How does Gloria Anzaldua define her identity? Of what value do you think it is?
Gloria Anzaldua was born in the south-west Texas which is the physical and cultural borderland between the United States and Mexico. She grew up between two different cultures, first one was Mexican with an Indian influence and the second one was the Anglo American. She defines herself as lesbian, feminist, and Chicana. She also defines herself as representative of new mestiza, which have both Native American and Spanish’s heritage. She has mentioned that Native Americans have almost lost their culture because Americans were dominant and were trying to abolish their culture. Native Americans had faced a lot of challenges of Spanish empire approximately 250 years ago. As a result of this domination many…show more content… For the first time Anzaldua was inspired by a chicano novel “city of white”. When she saw poetry in Tex-Mex, she realized that her traditions and customs really existed in the society that she were living. She narrated that Native Americans have been always suppressed in the society and in the schools. Once in her school when she was pronouncing her name in Spanish and trying to hell her teacher how it is exactly pronounced, her teacher got angry and told her that if she wants to be American she has to speak American, if she don’t like to be American she can go to Mexico the place where she belongs. She believes that language is very important in order to define ones identity. She says ethnic identity is equal with linguistic identity, she says if you want to hurt me talk badly about my language. Moreover, she says, I am my language I will be able to take pride in myself until I can take pride in my language. For the people who are not Spanish but they live in a country where Spanish is the first language and for the people who are not Americans but they live in a country where English is the first