ABSTRACT
Nepantilism, a concept Gloria Anzaldúa based on the Nahuatl word ‘nepantla,’ involves the art of being in between, that is, in the space created by two often opposing views or conditions, in a sense a transitory positionality that allows for growth. A nepantlera is a stranger who inhabits this liminal space. As such, the stranger is at once of a place and not and experiences the possibility of growth, while at the same time experiences the possibility of an abject or abused position. In Donna Haraway’s view, the chthulucene we are in, a transitory evolutionary space, is “an ongoing temporality that resists figuration and dating” and that speaks to the intertwined destinies of human beings and Gaia, our earth. Bringing these two concepts to the forefront, this chapter explores the intertwining of Anzaldúa and Haraway with the notion of the stranger as presented by Georg Simmel. Moreover, in the analysis of Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties, by Felicia Luna Lemus, and A Ballad of Love and Glory, by Reyna Grande, I show how the two protagonists, Leticia and Ximena, respectively, are nepantleras and survive by negotiating their positionality as ‘the stranger.’
