An Anzaldúan Triptych: with Homage to Federico García Lorca

Abstract

In perhaps her most well-known poem, “To live in the borderlands means you,” Gloria Anzaldúa insists that “hondenying the Anglo inside you / is as bad as having denied the Indian or Black.” That Gloria foregrounded her Chicana—or ChicanX—identity in her writings is indisputable, as even her title Borderlands: La Frontera: The New Mestiza indicates. I must admit, however, that sometimes it concerns me that, even if she played a role, perhaps unwittingly, in the construction of such, her identity has been largely reduced to that of “Chicana,” with “queer” occasionally thrown in for good measure, while other aspects of her complex identity—her Leftist politics, her Pagan spirituality, etc.—have been obscured.