Examples Of Rdquo Contradictions

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Anzaldua writes about the experience of living in a “place of contradictions”. What are some of these contradictions and how do they affect the people of the “borderlands.” Anzaldua states that “borderland” Mexico is “not a comfortable territory to live in…this place of contradictions…hatred, anger and exploitation are the prominent features of this landscape." (Anzaldua). It is apparent that part of these contradictions stem from one culture’s economic dominance over another. She states that “currently Mexico and her eighty million citizens are almost completely dependent on the U.S. market.” The American conglomerates in Mexico pair up with the Mexican government…show more content…
In the U.S. they can make 8 times what they could in Mexico. Anzaldua says that for most “borderland” Mexicans the choice is “to stay in Mexico and starve or move north and live.” Unfortunately, some of these people are faced with a life in the U.S. that could very well be a life worse off than in Mexico. The desperation spawned from economic pressures in Mexico forces some people into terrible situations. Desperate women seek the aid of ferocious smugglers that bring them into the country but at the price of their freewill. These women are free in the sense that they have escaped from Mexico, except that they are at the whim of the “coyote.” Even Mexican’s that cross legally into the Southwest and northern cities (Chicano Barrios) “find themselves in the midst of 150 years of racism.” These people are forced out of their own country and into another to find they are not welcomed. On page 65 Anzaldua talks about how her chicana character tries to “conceal that” she “was not normal, that” she “was not like the others…She has this fear that she has no names that she has many names that she doesn’t know her names” It is interesting to note the contradiction here is that she is looking for an identity but she is scared to have one or that she already has

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