preciouslopez

[preciouslopez]

Part 4 - Post 3

Lastly, in my overall favorite reading “Letting go” Gloria Anzaldua makes her reasoning as to why it is necessary to heal and let go of the buried trauma inside oneself. She does a great job of explaining how one may and must go through this process of emptying out multiple times because otherwise it “grows in your throat and turns into a frog.” Anzaldua also states how “no one is going to save you” however once you take the initcitive to help yourself and let go you will feel great or in Gloria’s words you will feel good and grow “gills/ grow on your breasts”. All in all, this one has to be my overall favorite, I feel like everyone has a trauma that impacts them and the way your mind works. However, it is true that the only person that can want to let it go is you and once you find that forgiveness within yourself, you not only better yourself but the world and future you seek to have.  

[preciouslopez]

Part 4 - Post 2

In the passage “Nopal de Castilla” Gloria Anzaldua then goes on to talk about how she had cooping mechanisms. In this part of part 4, she describes how those mechanisms involved “needles, nettles, razor-sharp spikes” and how this gave her a sense of protection. She also describes all the ways she also tried to distract itself from “seeing” how she overcame shame. To add on, I think by reading his passage that Gloria Anzaldua did a great job of allowing us to see that it is okay to feel like an alien in our own culture. For instance, growing up I did not know how to speak Spanish and when I would visit family they would make me feel like I wasn’t part of the culture and felt uncomfortable inside of my own culture just like she was. All in all, I feel like seeking wanting to be one with ones culture can cause and create a lot duality. 

[preciouslopez]

Part 4 - Post 1

In part 4, Gloria opens up about her fathers death and what it was like when he passed and how her mother covered the mirrors with blankets. After mentioning this, Gloria Anzaldua then goes on to help us understand how she felt within herself. She goes on to depict herself has a thorny pear in regards to being yellow, exposed, continually think of barrier methodologies to get away from the sentiments of deficiency. Anzaldua does this in a composition sonnet. She then also goes on to talk about how Chicancos need Coatlicue as a way to process fear. She also opens up about how she has also been visited by the Coatlicue many times and in regards to that tried to stay hidden. However, later on, Anzaldua says “every step forward is a crossing” means that she was becoming a new person by being able to comfort her own suffering.

[preciouslopez]

Part 3 - Post 1

In this passage of “Crossing Borders” we begin this part by entering into the serpent.Anzaldua speaks on how Chicana fear snakes and how when she was younger she was bitten by a rattle snake and since that day she gained a supernatural immunity and power from it. Moving along, Anzaldua talks about her families catholicism is permeated with lots of rituals such as the virgin of Guadalupe. Gloria also goes on to talk about how men forced females into doing things by “removing their dangerous serpent sexually” and rendering the Virgin of Guadalupe. At the end of this topic, Gloria, however, did not embrace this and explains how she continues to look to Coatlalopeuh. All in all, I really enjoyed reading this sections and being able to grasp a deeper meaning of snakes from her prescriptive in regards to our culture which never came to mind. 

[preciouslopez]

Part 2 - Post 5

Although there was a lot of great poems. The last poem that really stood out to me was “Immaculate, Inviolate: Como Ella” Gloria Anzaldua tells a time when she remembers speaking and visiting her grandmother as a child. She first starts off by exampling her grandmothers fear of fire due to a drought. Anzaldua then goes on to talk about how during that time she recalls learning about sex by asking her grandmother questions about it. Her grandmother then says that she would let her husband do whatever and just “prayed” that he would “finish quickly”. After reading this poem, I feel like Gloria did a great job at expressing her curiousness on sex and figuring out her sexuality. However, at the same time it also helped me understand how far we as Chicana woman have came in regards to being able to be more open sexually and not have as many standards when it comes to how we want live.  

[preciouslopez]

Part 2 - Post 4

To continue, in the poem “Horse” Gloria Anzaldua uses this poem to talk about and describe how some white teenagers are cutting up a horse and getting away with it, whereas in this situation Mexican must keep quiet. In this part she also says “If you’re Mexican you are bored old.” (129) Moving along, in all honesty I feel like this poem was very deep and had such a great meaning behind it. Pain and death is something everyone experiences in their lifetime. In this case, the Mexicans had to be quiet about the death which then later on caused them pain. To add on, I feel like this poem can even correlate to today’s problems. I feel like in regards to the black lives matter movement a lot of things regarding discrimination and un equality came to light and after reading the poem during that time things were just able to get pushed off do to the fear of not feeling equal to other cultures. 

