ABSTRACT
To live in the Borderlands means you are neither hispana india negra espanola ni gabacha, eres m estiza, mulata, half-breed caught in the crossfire between camps while carrying all five races on your back not knowing which side to turn to, run from;
To live in the Borderlands means knowing that the india in you, betrayed for 500 years, is no longer speaking to you, that mexicanas call you rajetas, that denying the Anglo inside you is as bad as having denied the Indian or Black;
Cuando vives en la frontera people walk through you, the wind steals your voice, you’re a burra , buey, scapegoat, forerunner of a new race, half and half - both woman and man, neither - a new gender;
To live in the Borderlands means to put chile in the borscht, eat whole wheat tortillas, speak Tex-Mex with a Brooklyn accent; be stopped by la migra at the border checkpoints;
