BORDERLANDS/LA FRONTERA
The New Mestiza
Named one of the “Best Books of 1987” by Library Journal
Selected by Utne Reader as part of its “Alternative Canon” in 1998
One of Hungry Mind Review’s “Best 100 Books of the 20th Century”
NOW IN ITS 5TH EDITION!
About
In her most widely acclaimed book, Anzaldúa draws on her experiences growing up on the tejas border between the U.S. and Mexico to offer historically-informed, innovative perspectives on identity, geography, language, nationalism, spirituality, and much more. A hybrid text that shifts seamlessly among prose, poetry, memoir, history, social protest, philosophy, and myth, Borderlands’ multiplicity expands previous scholarship on border issues, the Borderlands, ethnic/gender/sexual identities, language, and conventional literary forms. Anzaldúa’s innovative code-switching (transitions, sometimes within a single sentence or paragraph, from standard to working-class English, Chicano Spanish, Tex-Mex, Nahuatl) was groundbreaking and has helped pave the way for its increased acceptance.
First published in 1987, Borderlands/La Frontera has made a lasting impact on many academic fields. It’s been released in five editions and translated into French and Spanish. If you’re interested in Anzaldúa’s complex writing process for this book and would like a peek into the many manuscripts she produced as part of her writing process, be sure to see the Critical Edition.
Anzaldúa’s pulsating weaving of innovative poetry with sparse informative prose brings us deep into the insider/outsider consciousness of the borderlands; that ancient and contemporary, crashing and blending world that divides and unites America.
— Women’s Review of Books
EDITIONS
INTERESTING FACTS
1. Borderlands/La Frontera started out as a slim book of poetry simply titled Borderlands.
2. The drawing used on many of the book’s editions was Anzaldúa’s rendition of Ehecatl, the Aztec Wind God.