Aztlan

From Geography

Aztlan refers to the mythical place of origin of the Aztec people. In Chicano folklore, Aztlan is often appropriated as the name for that portion of Mexico that was taken over by the United States after the Mexican-American War of 1846, on the belief that this greater area represents the point of parting of the Aztec migrations.

Anzaldua's Borderlands

In the book Borderlands/La Frontera (1987), written by post-colonialist Gloria Anzaldua, there is written about Aztlan as the Homeland. She sees the place of the border between the United States and Mexico as a border between the safe and the unsafe. The book materializes the aggressive and inhospitable reality of this border region, and illustrates the pain the border has brought to the people of Aztlan by both dividing their culture and fencing them in. Anzaldua describes the social victims of this 'barbwire fence', who are victim of a particular historical moment which is witnessing the devaluation of the peso and Mexico’s dependency on the U.S. economy (Cruz Garcia, 2012).

References

• Anzaldua, G. (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco, California: Spinsters/Aunt Lute Books

• Cruz Garcia, A. (2012). A Borderland Consciousness: Una conciencia de mujer in Borderlands/La frontera. University College Cork: Forum for Inter-American research

Contributors

Page created by Rens Mennen --RensMennen 12:40, 24 October 2012 (CEST)