Redemption, Redefining and Rediscovery at the Borderlands
In the encounters between the colonizer and the colonized, we have seen how the colonizer
engrains the feelings of alienation and otherization within the colonized. Albert Memmi explains
how this treatment instills “a complex of feelings ranging from shame to self-hate”, while
simultaneously prompting an urge to try to imitate the white. Frantz Fanon describes this
phenomenon as becoming a slave of one’s own appearance which causes “shame and
self-contempt. Nausea.”. Gloria Anzaldua teaches us how to respond to this loss of self and
these feelings of rejection. Anzaldua shows the light to a path of redemption, redefining and
rediscovery.
Acknowledging the internalized shame that has been a constant highlight of her life for not conforming to the standards of “normal” posed by the society, Anzaldua transforms it into a source of her power. “Pena .. Shame. Low estimation of self. In childhood we are told that our language is wrong. Repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self. The attacks continue throughout our lives.” Instead of letting this shame silence her, she embraces her hybridity, converges her different ways of being and pledges not to remain silent, but to embrace the “third” way of being, the “mestiza consciousness”. Thus, Anzaldua gives us a necessary and powerful reminder that the colonized is not a passive receptor of the oppressions of colonialism.
The colonized has the power to respond to oppression in a way that can be redemptive and healing, a way towards decolonizing the mind and knowledge. She reminds us that the response to colonization and its oppressive structures cannot be an inverse of the same power structures. The response to singularity is not singularity, but plurality. The response to convergence is not convergence, but divergence. The mestiza consciousness is characterized by myriads of possibilities. It focuses on inclusion and a “tolerance for ambiguity”.
“Rigidity means death. Only by remaining flexible is she able to stretch the psyche horizontally and vertically. La mestiza constantly has to shift out of habitual formations; from convergent thinking, analytical reasoning that tends to use rationality to move toward a single goal (a Western mode), to divergent thinking, characterized by movement away from set patterns and goals and toward a more whole perspective, one that includes rather than excludes”.
This way of decolonizing knowledge can be linked to Audre Lorde’s invocation that the “master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. Lorde reminded us that using the same tools of oppression used by the colonizer to overcome colonization will only lead to a persistence of the same structures of oppression and never allow us to be truly free of colonialism. Similarly, Anzaldua’s approach invokes us to reject the colonizer’s way where they instilled within the colonized the need to be confined to a single way of being, for this will never allow decolonization. Instead, through the mestiza consciousness, Anzaldua seeks us to move away from the “us versus them” binary ways of thinking and towards “new images of identity” characterized by inclusivity. Her use of a multiplicity of languages and dialects in her book, ranging from English to Tex-Mex to Castilian Spanish, and her mix of poetry and prose, is a literal demonstration of her ideas of hybridity and the benefits that come from it.
Acknowledging the internalized shame that has been a constant highlight of her life for not conforming to the standards of “normal” posed by the society, Anzaldua transforms it into a source of her power. “Pena .. Shame. Low estimation of self. In childhood we are told that our language is wrong. Repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self. The attacks continue throughout our lives.” Instead of letting this shame silence her, she embraces her hybridity, converges her different ways of being and pledges not to remain silent, but to embrace the “third” way of being, the “mestiza consciousness”. Thus, Anzaldua gives us a necessary and powerful reminder that the colonized is not a passive receptor of the oppressions of colonialism.
The colonized has the power to respond to oppression in a way that can be redemptive and healing, a way towards decolonizing the mind and knowledge. She reminds us that the response to colonization and its oppressive structures cannot be an inverse of the same power structures. The response to singularity is not singularity, but plurality. The response to convergence is not convergence, but divergence. The mestiza consciousness is characterized by myriads of possibilities. It focuses on inclusion and a “tolerance for ambiguity”.
“Rigidity means death. Only by remaining flexible is she able to stretch the psyche horizontally and vertically. La mestiza constantly has to shift out of habitual formations; from convergent thinking, analytical reasoning that tends to use rationality to move toward a single goal (a Western mode), to divergent thinking, characterized by movement away from set patterns and goals and toward a more whole perspective, one that includes rather than excludes”.
This way of decolonizing knowledge can be linked to Audre Lorde’s invocation that the “master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. Lorde reminded us that using the same tools of oppression used by the colonizer to overcome colonization will only lead to a persistence of the same structures of oppression and never allow us to be truly free of colonialism. Similarly, Anzaldua’s approach invokes us to reject the colonizer’s way where they instilled within the colonized the need to be confined to a single way of being, for this will never allow decolonization. Instead, through the mestiza consciousness, Anzaldua seeks us to move away from the “us versus them” binary ways of thinking and towards “new images of identity” characterized by inclusivity. Her use of a multiplicity of languages and dialects in her book, ranging from English to Tex-Mex to Castilian Spanish, and her mix of poetry and prose, is a literal demonstration of her ideas of hybridity and the benefits that come from it.
Comments