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Gloria E. Anzaldúa Quotes

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa was an American scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. She loosely based her best-known book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, on her life growing up on the Mexico–Texas border and incorporated her lifelong experiences of social and cultural marginalization into her work. She also developed theories about the marginal, in-between, and mixed cultures that develop along borders. Wikipedia  

✵ 26. September 1942 – 15. May 2004
Gloria E. Anzaldúa photo

Works

Speaking in Tongues
Gloria E. Anzaldúa
Gloria E. Anzaldúa: 7 quotes2 likes

Famous Gloria E. Anzaldúa Quotes

“At some point, on our way to a new consciousness, we will have to leave the opposite bank, the split between the two mortal combatants somehow healed so that we are on both shores at once and, at once, see through serpent and eagle eyes. Or perhaps we will decide to disengage from the dominant culture, write it off all together as a lost cause, and cross the border into a wholly new and separate territory. Or we might go another route. The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.”

Gloria E. Anzaldúa

La Conciencia de la Mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness

“A misinformed people is a subjugated people.”

Gloria E. Anzaldúa book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza

Source: Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987), p. 108

“Bridges are thresholds to other realities, archetypal, primal symbols of shifting consciousness. They are passageways, conduits, and connectors that connote transitioning, crossing borders, and changing perspectives. Bridges span liminal (threshold) spaces between worlds, spaces I call nepantla, a Nahuatl word meaning tierra entre medio. Transformations occur in this in-between space, an unstable, unpredictable, precarious, always-in-transition space lacking clear boundaries. Nepantla es tierra desconocida, and living in this liminal zone means being in a constant state of displacement--an uncomfortable, even alarming feeling. Most of us dwell in nepantla so much of the time it’s become a sort of “home.””

Gloria E. Anzaldúa

Though this state links us to other ideas, people, and worlds, we feel threatened by these new connections and the change they engender.
Original: (Un)natural bridges from This bridge we call home

“Why am I compelling to write? Because te writing saves me from this complacency I fear. Because I have no choice. Because I must keep the spirit of my revolt and myself alive. Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appaese my appetites and hunger.”

Gloria E. Anzaldúa

Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers, from This Bridge Called My Back

“The solution to your depression lies en esa cueva oscura [in this dark cave] and a deeper integration of your psyche.”

Gloria E. Anzaldúa

Source: Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality (2015), p. 111

“Write with your eyes like painters, with your ears like musicians, with your feet like dancers. You are the truthsayer with quill and torch. Write with your tongues of fire. Don't let the pen banish you from yourself.”

Gloria E. Anzaldúa Speaking in Tongues

"Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers" (1981)
Source: in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, p. 171

“Many have a way with words. They label themselves seers but they will not see. Many have the gift of tongue but nothing to say. Do not listen to them. Many who have words and tongue have no ear, they cannot listen and they will not hear.”

Gloria E. Anzaldúa Speaking in Tongues

"Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers" (1981)
Source: in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, p. 171

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