Gloria A

nzaldua is a.lso the co-editor of

This Bridge Called M

y Back

Gloria Anzaldua

Borderlands fafrontera The New M

estiza

aunt lute books SA

N FR

AN

CISC

O

Copyright ©

1987 by Gloria A

nzaldua

All rights reserved

First Edition 20-19-18-17-16

Aunt

Book C

ompany

p.D. Box 410687

San Francisco, CA 94141

"Holy R

elics" first appeared in Six, 1980.

"Cervicide" first appeared in L,ahyris, A

Feminist AmJournal, Vol. 4,#11,

Winter 1983.

"En el nomhre de tOM

S las m

ad res que han perdido JUS hijoJ en laguerra" first

appeared in IKON: Creativity and Ch.ange,. Second Series,. #4, 1985,.

Cover and Text Design: Pam

ela Wilson D

esign Studio

Cover An: Pam

ela Wilson

Typesetting: Grace H

arwood and Com

p:[ype,. Fon Bragg, CA

Production: Cindy C

leary M

artha Davis

Debra D

eBondt

Rosana Francescato

Am

elia Gonzalez

Printed in the U.S.A

.

Lorraine Grassano

Am

brosia Marvin

Papusa Molina

Sukey Wilder

Kathleen W

ilkinson

Libl9lry 'Congress CatalogiJlilg-ill-Publica.tion D

ata A02:a1dua, G

lllli.a. .

Borderlands : the new m

estiza = La frontera I

Gloria

Anzaldua -

1st eel. -

San Francisco : Aunt. Lute, c1987.

2031', : po,!" : 22 em.

Englis.h .and Spanish, Som

e poems tr:atnslat,ed from

Sp,anisbi. ISB

N 1·819%

0·12·5 !pbk,l' : $9.'95

1. Boroc'r R

egion-Poetry. 2.

Mexfucan-Am

erican w

omen -

Poetry. 3,.

Me::dc:an-Am

erican Horde[ Region -

Civilizatio:JIIJ. I.

Title. U

. Title: Frontera.

PS3551.N95B6 1987

811'.54-dcl9 87·60780

AA

CR

Z M

AR

C

Acknow

ledgements

To you who w

alked with m

e upon my path and w

ho held out a hand w

hen I stumbled;

to YO

ll who brushed past m

e at crossroads never touch m

e again; to you w

hom I never chanced to m

eet but who inhabit

borderlands similar to m

ine; to you for w

hom the borderlands is unknow

n territory;

to Kit Q

uan, for .feeding me and listening to m

e ram and

rave; to Melani,e K

aye/Kam

rowitz, .for believing in

and being ther,e for m

e; to Joan Pinkvoss, m

y editor and publisher, extraor-

dinaire, whose understanding., caring, and batanced m

ixture of gentle prodding and pressure not only helped m

e bring this "baby" to term

, but helped to create it; these images and w

ords are for you.

To the production staff at Spinsters/ A

uot Lute who bore

the pressure of impossible deadlines w

ell: Martha D

avis whose

invaluable and excellent copy-editing has made the m

aterial m

ore readable and cohesive; Debra D

eBondt w

ho worked long

and hard to keep the book Dn schedule; Pam W

ilson and Graoe

Harw

ood.;.

to Frances Doughty, Juanita R

amos, Judith W

aterman,

Irena Klepfisz, R

andy Conner,Jan,et A

alphs, Mirtha N

. Quinta-

nales, Mandy Covey and EIana D

yk,ewom

on for their support and ,encouragem

ent, as well as f,eedback, Dn various pieces;

(0 m

y friends, sw

dents and cDH

eagues in the AD

P program in V

ermont

Col]ege, Wom

en's Voices W

riting Workshop, VCSC, and w

riters w

ho participated in my w

riting workshops in N

YC,. N

ew H

aven, San Francisco, B

erkeley, Oakland, and A

ustin,. Texas, in particu-lar: Pearl O

lson, Pau.la Ross, M

arcy Alancraig, M

aya Valv,erde,

Ariban,. Tirsa Q

uinones, Beth B

rant, Chrystos, Elva pere.z-

Trevino, Victoria R

osales, Christian M

cEwen, R

oz Calvert, N

ina N

ewington, and Linda Sm

uckler;.

to Chela Sandoval, R

osa-Maria

ViU

afane-Sosolak, O

sa H

idalgo de la Riva, Lisa C

arim, Sue Schw

iek, Viviana V

arela, Cindy C

leary, Papusa Molina and R

usty Barcelo;

to Lisa Levin, Shelley Savren,. Lisa Albrecht, M

ary Pollock, Lea A

reUano, C

hristine Weiland, Louise R

ocha, Leon Fishman,

Claude Talley;

to my fam

ily: my m

other, Am

alia; my sister, H

ilda; my

brothers,. Urbano (N

une) and Oscar (C

arito);. my sisters-in-law

, Janie and Sara; m

y niece, Missy, and m

y nephew, U

rbie; Tio Pete

y Tia M

inga;. and especially to the m

emory of m

y father,. Urbano, and m

y grandm

others, Eloisa (Locha) and Ram

ona;

gracias .a todi.tos ustedes.

