Gloria Anzaldita Borderlands La Frontera 25" ANNIVERSARY FOURTH EDITION| The Homeland, Aztlan ————— El otro México 1 otro Mésico que acd bemos construida ‘et espacto a8 lo que ba sido lerrttorio nacional Bite exe esfuerzo de todos murstrox hermanos 1 latinoamericanos que an sabido ‘progressar Los Tigres det Norte! ‘The Aztecas det norte... compote the largest single tbe or mation of Anisinabeg Cladian) found in the United States today... . Some cll themselves Chicanos and see themseves 48 people whose tue homeland i Artin [the US Southwest? ‘Wind tagging a ny sleeve feet sinking into the sand {stand the edge where earth touches ocean where the ewo overap 4 gentle coming together {other times and places violent cash Across the border a Mexico stark slhouete of houses gutted by waves, lif crumbling into the se, ‘silver waves marbied with spume ishing hole under the border fence.‘Miro ef mar atacar ta cerca en Borer Field Prk con sus buchones de agua, san Easter Sunday resurrection ‘ofthe brown blood in my vias go ef Hortdo det mar et respiro del atre, ‘Ay heat surges to the beat ofthe se, In the gray haze of the sun ‘the gulls’ shrl cry of hunger, ‘the tangy see ofthe se sceping into me. [walkthrough the hote fn the fence to the other side Under my fingers fel the gty wire rusted by 139 years ‘ofthe sty Breath of the sea Beneath the ion sky ‘Mesican children kick their soccer all actos, run after it, entering the US 1 press my hand tothe steel curtaia— ‘hailing fence crowned with rolled barbed wire— rippling from the sea where Tana touches San Diego uaroling over mountains sand pins ‘and deserts ‘his “Tora Curtain” turning ito ef vio Grande ‘lowing down tothe fstands ‘ofthe Magic Valley of South Texas 8 mouth emprying into the Galt 1.950 mileiong open wound Avicing a pueblo, x cular, rnning down the length of ay body, ‘staking fence rods in my flesh, Splits me splits me me raja me raja ‘The Homeland Ati / ore Mésico ‘This my home this tia edge of barbie ‘Bat the sin ofthe earth is seamtes, ‘The sea canoe be fenced, ‘et mar does not stop a boners ‘To show the white man what she thought of his acoqance, Yemaya blew that wire fence down, “This land was Mexican once, ‘was Indian always and ie ‘os_wl be agsin Yo s0y um puente tendo ‘del mundo gabacho al del mojado, 4 pasado me extra pa tts 5) fo presente pa ela, ‘Que la Virgen de Guadalupe me culde Ay ay ay $09 mesteana de ext lado ‘The US.Mexican border er una berida abierta where the ‘Third Wold grates guns the fest and bleeds. And before tsa) forms i hemorrhages agin, the ieblood of ¢wo words merging to form a third country—a border euture! Borders ar st up te define the places tat are safe and unsafe, to distinguish ns hoon, them: A border isa dividing ine, a nattow stip long «steep cige|A bordertand isa vague and undetermined pace cteste by ‘he Emotional residue ofan unnatural boundary. It Ins oun tant sate of transition. The prohibited and forbidden are is Inhabitants, Lor atravesados ive hete: the squnteyed the pen, verse, the queer, the troublesome, the mongse, the mato, the halbteed, the half dead; in short, thove who cross ove, pass ves or go through the confines ofthe “aor” Gringos i the US. Southwest consde the inaitats of the Borderlands tee ‘ressors, alens—whether they potsess documents or not ‘Whether they're Chicanos, Indians or Black, Do ot enter, re. passers willbe raped, maimed, strangled, gassed, shot. The only “Teptumate" inhabitants ae those in power, the whites and those26 ‘The Homeland, Ai / ore Meco ‘who align themselves with whites, Tension grips the inhabitants of the Borderlands like a veus. Ambivalence and unrest rede ‘here and death sno stranger In the flelds ta migra. My auat saying, “No corran n't sun_They'l chink you're det ofr laa lathe cont sion, Pero can teeried of being caught. le coulda speak English, Could’ tell hem he was fith generation American, Sim papetes—e dt nox erry his birth certificate to work the feds. La migra took him away while we watched. Se Jollenaron. We ted to smile when be looked back t,o rise his fist. But T saw the shame pushing his head down, 1 saw the terble weight of shame hunch his shoulders ‘They deported him to Guadalajara by plane. The farest ‘ned ever been to Mexico was Reynot, 4 stall border