more powerful impression (line 15). Overall, the combination of second-person and bilingual narrations proves to have a profound effect.
The unclear nature of the term “Borderlands” adds another facet to Anzaldua’s work as the meaning could be deemed both literal and figurative. Whether it is the border zone between the U.S. and Mexico or the inability to fit a particular label, the question of what it truly means “to live in the Borderlands” remains central. Thus, the author makes extended use of the refrain to create a sense of mundanity, which is often juxtaposed with increasingly vivid metaphors. For example, in the fifth stanza (lines 24-27), the author depicts the threats of alcoholism and suicide a person in the Borderlands has to resist, such as “the gold elixir,” “the pull of the gun barrel,” or “the rope crushing the hollow of your throat.” In the final stanza (lines 41-43), the author answers her question to some extent, saying, “To survive the Borderlands you must live sin fronteras (without borders) / be a crossroads.” By ending her poem with a seemingly inconsistent answer, the author reinforces the contradiction essential to her argument. Importantly, Anzaldua rejects the notion of putting oneself in the rigid lines of a single, definite label as it not only confuses but can also be detrimental.
Anzaldua also shows that the uncertainty of the “Borderlands” is present on both personal and social levels. For example, one of the reasons for the internal conflict of the poetic speaker stems from “not knowing which side to turn to, to run from” (line 6). The author also implies that choosing one label for their ethnic identity means losing touch with the other ones, saying, “… the india in you, betrayed for 500 years / is no longer speaking to you” (lines 8-9). This sense of confusion is exacerbated by the society that rejects an individual who does not belong to one social group.
Anzaldua’s work ‘To Live in The Borderlands’ proves to offer a thorough insight into the feelings of a multi-ethnic individual, particularly exploring one’s identity in the social and personal context. She presents a complex, multi-faceted argument, the complexity of which touches the reader on multiple levels. The author effectively appeals to her audience by enriching her poem with various literary devices and ideas.
Work Cited
Anzaldúa, Gloria. “To Live in The Borderlands Means You.” Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1987, pp. 194-195.