New beginnings

The reading traces Gloria Anzaldúa’s experiences of existing entirely intersectionally. She exists in the borderlands of geography, culture and sexuality. She destroys or at least puts into question these categories into which people are forced to fit into. For her, having to be one thing or the other, compartmentalising into specific, “natural” categories and having to choose between very limited options is nothing less than cruelty. It reduces any possibility of other ways of being. Any identity which does not fit into the set categories and binaries is deemed abnormal and even deviant.

If an identity challenges the norm it is subhuman and nonhuman. Those living in these subversive categories (or borderlands) are constantly struggling to find ways to express themselves while also trying to come to terms with their own duality. They have to live every day as ostracised beings who do not belong while simultaneously being shunned and silenced for who they are. These people need to find ways to deal with their identities which punish them but also are their reality.

As part of the borderlands, she provides great insight into what methods they use to cope. One way in which she describes they do so is by creating a new language, Chicano Spanish. It is a means for them to make the borderlands comfortable and familiar. From her own experience, we can see how difficult it is to be living outside the binaries. She loves her culture and tries to embrace it completely but she is also aware of the toxic elements of it. She disassociates from those parts but does not try to immerse herself in the colonial culture. For doing so she is deemed a sellout by many of her own people. They try to silence her. But she breaks that silence. She believes that if going back to one’s own people is not an option because they do not accept your nonbinary identity (be it of any kind) then one must create a new home and try to keep it open to all, which is a beautiful way to encourage people on the borderlands to start anew, to find new beginnings when the familiar closes its doors on them.