Borderlands: The New Mestiza = La Frontera

Anzaldua is a self-proclaimed borderland beinga Chicana who lives close to the border between Mexico and Texas, who shares several cultures and uses a mixture of languages. With exceptional insight, she creates a mosaic of the marginal person: a person, like herself, who exists in a state of transition, of ambivalence, of conflict; someone who is infused with many cultures yet cannot claim a single one wholly for herself. Her journal is written in earth tones, like an Aztec design, tones that are both engaging and striking. Weaving prose with poetry, Mexican-Indian history with psychology, mythology with philosophy, the author pulls together the frazzled edges of Chicano culture and of her sense of self. Anzaldua is a rebellious and willful talent who recognizes that life on the border""life in the shadows''is vital territory for both literature and civilization. (September)