La gente Chicana tiene tres madres

Anzaldua mediates between the different ways of being through the mestiza consciousness. This is achieved through her proposing the reclaiming of the indigenous spirituality as a counteraction for colonial and patriarchal oppression.

Anzaldua situates her identity in the mestiza border land which is the borderlands of sexuality, spirituality and psychology – where multiple cultures, people of different identities meet and exist together. The mestiza identity is therefore described as an invitation extended to all those who find themselves as border dwellers. This is the chief way Anzaldua utilizes in the decolonization of the idea of being and knowing – the mestiza consciousness as a refusal of being pushed to either sides of the border, being divided into the binaries of ‘pure/impure’, ‘virgin/whore’, ‘indigenous/migrant’, ‘savage/civilised’. Furthermore, the mestiza consciousness is the recognition and affirmation of existing as the border dweller.

One of the ways that Anzaldua reclaims the spirituality of the mestiza is through the affirmation of the power of the female deities. She deconstructs the icons of deities and other icons in various ways. 

Anzaldua’s description of “Our Mothers” – the Guadalupe, La Malinche and La Llorona seeks to reimagine the qualities interpreted and to reclaim the repressed femme power in them of strength, sexuality and power of transformation. Anzaldua’s interpretation of la Virgen de Guadulupe  is what connects her to the Indian roots and describes her as the mediator and creator of unity of different races, religions, cultures and languages. 

Malinche is transformed from the vilified character of being Cortes’ lover, who was a sexual outlaw, the traitor of her own people to a mother who was ‘raped by conquerors’ and is reconfigured as the origin of the Chicana culture.

La Llorona, or the Weeping Woman who is described as a mother trapped between this world and heaven as a punishment for losing her children, who are lost or murdered. 

Anzaldua attempts to anoint her with the symbol of devoted motherhood. By doing this Anzaldua attempts to break apart the dualities that trap women into the roles prescribed by cultures and religions.

Anzaldua writes, “Guadalupe has been used by the Church to mete out institutionalized oppression: to placate the Indians and mexicanos and Chicanos. In part, the true identity of all three has been subverted - Guadalupe to make us docile and enduring, la Malinche to make us ashamed of our Indian side, and La Llorona to make us long-suffering people. This obscuring has encouraged the virgen/puta (whore) dichotomy.”

Anzaldua therefore proposes the unshackling of the understanding of the Chicana tradition and the reconfiguration of the images and ideas that have been interpreted and used to bind the mestiza into a prescribed identity by imposing the way of knowing. This relocation of the mestiza on the borders allows for a new consciousness which facilitates the many ways of knowing and therefore being, making way for a decolonized agency. This idea bears resonance to the acceptance of the many ways of being as proposed in intersectionality.