TH

IS BO

OK

is dedicated a todos m

ex.icanos on both sides of the border. G

.E.A.

Preface

The actual physical bordedand that I'm

dealing wi th in this book is the Texas-U

.S Southwest/M

exican border. The psychological

borderlands, the sexual borderlands and the spiritual borderlands are not particular to the Southw

est. In fact, the Borderlands are

physicaHy present w

herever two or m

ore cultures edge each other, w

here peopIe of differ em races occupy the sam

e territory, w

here under, lower, m

iddle and upper classes touch, where the

space between tw

o individuals shrinks with intim

acy. I am

a border wom

an.. I grew up betw

een I."WO

cultures, the M

exican (with a heavy Indian influence) and the A

nglo (as a m

ember of a colonized people in our ow

n territory). I have been straddling that teja,r-M

exican border, .and others, all my life. h's

not.a comfortable territory to liv,e in,. this place of contradictions.

Hatred, anger and exploitation are the prom

inent features of this landscape.

How

ever, there have be·en compensations for this m

estiza,. and certain joys. Living on borders and in m

argins., keeping intact one's shifting and m

ultiple identity and integrity, is like trying to sw

im ina new

element, an "alien" elem

ent. There is an exhilara-

tiolJi in being a participant in the funherevolution of humankind,

in being "worked" on .. 1 have the sense thatoertain "Iaculdes"-

,not just in me but in every border resident,. colored or non-

colored-l'I;nd dormant areas of consciousness are beingacti-

v.ated, awakened. Strange, huh? A

nd y,es, the "alien" element has

become fam

iliar-never comfortable, not w

ith society's clamor

to uphold the old,. to rejoin the flock, to go with the herd. N

o, nm

comfortable but hom

e. T

his book, then, speaks of my existence. M

y preoccupations w

ith the inner life of the Self, and with the struggle of that Self

amidst adversity and violation; w

ith the confluence of primordial

images; w

ith the unique positionings consciousness takes at these confluent stream

s; and with m

y almost instinctive urge to

comm

unicate, to speak, to write about life on the borders, life in

the shadows.

Books saved m

y sanity,. knowledge opened the locked places

in me and taught m

e first how to survive and then how

to soar. LA m

adre naturaleza succored me, allow

ed me to grow

roots that anchored m

e to the earth .. My love of im

ages-mesquit,e flow

er-

ing,. the wind,. Eheca.tl, w

hispering its secret knowledge, the

fleeting images of the so.ul in fam

asy-and words, m

y passion for the daily struggle to render them

concrete in the world and on

paper, to keeps m

e alive .. T

he switching of "codes" in this book from

English to C

astillian Spanish to the North M

exican dialect to Tex-Mex to a

sprinkling of Nahuatl to a m

ixture of aU of these, reflects my

language, a new language-the language of the B

orderlands. There, at the juncture of cultures, languages cross-poH

inate and are revitalized; they die and are bom

. Pr,esemly this inram

language.,.

this bastard

language,. C

hicano Spanish,

is not

approved by any society. But w

e Chicanos no longer feel that w

e need to. beg entrance, that w

e need always to m

ake the first overture-lQ

translate to Anglos, M

exicans and Latinos, apology bhlrting out of our m

ouths with every step. To.day w

e ask to be m

et halfway. This book is our invitation to. you-from

the new

mestizas.

Borderlands La Frontera

Contients

A TRA

VE

SAN

DO

FR

ON

TER

AS I C

RO

SSING

BO

RD

ERS

1. The H

omeland,. A

zdan I El atro M

exico, page 1 E

l destie1'1'o I The Lost Land

El C

fflzar del mojado I IH

ega] Crossing

2. Movim

ientoJ de rebeldia y laJ cult.u'J':M q.ue traicionan, p.age 15

The Strength of My RebeH

ion C

ultural Tyranny H

alf and Half

Fear of Going H

orne: Hom

ophobia Intim

ate Terrorism: Life in the B

orderlands The W

ounding of the india-Mestiza

3. Entering Into the Serpent, page 25 Ella tiene JU

tona C

oatlalopeuh, She Who H

as Dom

inion Over Serpents

For Waging W

ar Is My C

osmic D

uty Sueno con JerpienteJ The Presences Lafacultad

4. La herencia de Coatlicue I The C

oatlicue State, page 41 E

nfrentamientoJ can el alm

a El secreta terrible y la rajadur.a N

opal de castilla The C

oatlicue State T

he Coatlicue State Is A

Prelude co Crossing

That W

h ich Abides

5. How

to Tame a W

ild Tongue, p.age 53 O

vercoming the Tradition of SH

ence O

ye como ladra: e/ lenguaje de la frontera

Chicano Spanish

Linguistic Terrorism

"Vistas," corridos, y com

Mas: M

y Native Tongue

Si Ie preguntas a mi m

ama, "ique eres?"