town opposite Hidalgo, Texas, not far tram MeAliea, Pedro walked al the way tothe Valley. Selo lvarom sin un cen 000 al pobre. Se vino andando desde Guadalajara During the orginal peopling ofthe Americas, the ist iat Heats migrated across the Bering traits and walked su scrore the continent. The oldest evidence of humankind ia the Us. ‘he Chicanos ancient Indian ancestos—was found in Tex and his been dated to 33000 8. In the Southwest United States archeologists have found 20,000yearold campsies of the Indians who migrated through, oF permanently occupied, the Southwest, Aztin—land of the herons land of whiteness, the Bdenie place of origin ofthe Aztec, In 1000 B.C, descendants of the orginal Cochise people migrated into what is now Mexico and Central Ameren tnd Decame the direct ancestors of many ofthe Mexican peopl (Me Cochise. calsae-of the Southwex is the parent culture of ME Avice. The UtoAartecan languiges stemmed from the Har same oCthe Cochise people The Aztecs (the Nahuatl Wor Tor ‘eople of Alin) lee the Southwest in 1168 AD. Now let us go. Tineque,rbuegue, Vamonos, ximonos Un pajaro cant ‘The Homeland, Ain / Eco Meso Con sus bo eibus satieron ‘de la “cueva del onigen Jos actecassiguleron al dios “ustelopocht Huitslopocba, the God of War, guided them to the place (at later became Menico City) where an eagle with 3 writhing ‘expeat in ts beak perched on a cactus, The eaple symbolizes the spirits the sun, the father, the serpent symbolize the soul the earth, the mpiher) Together, they symbolize the seugple Between the splntual/eelestal/male and the under worldearivieminine. The symbole sicrifice ofthe serpent 0 the "higher" masculine powers iniestes that the patriarchal ‘order had already vanquished the feminine and matvatchat order 4 pre-Columbian America 4x the beginning ofthe 160 century, the Spaniard ane Hemin Cones invaded Mexico sn, wt he hp owes at the Anecs had subgte. conquered it Beoe the Costes there were tentie mii Indian pete Meco sine Yetdn.Immentely afer the Conquest he den popu, tad been rece oder sven lion By 1630 ay ees ilfntion purebooded Tadansremamned| The meszor who were genctealy equipped to sure smal pox, messes id eps (Od Word scces to whith the nates ea immunity founded s new hy rce td ase Cena a South Ameren’ fn 1327 nas wna aeons, lt a mexican (people of mie Indian and ash Wood). 2 ie that ad never exsted before. Chan, MextnAmerca ae the afpring of thone rt ating ‘Our Spanish, Indian, and meio ancestors explored and seed parts ofthe US Souter cay te ncn com Sty, For every goihangr congue and soul Stonary who cue nr fn Meno, eo twenty Inns to mesos ent along ox porters in otercapactes othe Ina scones return fo te pace of erg an, ‘ie mtng Chicanos original and secondary Ins fo the Sous. Laane and mst fom cnt Mec later, ‘marie with North American Inds, Te ca ner fie betwen Mexican and American Ins and Spt ‘Gone an even pester asteje‘The Homeland, Ati / ovo Mico Hl destierro The Lost Land LEmtonces corre la sangre no abe ol indlo que acer, evan a guitar su terra, la tene que defender fl indio se cae muerto, 1 elajuerine de pe Levintate, Manguilef “Avauco tiene wna pena ‘mas negra que su chamal ‘pa no som Tos espariles Tos que le hacen rar ‘oy som ls propos citenos os que le quitan su pan. ‘Levintate, Patlabuan. Violets Para, Aranco tene una pena"? Inthe 1800s, Anglos migrated legally into Texas, which ‘was then part of Mexico, la greater and greater numbers and radully drove the tears (aative Texans of Mexican descent) from their lands, commiting all manacr of awocites aginst, them. Their illegal invasion forced Meco to Right war to keep Its Texas territory. The Bate ofthe Alamo, ia which the Mexican forces vanguised the whites, Became, forthe whites, the sym bol forthe cowardly and villainous character ofthe Mexicans. Te ‘became Cand sl) symbol that legimized the white imper ist akcover, With the capture of Snes Anna ater in 1836, Texas ‘became a sepublic, Tefanos lost thelr land and, overnight, ‘became the foreigners. Ya ta mitad det terreno les vondié ol taidor Santa Anna, ‘con fo quest ba becbo my rea a nactom americana Qué acaso no se conforman ‘om el oro de las minas? Ustees macy legates yg nosotros en ruinas “trom the Mesican corido, “Det peligro de la