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adelemoltedo's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Both the prose and the poetry are exceptional: Anzaldúa has an impressive talent in managing to catch fleeting experiences, complex identities in such poetic and at the same time informative language that you cannot really stop reading. This work is important as nonfiction, autobiography, memoir, but also for its scholarly relevance in border studies. Masterful.
yikesbmg's review
4.0
Accessible language, incredible use of languages, great poetry at the end. Two of the essays were superb, others were above average.
stevia333k's review
I finally got around to reading some of this book because bookclub, and the topic was autotheory. Apparently, this was one of the first works of autotheory.
I read 2 sections/essays in this book. Basically i learned why this book is problematic.
There was a portion about la raza cósmica that explained a lot of discourse (including a no citations given "the skeptical feminist" (1995) for would-be Scarlet O'Hara-s) & why feminists citing Anzaldúa go off the rails in my experience.
Basically anytime you start by celebrating a more inclusive nazism, shit's going to suck. And sure, it's an attempt to answer how to do ancestor worship when some of your settler ancestors SA'd your indigenous ancestors, but genetics don't put food on the table, promises do. Basically this book was in massive need of skin folk ain't kin folk.
I haven't even gotten into how the settler colonialism still needs to be decolonized from, mexican, canadian, and usamerican (for 3 examples).
I did like the part about talking about the different accents of Spanish & as someone whose first language was gesturing & would've more aligned with ASL instead of English, this "Spanglish" part was always the part that touched my heart. (If i elaborate then I'm journalling.)
I read 2 sections/essays in this book. Basically i learned why this book is problematic.
There was a portion about la raza cósmica that explained a lot of discourse (including a no citations given "the skeptical feminist" (1995) for would-be Scarlet O'Hara-s) & why feminists citing Anzaldúa go off the rails in my experience.
Basically anytime you start by celebrating a more inclusive nazism, shit's going to suck. And sure, it's an attempt to answer how to do ancestor worship when some of your settler ancestors SA'd your indigenous ancestors, but genetics don't put food on the table, promises do. Basically this book was in massive need of skin folk ain't kin folk.
I haven't even gotten into how the settler colonialism still needs to be decolonized from, mexican, canadian, and usamerican (for 3 examples).
I did like the part about talking about the different accents of Spanish & as someone whose first language was gesturing & would've more aligned with ASL instead of English, this "Spanglish" part was always the part that touched my heart. (If i elaborate then I'm journalling.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Colonisation, Genocide, Xenophobia, Racism, and Sexual violence
breadandmushrooms's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
samanthasshelf_'s review against another edition
I was having a really difficult time following, and would love an audiobook version to help with my comprehension. hoping to come back to this!
ralowe's review
5.0
living in the san francisco mission district i realize i want to know more about malinche, holding antinormative spirits close within ambient colonized desire, sifting through a miscellaneous array of semi-viable compromises. if consciousness perceiving the phenomenon is always some kind of compromise, then how do we speak about this particular view from the street in amerikkka? people use this book to be able to turn compromise into a plus, and i really feel that. but i can't go there all the time with anzaldua. and that plus is so abundant, generous, surprising, fulfilling in her writing. i almost want to go, and then i realize i have to learn even more than the little i think i know about malinche.
carlagarcesredd's review
5.0
This book validated so many emotions, thoughts and ideas I had about my identity as a Latina born in The Valley. Anzaldua’s words felt liberating and left a new version of myself in need of being explored.