6. Tlmi,. Tlapatli: the Path of the R

ed and Black Ink, page 65 Invoking A

rt N

i cuicani: I, the Singer The S'ham

anic State

W firing is a Sensuous A

ct Som

ething To D

o With the D

ark 7.. La concienc;a de III, m

estiza: Towards aN

ew

Notes

Consciousness, page 77

Una lucha de ironteras / A

StruggIe of Borders

A Tolerance for A

mbiguity

La encrucijada I The C

rossroads E

lcamino de III, m

estiza I The M

estiza Way

Que nO' se nos alvide los hom

bres Som

os una gente By Y

our True Faces W

e Will K

now Y

OIl

El dill, de III, C

hicana E

l retarno

UN

A GITA

DO

VIE

NTO

I EH

EC

ATL, T

HE

WIN

D

I. Mas ante.s en los r:anchos

White-w

ing Season, page 1.02 G

ervicide, p.age 1.04 horse, p.age 106 Im

maculate, Inviolate: C

omo Ella, page 108

N apalitos, page 112

n. La perdida JU

S plumas €II viento,. page 116

Cultures, page 12.0

sobr:e piedras can lagar:tijos, page 121 el san.avabitche, page 124 m

ar de repollas, page 13.0 A

Sea of Cabbages, page 132 W

e CaU Them

Greasers, p.age 134

Matr;z sin tum

ba a "€II bartO' de la basura ajen.a"; page 136 H

I. Crossers y otras atravesados

Poets have strange eati ng habits,. pag,e 14.0 Yo no fui, lue Tete, page 142 T

he Cannibal's C

ancion, page 143 En m

i cor:az6n se incuba, page 144 C

orner of 50th St. and Fifth Av., page 145

Com

panera, cuando amabam

os, p.age 146 Interface, page 148

IV. C

ihuatlyotl, Wom

an Alone

Holy Rdics,. page 154

En €II nombre de todas las m

.adres, page 160 Letting G

o, page 164 I H

ad To G

o Dow

n, page 167 Cagada abinna, quiero saber, page 170 that dark shi ning thing, page 171 C

ihua.tlyott, Wom

an Alone, page 173

V. Anim

as La curandera,. page 176 m

ujer cacto, p.age 18.0 C

uyamaca, page 182

My Black Ange.tas, page 184

Creature of D

arkness, p.age 186 Antigua,. m

i diosa, page 188 V

I. EI Retorno

Arriba m

i gente,. page 192 T 0

in the Bon:ledands m

eans you, page 194 .de III, diosa de la noch.e, page 196

Nose raje, chican.ita, page 2.00

Don't G

ive In,. Chicanita, page 2.02

Atravesando fronteras Crossing Borders

1 T

he Hom

eland, .Azdan

El atro M

exico

El afro M,exico que' aea hem

os com.truido

el e.sp.acio es 10 que ha sido territorio n,a,eional. Es.te el esju.erzo de todos n.ue;.tror herm

anos y la#noam

ericanos que han sabido progressar.

-Lo

s Tigr,es del Norte

1

"The A z;.tecasdel norte ... com

pose the largest single tribe or nation of A

nishinabeg (Indians) found in the United States

today ..... Some caU them

selves Chicanos and see them

sdves as people w

hose true homeland is A

zdan[the U.s.. SO

I.lthwest]."2

Wind

at my sleeve

feet sinking into the sand [ stand at the edge w

here eanh touches ocean w

here the two overlap

a gentle coming together

at other times and places a violent dash.

Across the border in M

exico stark silhouett,e of houses gutted by w

aves, diffs crum

bling into the sea,. silver w

aves marbled w

ith spume

gashi.nga hole under the border fence.

2 The H

omeland, A

ztian I HI ot,.,o Mexico

Mira el m

ar atacar la cerca en B

order Field Park con sus buchO

'nes de agua, an East,er Sunday resurrection of the brow

n blood in my veins.

OigG

elllGridG

del mar, el respirG

del aire, m

y heart surges to the beat of the sea. In the gray ha.ze of the sun

the gu[1s' shrill cry of hunger, the tangy sm

eU of the sea seeping into m

e ..

I walk

through the hole in the fence to the other side ..