Intervencion® » “Tee Homeland, At / Ef oto México 1846, the US. incited Mexico to wat. US. to9ps inva ‘ed and occupied Mexico, forcing her to gve up almost half of her ation, what is now Texas, New Mexico, Asizona, Colorado snd California. Us Meaican War, fos norieamerfcanos pushed the Texas border down 100 miles, from ef rio Nueces te! rio Grande, South ‘Texas ceased to be pur of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas Separted from Mesico, the Native Mexican Texan 0 longer looked toward Mexico 35 home; the Southwest became oUF homeland once more. The border fence that divides the Mexiea ‘Beople was born on February 2, 1848 with the signing of the ‘Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Te ft 100,000 Mexican citzens on this side, annexed by conquest slong With the land. The land ‘established by the treaty ar belonging to Mexicans was soon ‘swindled away from its owners, The treaty was never honored hd restution, to this day, as never been made. “The justice and benevolence of God vel forbid that Texas should gain become’ howling wilderness twod only by savages, or. - benlghted by the ignorance and superstition, the anarchy and rapine of Mexican miscule “The Anglo American race are destined to be forever the proprietors of| {his land of promise and fulflment “These aws wl govern i, their learning wil enighten i thele enterprise will improve “Theleflocks range is boundles pastures, for them it fer lands will eld Iugariane harvests “The wildness of Texas has been redeemed by Anglo-American blood & enterprise “Swill # Wharton” sized complete political power, stipping Indians and Mexicans ‘Of thelr land while thet fet were sll rooted in i. Gon eater el exit futmos desuados, destroncade, destipar ‘The Gringo, locked into the fiction of white escxo ‘Te Homeland, ri / oro Meo ddos—we were jerked ot by the 108s, truncated, disemboweled, ‘Gtpossessed. and sepated from our Hdeny 2nd our history. ‘Many, under the thea of Anglo teerorism,abundoned homes and Tanches and went to Mexico, Some stayed and protested. But as the courts, law enforcement officals, and government officials fot only ignored thei pless but penalized them for their effors, Tejanos had no other recourse but armed retaliation ‘ater Mexican-American resisters robbed a tin. in ‘owns, Texas on October 18, 1915, Anglo vigilante groups begin lynching Chicanos. Texas Rangers would tke them ito the brush and shoot them. One hundred Chicanos were killed in 2 mater of months, whole fies ached, Seven thousand led feo Mexico, leaving their small ranches and farms, The Anglos, Maid thatthe mesicanos?© would sek independence from the US. brought sa 20,000 army sroops to put an end tothe social protest movement in South Texas. Race hatred had finally fomented inc a all out wat. My grandmother lost alt her cattle, they stole her lan. Drought hi South Texas" my mother tells me. "La terra se ‘puso bien sca’) ls animales comenzaron a morise de se. Mi ‘apd se murié de wn eat attack dejando a mama pregnant Y om ocho buercs, with eight kids and onc om the way. Yo fu ia ‘mayor tonia dies anos, The next year the drought continued y ‘lgumado got hoof and mouth Se cayeron in droves elas pas as ol broshland, panzas blancas ballooning to the skies. El Siguiente a sil no rai. 31 pobre madre viuda perdi wo. thirds of her ganado. A smart gabacbo Lawyer took the bind tray mamd hadn't paid exes. No bablaba inglés, she didn't now how to ask forte to rte the money” My fither's moth ff, Mamma Locha, also lost her terreno. For awhile we got $12.50, {year for the "mineral rights" of six acres of cemetery, al that twas left ofthe ancestral lands. Mama Locta ha asked that we Dury her there beside her husband, Ef cementerio estaba cerca- ido Bot there was a fence around the cemetery, chained und pad- Tocked by the ranch owners ofthe surrounding land. We cou dnt even get into visi the graves, much less bury her there ‘Today, it is sll padlocked. The sign reads: “Keep out “Teespacsers willbe shot” a ‘Te Homeland, tin Foo Ménco Inthe 1930s, after Anglo agribusiness corporations cheated the small Chicano landowners of thei land, the corporations hired gangs of mexicanas to pullout the bros, chaparral and cactus and to ieigate the desert. The land they tiled over had