[preciouslopez]

Part 2 - Post 3

In the passage “Cervicide” Gloria Anzaldua tells a story about a little girl who is very focused on killing a fawn with a hammer in order to help save her father from the game warden. Gloria Anzaldua then goes on to explain in the poem how the child only did it in order to help prevent her father from imprisonment due to the fact that the animal illegally. When reading the poem, I really related with it. I feel like in our culture children want to protect and help their family any way that they can whether that being leaving home and getting a better education and or working hard in order to help provide and pay bills. Personally, I would do the same. I think that family does play a major part when exploring ones culture due to the fact that at the end of the day those are the ones who care deeply for each other. 

[preciouslopez]

Part 2 - Post 2

In the passage, “Un Agitado Viento/ Ehecatl, The Wind” Gloria Anzaldua starts off by giving an introduction on what themes and motifs she will be talking about. (which I really enjoyed) She did a great job of telling us what she was going to talk about while still allowing us to endure surprises. In this part she tells a poem called “White-wing season” In this poem she talks and describes how a Chicana allows a white hunter to shoot doves on her property. She heard the shots and sees the “fall over the fields” The woman then later on cooks the bird. Moving along, I really like how Gloria connected animals and ones childhood together in order to grasp a better idea of what others experienced and how animals and childhood come hand in hand when trying to explain ones culture. I also think by telling this poem she was able to also protrya how image of a white men with guns creating silence in the sky.

[preciouslopez]

Part 2 - Post 1

In the passage “Atravesando fronteras/ Crossing borders” was primarily written and centers around political arguments. However, to add on Gloria throughout the six chapters also uses poetry to help flesh out the ideas from part one. For example as mentioned above Anzaldua uses her poems to help describe the border life and what its like crossing and what she personally had to deal with when crossing. For example, she even talks about the harsh and terrible violence she saw for herself. I personally really enjoyed reading the first part of this section in her novel. I say this because having heard other experiences from people who have crossed the border in search of a better life is in a way a harsh reality. Many people come, get judged, feel out of place, and go back. I was also intrigued when she was very descriptive and usng things such as juxtaposition when talking about what it looked like living by the borders because I feel like she did a great job of allowing the readers to feel right there wth her.  

[preciouslopez]

Part 1 - Post 3

In the passage “Speaking in Tongues” Gloria Anzaldua aims her letter to 3rd world women in which addresses women of color specifically. Anzaldua addresses these women by encouraging them to make they personal embodied experiences seen and views through text. She tries her best to encourage them by giving examples from her own life and pieces, which allows her audience to connect with her. She also talks about how there are a lot of  overlooked women writers in which she, herself connected with in regards to being heard. I really enjoyed seeing how throughout the piece she used ethos and ethos as a was of being able to dominate the ideology of what she was trying to put out. Overall, I feel like Gloria did an amazing job at getting her point across and I feel like even today women of color deserve to be heard regardless of their position.

[preciouslopez]

Part 1 - Post 2

In the passage, “Dream of the Double-Faced Woman” Gloria Anzaldua reflects on the disconnect between two things that woman try their hardest to protect. Those two things are a woman's spirit and political views in regards to liberation. Moving along, in this piece Gloria does a great job of describing how women are taught that they are either considered a “whore” or “Virgin” and are also rarely allowed to talk about sexuality, whereas it is the complete opposite for men and that they get praised for it rather than judged. Personally, I really enjoyed this passage due to the fact that I feel women have come a long way. For example, more women are now able to express themselves as well as being able to obtain things they could not have before. Although progress has been made, I feel like until we are able to accept everyone for who they are we can never really accept ourselves.

[preciouslopez]

Part 1 - Post 1

In part one of Gloria Anzaldua’s book, Gloria has a part called “La Prieta” where she has her moment where she talks about her struggles with her identity and how she had to deal with a lot of prejudices all while growing up. She specifically talks about how she encountered colorism, sexism, and heteronormativity. Anzaldua goes on to tell us that she not only had to deal with this outside of her culture but that she also had to deal with these barriers within her social group. Personally, I think that this is something that is really seen in the Latinx community. A lot of remarks are made sometimes intentionally and some unintentionally. For example, Gloria gives examples and uses words to describe her challenges. She would get called “puta” and “jota” for being openly sexual. Gloria would often get remarks on her skin color. All in all, I think Gloria did a great job explaining these barriers in which she and many people face.