V nder my fingers I feel the gritty w

ire .rusted by, 139 years

of the salty breath of the sea.

Beneath the iron sky

Mexican children kick their soccer ball across,

run aft,er it, entering the U.S.

I press my hand to the steel curtain-

chainlink fence crowned w

ith roHed barbed w

ire-rippling from

the sea where Tijuana touches San D

iego unrolling over m

ountains and plains and deserts,

this "TortiHa C

urtain" turning into el riG Gr,ande

Haw

ing down to the fladands

of the Magic V

alley of South Texas its m

outh emptying into the G

uH.

1,950 mile-long open w

ound dividing a pueblO

', a culture, running dow

n the length of my body,.

staking fence rods in my flesh,

splits me

splits me

me raja

me raja

3 The H

omeland, A

zdan I HI Ofro M

exicO'

This is my hom

e this thin ,edge of

barbwire ..

But the skin of the earth is seam

less. The sea cannot be fenced,

,el mar does not stop at borders.

To show the w

hite man w

hat she thought of his arroganc,e,

Y;emaya blew

that wire fence dow

n.

This land w

as Mexican once"

was Indian alw

ays and is.

And

will be again.

YO' soy un puente tendido del m

undG gabacho at del m

ojado, to paI'adG

me estir,a pa' 'trlH

y 10' pr:esente pa' 'delan.te ..

Que fa Virgen de G

uadalupe me cuide

A'y ay ay, I'oy mexicana de este lado ..

The V

.S.-Mexican border es una herida abierta w

here the T

hird World grates against the first and bleeds. A

nd be.fore a scab form

s it hemorrhages again, the lifeblood of tw

o worlds m

erging to form

a third country-a border cu]tur,e. Borders are set up to

define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from

them. A

border is a dividing Hne, a narrow

strip alonga. steep edge. A

borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by

the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a con-

stant state of transition. The prohibited and forbidden are its

inhahitants. Los atravesadGs .Iive here: the squint-eyed, the per-

v'erse, the queer, the troublesome, tbe m

ongrel, the mulato, the

half-breed, the half dead; in short,. those who ,cross over, pass

over, argo through the confines of the "normal" G

ringos in the U

.S. Southwest consider the inhabitants o.f the borderlands

transgressors, aliens-whether they possess docum

ents or not,. w

hether they're Chicanos, Indians or Blacks. D

o not enter, tres-passers w

in be raped, maim

ed, strangled, gassed" shot. ")egitim

ate" inhabitants are those in power, the w

hites and those

4 The H

omeland, A

zeJan I Et ot1'O MexicO'

who .• dign them

selves with w

hites. Tension grips the inhabitants of the borderlands like a virus. A

mbivalence and unrest reside

there and death is no stranger ..

In the fields, la migra. M

y aunt saying, "NO' ,cG

rran, don't run. They'll think you're del GtrG laG

." In the confu-sion, Pedro ran, terrified of being caught. H

e couldn't speak English, m

uldn't tell them he w

as fihhgeneration Am

eri-can. Sin papeles-he did not carry his birth certificate w

w

ork in the fields. La migr:a w

ok him a w

ay while w

e w

atched .. Se 10 Ilevaron. He tried to sm

ile when he looked

back at us, to raise his fist. But I saw

the shame pushing his

head down, I saw

the terribIe weight of sham

e hunch his shoulders .. They deported him

to Guadabjara by plane. T

he fU

ifthest he'd ,ever been te Mexico w

as Reynosa., a small

berder tow

n oppesite

Hidalge,

Texas, net far

from

McA

llen. Pedro wa.lked aU the w

ay to the VaH

ey. Se 10' llevaron sin un centavO

' al pobre .. Se vino ,andandG desde

GuadalaJara.

During the original peepH

ng of the Am

ericas, the first inhabitants m

igrated across the Bering Straits and w

alked south across the m

ntinent. The eldest evidence .of hum

ankind in the U

.S.-the C

hicanos' andent Indianancesters-was found in

Texas and has been dated to 35000 B.C. 3 In the Southwest U

nited States archeelogists have found 20,000-year-eld cam

psites of the Indians w

ho migrated through, or perm

anendy .occupied, the Southw

est, Aztliin-Iand of the herons, land of w

hiteness, the Edenic place .of origin of the A

zteca. In W

OO B.C., descendants .of the original Cechise people

migrated into w

hat is now M

exico and Central A

merica and

became thedir,ect ancestors of m

any of the Mexican people. (The

Cechise cultur,e of the Southw

est is the parent culture of the A

ztecs. The U

ta-Aztecan languages stem

med frem

the fanguage of the C

ochise people.)4 The A

ztecs (the Nahuad w

ord for people of A

ztIan) left the Southwest in 1168 A

.D.