nce belonged to many of them, or had been used communally by them. Later che Anglos brought in huge machines and root plows and had the Mexicans scrape the land clean of tural YeR- ‘tation. In my childhood Iw the end of dryland farming. Lit essed the land cleared, saw the huge pipes connected to undes- tater sources sticking up ta the air AS children, we'd go fishing Insome of those canals when they were fll and fant for snakes in them when they were dry. Inthe 1950s [saw the land, cut up Into thossands of neat rectangles and squares, coastanly being lerigated. In the Oday grovth season, the seeds of any kind of {fut or vegetable had ony to be stuck inthe ground ia order to row More big land corporations came In and bought up the femaining and, ‘To make a living my father became 2 shareeropper. Rio arms incorporated loaned him seed money and living expenses. [Atharves tne ny fther repaid the loan aa forked over 40% of fhe earnings. Sometimes we earned fess than We owed, Dut Always the corportions fared well Some iad major holdings a Negeable (rocking, livestock auctions and cotton fins [Altogether we lived oa thice successive Rio farms; the second twas adjacent tothe King Ranch and iacioded a dry fam; the {hind was chicken farm {remember the white feathers of three ‘thousand Leghora chickens bianketing the land for aces around, My sister, mother and I cleaned, weighed and packaged cass (or years Mterwacds I couldn't stomach the sight of an 88) 1 emember my mother attending some ofthe meetings sponsored by wellaeaning whites from Rio Farms. They lked about good nutrition, health, and held huge barbecues. The only thing sa ‘aged fr ary family from those years are modern techaiques of food canning and 1 foudstained book they printed made up of| ‘ecipes from Rio Farms Mexican women. How proud my moth cr was to have her recipe for enchiladas coloradas i 2 book, EH cruzar del mojado(ilegal Crossing “Abora siya tengo una tumba para Hora” “ee Conchita, upon being reunited with‘Te Homeland, Ain / Horo Maco her unknown mother just before the mother dies. ‘Som lene! Rogue ie, ‘Nosotros os panes™= Laces, Los gringas tad not stopped at the border By the ‘od ofthe nineteenth century, powerful landowners in Mexico, fn partnership with US. colonizing companies, had dispossessed Ilion of Indians of their lands. Currently, Mexico and her ighty millon citizens are almost completely dependent on the US! market. The Mexican government and wealthy growers are fn partnership with such American conglomerates as American Motors, TTA and Du Poot which own factories called Imaguiladoras. Onetourth ofall Mexicans work at maguilado- ras, most are young women. Next to oll, maguiladoras ate Mexico's second greater source of US. dollars Working eight 10 tele hours 4 day to wire in backup lights of US. autos or so. flr miauocule wires in TV sets not the Mexican way. While the fwomen ar ia the magulladoras, dhe children are left on theit town, Many roam the Steet, become part of cholo gangs. The fafusion of the values of the white clture, coupled with the Caplotation by that cate, i changing the Mexican way of i "The devaluation of the peso and Mexico's dependency on the US. have Brought on what the Mexicans call la criss. No hay trabajo Hal ofthe Mexican people are unemployed, Inthe US. aman or woman can make eight mes what they can in Mexico. By March, 1987, 1088 pesos were wort one U.S. dol bar Tremember when Iwas growing up ia Texas how we'd ess the border at Reynora or Progreso to buy sugar or medicines twhen the dlls was worth eight pesos and fity centavos. Latrnasia. For many mesicanos del otro iad, the choice isto say in Menico and starve or move north ad ive. Dicen que tnd mexicano stempre sueria dela conguista en fs brazos de tatro gringas rublas, la conguista del pats poderoso del nore, los Estados Unidos. Bn cada Chicano y mexicano vve el mito dl tesonoteritorial perdido, North Aspesicans cl his return 10 the homeland the sen invasion. ‘A la cueva voluerdn™ Ter Puma en la cancion “Amalia” ‘The Homelnd li / lotro Meco South of the border, called North America's rubbish dump by Cchicsnos, mexicanos congregate in the plazas to tlk about the best way to cross. Smugglers, coyotes, pasadores, engan- ‘chadores approach these