Border Identity Politics: The New Mestiza in Borderland

Abstract

This paper investigates Anzaldua's Borderlands, first, for its radical theory of the mestizaconsciousness and how it would establish the border identity for the Chicana/opeople.Anzaldua's Borderlands exemplifies the articulation between the contemporaryawareness that 'all' identity is constructed across difference and argues for the necessity of anew politics of difference to accompany this new sense of self. Borderlands maps a sense ofthe plurality of self, which Anzaldua calls mestiza or border consciousness. Thisconsciousness emerges from a subjectivity structured by multiple determinants—gender,class, sexuality—in competing cultures and racial identities.

Keywords

• Anzaldua
• Border
• Identity
• Politics
• Mestiza