Now

let us go. Tihueque, tihueque,

VamG

nOS, vam

Gnos ..

Un piJjaro ,canto.

5 The H

omeland, A

zthln I Ei ot1'O MlJ:xico

Con sus G,cho .tribus salieron

de la "'cu,eva del origen .. " los aztecas siguierG

n at diGS H

uitzilopGchtli.

HuitzilopG

,chtli, the God of W

ar, guided them to the place

(that later became M

exice City) where an eagle w

ith a writhing

serpent in its beak perched on a cactl.ls. The eagle sym

bolizes the spirit (as the sun, the father); the serpent sym

bolizes the seul (as the earth, the m

other). Tog,ether, they symbolize the struggle

between the spiritual! celestial! m

ale and the underwerld! earth!

feminine. T

he symbolic sacrifice of the serpent to the "higher"

masculine pow

ers indicates that the patriarchal .order had already vanquished the fem

inine and matriarchal OJrd,er in pre-

Colum

bian Am

erica.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the Spaniards and

Hernan C

ortes invaded Mexico and, w

ith the he.lp of tribes that the A

ztecs had subjugat,ed, conquered it. Before the C

enquest, there w

ere twenty-five m

illion Indian peeple in Mexico and the

Yu:catan. Im

mediately after the C

onquest, the Indian population had been reduoed te under seven m

illien. By 1650., .only one-and-a-haH

-million pure-M

oeded Indians remained. T

he mestizO

's w

ho were genedcaH

y equi pped to surv ive small pox, m

easles, and typhus (O

ld World diseases to w

hich the natives had no imm

un-ity), founded a new

hybrid race and inherited Central and South

Am

erica. 5 En 1521 n·acfG .una nueva raza, el m

estizo, el mexicanG

(people .of m

ixed Indian and Spanish blood)., a race that had never existed befere .. C

hicanos, Mexican-A

mericans, are the

offspring of those first matings.

Our Spanish, Indian, and m

estizo ancestors explered and settled parts of the U.S. Southw

est as early as the sixteenth century. For every gold-hungry conq.uist.adorand soul-hungry m

issienary who cam

e north from M

exico, ten to twenty Indians

and mestizos w

ent along as porters or in other capadties. 6 For the Indians, this constituted a return te the place .of origin, A

z.tlan, thus making C

hicanes originally and secendarily indi-genous to the Seuthw

est. Indians and mes.tizos from

central M

exico intermarried w

ith North A

merkan Indians. T

he contin-ual interm

arriage between M

exican and Am

erican Indians and Spaniards form

ed an even greater mestizaje.

6 The H

omeland, A

ztian I Elo.tro Mexico

El destierro/The L

ost Land

Entonces corre la sangre no sabeel indio que hacer, Ie van a quitar su tierra .. ta tiene que defender,. €II indio se cae m

.uerto" y el afuerino de p.ie. Levantat.e, M

anquilef.

A ra.uco .tiene .una pen a m

as negra que su ch,amal,

ya no son los e sp,afioles los que les hacen /lorar, hoy .son los propios chilenos los que les quitan su p,an. Levan.tate, Pailahuan.

-V

ioleta Parra, "Arauco tien,e una pena''l

In the 1800s, Anglos m

igrated megally into Texas, w

hich w

as then part of Mexico, i.n greater and greater num

bers and gradually drove the .tejanos (native Texans of M

exican descent) from

their lands,. comm

itting aU manner of atrocities against

them. T

heir illegal invasion forced Mexico to fight a w

ar to keep its Texas territory. T

he Batde of the A

lamo, in w

hich the Mexi-

can forces vanquished the whites, becam

e, .for the whit,es, the

sy mbol for the cow

ardly and villainous charact'er of the Mexicans.

It became (and still is) a sym

bol that legitimized the w

hite im

perialist takeover .. With the capture of Santa A

nna later in 1836, T,exas becam

e a republic. Tej:anos lost their land and, overnight, becam

e the foreigners.

Ya la mit.ad det terreno

les vendi6 el traMor Santa A nn.a,

can 10 que se ha hecho muy r.ica

la naci6n americana ..