people of are sought out by them, “Qué dicen muchachos a schrsela de mojado?” Now among the allen gods with ‘weapons of mage am I" “xaalo protection song, tng when going ino bate! ‘We have a trdtion of migration, 2 tation of long walks. Today we ate witnessing la migracion de los pueblos meri- canoe, the return odyssey (0 the historica/ethologial Aza, This me, the tai s fom south to north, Er retomo tothe promised land fest began with the Indans ‘om the interior of Mexico and the mess that came withthe ‘conguistadores ithe 1500s. lnmigraion coatinved lathe next ‘hrce centres, and, in this century, Ht continued sith the braceros who helped to build our ralloads and who picked ovr ‘ult. Today thousands of Mexicans are crossing the border legal ly and illegally, ten milion people without documents have returned tothe Southwest Taceless, melee invisible, taunted with “Hey cucaracho” (cockroach) Trembling with fear, yet filed with courage, a ‘courage born of desperation. Barefoot and uneducated, Mexicans with Hands URe‘boot sles gather at night by the iver where two worlds merge corating what Reagan calls 2 frontline, 2 watson lie converte at rested a ho calf Bor. > Cer ctor, 5 thied county, closed county ‘Watnou Dene of Bridges, the “mofados” (wetack) oat ‘om inflatable rafts across ef ro Grande, oF Wade or swim across ‘iked,cltching thelr clothes over their heads. Holding onto ‘he gras, they pul themseives along the baaks with a prayer to Ay vigencita morena, mi The Border Patrol hides hebind the local McDonalds on the outskis of Browns, Texas or some other border town. They fet traps around the rivcr beds beneath the brig. Hunters ia ‘enygreen uniforms stalk and tack these economic refugees By the powerful nightvision of electronic sensing devices plantedxu ‘Te Homeland, Aci oro Mésico ‘The Homeland i ore Meo tn the ground or mounted on Boeder Patrol vans. Cornered by fleshlight, asked while thelr arms stretch over their heads, fos Inojals ace handcuffed, locked in Jeeps, and then kicked back ‘sss the border. “One out of every thice Iscaught. Some return to enact thet ‘ite of passage a8 many as three tes 2 day. Some of those who ake across undetected fll prey to Mexican robbers such ax thor in Smupglers Canyon on the American side ofthe border few Tijuana AS refugees in 2 homeland that docs not want them, many find a welcome tand holding out only suffering, pin, and ignoble death “Those wio make it past the checking pots ofthe Border Patol find themselves inthe madst of 150 yeas of raciom it ‘Chicano barrios inthe Southwest and in big northern. cities. {iving ins wo-man'sbonderland, caught between being treated fo eiminals and being able 1o eat, berween resance and ‘portation, the legal fefugees are some ofthe poorest and the nos exploited ot ay peoplein te US. Its lgal for Mexicans {work without green cards. But big farming combines, farm poses aad smogglers who bring them ia make money off the retbacks” labor-—they don't ave to pay federal misimum ‘wages, oF crsure adequite housiag or saitary conditions “Tae Menican woman is especial at rsk. Often the cayore oonagger) doesn feed her for days or let her goto the bath- oom Often he rapes her or sells her into prosition. She can for call on county or state healdh or economic resources because she doesn't kaow English and she fears deportation. ocean employers ae quick to take advantage of her help- [entoes she cart go home, She's sold ber house, her fora tore, borrowed frm Liens fa order to pay the coyote who Ghurgce her four ot five thousand dollars to smuggle her (© Chicago. She may work as a bvedn maid for white, Chicano oF {Btine Rodseholds fora ideas $15 4 week. Or work nthe Ear tment industey, do hotel work Isolated and worried about her ‘my back home, afraid of geting caught and deported, tving with 2s many ms fiteen people ia One room, the mexicana suf [ers serious Heath probleme, Seenferma dels nerfs, de alta resin “ia mofada, a mujer éndocumentada, i doubly threstened in this country, Not only does she have to contend with sexual oteace, but like all women, she Is prey {0a sense of physical helplessness, Asa refugee, she leaves the familar and ste home- round ca venture into unknown and possibly dangerous tern ‘This ser home this hin edge of bash