c'Que acaso no se conform

an con €II oro de las m

inas? U

stedes m.uy elegantes

y aqulnosotros ,en ruin,as .. ·-from

the Mexican corrido,

"Del peligro de ta In.tervenci6n,J/:3

7 The H

omeland, AztrJan I EI 011'0 M

exico

]n 1846, the U.S .. incited M

exico to war. V

.S. troops invaded and occupied M

exico, for!t"ing her to give up almost haH

of her nation, w

hat is now Texas, N

ew M

exico, Arizona, C

olorado and C

alifornia .. W

ith the victory of the V.S .. forces over the Mexican in the

U.S.-M

ex.icao W

ar,. los

norteamel'icanos pushed

the Texas border dow

n 100 miles, from

eJ rio N ueces to el rio G

rande. South Texas ceased to be part of the M

exican state of Yam

auli-pas. Separated from

Mexico, the N

ative Mexkan-Texan no

longer look,ed toward M

exico as horne; the Southwest becam

e our hom

eland once more.. T

he border fence tJh:at divides the M

exican peop]e was born on February 2, 1848 w

ith the signing of the Tr,eaty of G

uadalupe-Hidalgo .. It left 100,000 M

exican citi-z'ens on this side, annexed by conquest along w

ith the land. The

land established by the tr,eaty as belonging to Mexicans w

as soon sw

indled away from

its owners. T

he treaty was never honored

and restitution, to this day, has never been made.

The justice and benevolence of G

od w

ill forbid that ... Texas should again becom

e a howling w

ilderness trod only by savages, or ..... benighted by the ignoranc,e and superstition, the anarchy and rapine of M

exican misruIe.

The A

nglo-Am

erican race are destined to be forever the proprietors of this land of prom

ise and fuUH

lment.

Their law

s wiU

govern it, their learning w

ill enlight,en it, their enterprise w

ill improve it.

Their flocks range its boundless pastures, for them

its fertile lands will yield ...

luxuriant harvests •.. T

he wilderness of Texas has been redeem

ed by A

nglo-Am

erican blood &. enterprise. -W

ilHam

H. W

harton9

The G

ringo, locked into the fiction of white superiority,

seized complete political pow

er, stripping Indians and Mexicans

of their land while thdr feet w

ere still rooted in it. Con el

desti.erro yel exilo fuim

os d.esufia.dos,. destron.cados, destri·

8 T

he Hom

eland, Aztlan /

Et otro Mexico

pados-we w

ere jerked out by the roots, tcuncar,ed, disembo-

weled, dispossessed, and s,eparated from

our identity and our history. M

any, under the threat of Anglo terrorism

, abandoned hom

es and ranches and went to M

exico. Some stayed and pro-

tested. But as the courts, law

enforcemem

o.fficials, and govern-m

ent officia.ls not only ignored their pleas but penalized them for

their efforts, tejanos had no other recourse but armed retaliadon.

After

Mexican-A

merican

resisters robbed

a train

in B

rownsville, Texas on O

ctober 18, 1915, Anglo vigilante groups

began lynching Chicanos. Texas R

angers would take them

into the brush and shoot them

. One hundr,ed C

hicanos were killed in a

matter of m

onths, whole fam

ilies lynched. Seven thousand fled to M

exico, leaving their small ranches and farm

s .. The A

nglos, afraid that the m

exi,canos10 w

ould seek independence from the

U .8., brought in 20,000 arm

y troops to put an ,end to the sodal protest m

ovement in South Texas .. R

ace hatred had finany fom

emed into an all out w

ar .. l1

My grandm

other lost all her cattle, they stole her land.

"Drought hit South Texas," m

y mother td

h m

e. "La tiefra se puso biense,ca y losanim

ales comenzaron a m

orrirse de se'. Mi

papa se mudD

de .un heart attack dejando a mam

a pregnant y ,con O'cho huercos, w

ith eight kids and one on the way. yO' lui la

mayO

'r, tenia di,ez afios. The next year the drought col1tinued Y el

g,anadO' got hoof and mouth. Se calleron in droves en las pastasy

el brushland, pansas blancas baHooning to the skies .. EI siguiente

ano still no rain. Mi pO

'bre madre viuda perd;6 tw

o-thirds of her ganadO

'. A sm

artgabacho lawyer took the land aw

ay mam

a hadn't paid taxes. NO' hablaba ingles, she didn't know

how to ask for

time to raise the m

oney. " My father's m

other, Marna Locha,. also

lost her tefreno. For awhile w

e got $12.50 a y,ear for the" mineral

rights" of six acres of cemetery, aU that was, left of the anc,estral

landis .. Mam

a Locha had asked that we bury her there beside her

husband. EI cemeterio e.staba cercado. B

ut there was a fence

around the cemetery, chained and padlocked by the ranch ow

ners of the sm

rounding land. We couldn't even get in to visit the

graves, much less bury her there .. Today, it is still padlocked. T

he sign r,eads: "K

eep out. Trespassers will be shot."

9 The H

omeland, A

zrlan I Elot1'O M

exico

In the 1930s, aft,er Anglo agribusiness corporations cheated

the sman C

hicano landowners of their land, the corporations

hired gangs of mexicanos to pullout the brush, chaparral and

cactus and to irrigate the desert. The land they toiledl over had

once belonged to many of them

, or had been used comm

unally by them

. Later the Anglos brought in huge m

achines and root plows

and had the Mexicans scrape the land dean of natural vegetation.

In my childhood I saw

the end of dryland farming. I w

itnessed the land cleared;. saw

the huge pipes connected to underwater sources

sticking up in the air. As children, w

e'd go fishing in some of

those canals when they w

ere fun and hunt for snakes in them

when they w

ere dry. In the 1950s I saw the bnd,. ,cut up into

thousands of neat reaangles and squares, constantly being irri-ga ted. In the 340-day grow

th season, the seeds of any kind of fruit or vegetable had only to be stuck in the ground in order to

grow.

More big landl corporations cam

e in and bought up the remaining

land. To m

ake a living my father becam

e a sharecropper .. Rio

Farms Incorporated loaned him

seed money and living expenses ..

At harvest tim

e,. my father repaid the loan and fork.ed over 40%

of the earnings. Som

etimes w

e eamed less than w

e owed, but

always the corporations fared w

ell. Some had m

ajor holdings in vegetable trucking,. livestock auctions and conongins. A

ho-gether w

e lived on three successive Rio farm

s; the second was

adjl3cent to the King R

anch and induded a dairy farm; the third

was at chicken farm

. I remem

ber the white feathers of three

thousand Leghorn chickens blanketing the landl for acres around. M

y sister, mother andl I cleaned, w

eighed and packaged eggs. (For years afterw

ards I couldn't stomach the sight of an egg.) I

remem

ber my m

other attending some of the m

eetings sponsored by w

en-meaning w

hites from R

io Farms. They talked about good

nutrition, health, and held huge barbeques. The only thing sal-

vaged for my fam

ily horn those years are modern techniques of

food canning and a food-stained book they primed m

adle up of recipes from

Rio Farm

s' Mexican w

omen. H

ow proud m

y m

other was to have her recipe for en,chilada.s cO

'loradas in a book.

EI cruzar del m

O'jadolIllegal C

rossing "A.bO'r:a si Ja t.engo una tum

ba para liorar, " dice CO

'nchita, upon being reunic,ed with

10 T

he Hom

eland, AztIan I Elo.tro hIexi,co

her 1.lI1known mother just before the m

other dies -fro

m Ism

ael Rodriguez' film

, NO

JOtros los pobres

12

La crisis .. Los gringos had not stopped at the border. By the ,end of the nineteenth century, pow

erful landowners in M

exico,. in partnership w

ith U.S. colonizing com

panies, had dispossessed m

iHions of Indians or their lands. C

urrently, Mexko and her

eighty minion citizens are alm

ost completdy dependent on the

V.S. market. T

he Mexican governm

ent and wealthy grow

ers are in partnership w

ith such Am

erican conglomerates as A

merican

Motors,.

IT&T

and D

u Pont

whkh

own

fanories called

maquiladoras. O

ne-fourth of all Mexkans w

ork at maquiladoras;

most are young w

omen. N

ext wail,. m

aquiladoras ar,e Mexico's

second greatest source of u.s.. dollars. Working eight to tw

elve hours a day to w

ire in backup lights of U.S. autos or solder

miniscule w

ires in TV

sets is not the Mexican w

ay. While the

wom

en ar,e in the maquiladoras, the children are left on their

own. M

any roam the street, becom

e part of cholo gangs. The

infusion of the values of the white culture, coupled w

ith the exploitation by that culture, is changing the M

exican way of life.

The devaluation of the peso and M

exico's dependency on the V.S. have brought on w

hat the Mexicans callia crisis. N

o hay trabajo. H

alf of the Mexican people are unem

ployed .. In the U.S .. a

man or w

oman can m

ake eight times w

hat they can in Mexico. By

March, 1987,.1,.088 pesos w

ere worth one U

.S .. dollar. I remem

ber w

hen I was grow

ing up in Texas how w

e'd cross the border at R

eynosa or Progr,eso to buy sugar or medicines w

hen the dollar w

as worth ,eight puos and fifty centavos.

La travesia. For many m

exicanos del otro lado, the choice is to stay in M

exico and starve or move north and live. D

icen que c,ada m

exicano siempre suena de laconquista en los brazos de

cuatro gringas rttbias,. laconquista del pals poderoso del norte, los Est.ados U

nidos. En cada Cbicano y m

exicano vive el mito del

tesoro territorial perdido. North A

mericans call this return to

the homeland the silent invasion.

"A la cuev,a volverlm"

-EI Pum

a en la canc.ion '''Amalia''

II T

he Hom

eland, Azdan I EI otro M

exico

Somh of the border, called N

orth Am

erica's rubbish dump

by Chicanos, m

exicanos congregate in the plazas to talk about the best w

ay to .cross .. Smugglers, coyotes, p,asadores, enganchadores

approach these people OJC ar,e sought out by them. "c'Q

ue diam

muchachos .a ecbarsela de m

oiado?"

"Now

among the alien gods w

ith w

eapons of magic am

t" -N

avajo protection song, sung w

hen going into battle. 13

We have a tradition of m

igration, a tradition of long walks.

Today we are w

itnessing la migraci6n de los pueblos m

exicanos, the return odyssey to the historical! m

ythological Aztlan. T

his tim

e, the traffic is from south to north.

El retorno to the prom

ised land first began with the Indians

from the interior of M

eXICO and the mestizos that eam

e with the

conquistadores in the 150.os. Imm

igration continued in the next three centuries, and, in this eentury, it continued w

ith the brace-ros w

ho helped to build our railroads and who pick,ed our fruit ..

Today thousands of Mexicans are crossi ng the border legally and

illegall y; ten million people w

ithout doeumem

s have returned to the Southw

est. Faceless, nam

eless, invisible, taunted with "H

ey cucaracho" (cockroach). T

rembling w

ith fear, yet filled with courage, a

courage born of desperation. Barefaotand uneducated,. M

exicans w

ith hands ]ike boot soles gather at night by the river where tw

o w

orlds merge creating w

hat Reagan calls a frontline,a w

ar zone. T

he convergence has created a shock CIllture, a border culture, a third country, a dosed cauntry.

Withaut benefit af bridges, the "m

ojados" (wetbacks) float

on inflatable rafts across el rio Grande, or w

ade or swim

across naked, clutching their clothes aver their heads. H

alding onto the grass, they pull them

selves along the banks, with a prayer to

Virgen de Guadalupe an their lips: A

y virgencita morena,. m

i m

adrecita, dame tu bendic.i,6n.

The B

order Patrol hides behind the local McD

analds on the outskirts of B

rownsviU

e, Texas or some other border tow

n. They set traps around the river beds beneath the bridge. 14 H

unters in arm

y-green uniforms stalk and track these econom

ic refugees by the pow

edul nightvision of electronk sensing devices planted in

12 T

he Hom

eland, Azrhln / E

lotro Mb:ico

the ground or mounted on B

order Patrol vans. Cornered by

flashlights, frisked whiIe their arm

s str,etch over their heads" los m

ojado! are handcuffed, locked in jeeps, and then kicked back across the border.

One out of every three is caught. Som

e return to enact their rite of passage as m

any as three times a day. Som

e of those who

make it across undetected fall prey to M

exican robbers such as those in Sm

ugglers' Canyon on the A

merican side of the border

near Tijuana. As refugees in a hom

eland that does not wam

them

, many find a w

ekome hand holding out only suffering,

pain, and ignoble death. Those w

ho make it past the checking poim

s of the Border

Patrol find themselves in the m

idst of 150 years of racism in

Chicano barrios in the Southw

est and in big northern cities .. Living in a no-m

an's-borderland, caught between being treated

as criminab and being able to eat, betw

een resistance and depor-tation, the m

ega.! refugees are some of the poorest and the m

ost exploit,ed of any people in the U

.S. It is illegal for Mexicans to

work w

ithout green cards .. But big farm

ing combines, farm

bosses and sm

ugglers who bring them

in make m

oney off the "w

etbacks'" labor-they don't have to pay federal minim

um

wages, or ensure adequate housing or sanitary conditions.

The M

exican wom

an is especially at risk. Often the coyote

(smuggler) doesn't feed her for days or let her go to the

bathroom. O

ften he rapes her or seUs her im

o prostitution. She cannot call on county or state health or ,econom

ic resources because she doesn't know

English and she fears deportation. A

merican em

ployers are quick to tak,e adva mage of her hel pless-

ness .. She can't go home. She's sold her house, her furniture,

borrowed from

friends in order to pay the coyote who charges

her four or five thousand doUars to sm

uggle her to Chicago .. She

may w

ork as a live-in maid for w

hite, Chicano or Latino house-

haMs for as little as $15 a week.. O

r work in the garm

ent indUlstry,

do hotel work. Isolated and w

orried about her family ba,ck hom

e, afraid of getting caught and deported, living w

ith as many as

fifteen people in one room, the m

ex.icana suffers serious health problem

s .. Se en/erma de .to! nervio!, de alta p'resion. 15

La mojada, la m

ujerindocumentada" is doubly thr,eatened in

this country. Not only does she .have to cam

.end with s,exual

violence, but like all wom

en, she is prey to a sense of physical helplessness. A

s a refugee,. she leaves the familiar and safe

13 T

he Hom

eland, Aztian / EI otro M

exico

homeground to venture into U

lnknown andl possibly dangerous

terrain.

This is her home

this thin edge of barbw

ire.