Morales 1

Taina Morales

Professor Batty

English 102

December 10, 2017

CHICANX-XXX-XX-XXYY-XY-XYY

Poems, like all art, are outlets of expression. Though most of the poetry were

familiar with expresses a romantic meaning, poems written in the style of New

Historicism are meant to express social circumstances that propel their creation. While

other poems take one a more Formalist approach by utilizing the psychical structure, and

space in the lines of a poem to imply a hidden meaning. Poems, as fragile as they seem,

can be used to express more than just words or emotions. Poems can also be used to

express someones identity. From the boy who preferably enjoys theater arts in a group of

jocks; or the gay girl who cant relate to the heteronormative experiences shared amongst

her friends during their adolescent years; or the queer-Chicanx teen struggling to find

their identity between two cultures, poetry can be used to challenge the institutional

barriers of todays world. Though at first glace, one could imply that Gloria Anzaldas

Cihuatlyotl, Woman Alone was written about a rebellious teen, I argue that when

applying both Formalist and New Historicist lenses, this poem was written to voice the

struggles of non binary gender-identification, cultural identification, and heterosexism

that Chicanxs face being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

When applying a New Historic lens, one could argue that nonbinary-gender-

identification in the Chicanx community is one of the social influences that propelled
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Anzalda to write Cihuatlyotl, Woman Alone. When doing research on Anzalda, I

found that her work in Queer-Theory is very much reflected in her writing. In the

biographical article, GLORIA E. ANZALDA published by the World Heritage

Encyclopedia, Gloria Anzalda was a scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist

theory, and queer theory One of her major contributions was her introduction to

United States academic audiences of the term mestizaje, meaning a state of being beyond

binary ("either-or") conception, into academic writing and discussion (World Heritage

Encyclopedia). In Cihuatlyotl, Woman Alone Anzalda can be seen expressing non-

binary ideologies throughout the entire poem. Another important discovery that I found

when doing research to apply a New Historicist lens was that this poem is actually only

one of many poems written in her book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza

written by Anzalda back in 1987. This book is semi-autobiographical, which talks

about the invisible "borders" that exist between Latinos and non-Latinos men and

women, heterosexuals and homosexuals, and numerous other opposing groups.

(Anzaldua, 1987)

When applying a Formalist lens to analyze Cihuatlyotl, Woman Alone,

Anzalda successfully used the physical spacing between the words of her poem, and the

meaning of those individual words to give inclusiveness to the nonbinary. Anzalda starts

off her poem with father mother church your rage at my desire to be with myself,

alone. (2-3) My interpretations of the words father and mother began to symbolize

more of the binary of man and woman, than that of parental figures. A formalist could

also argue that the actual placement of the father/man before mother/woman itself was

done purposely done to symbolize the patriarchal, or hierarchy or gender within Chicanx
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culture. By Anzalda placing a father before mother, she could be expressing the state of

oppression woman live in having to always take a social ranking behind a man. However,

continuing her sentence in lines two and three, I believe that including my desire to be

with myself, alone (2-3) is Anzalda way being inclusive to nonbinary gender. Meaning

that my desire to be with myself could be interpreted as expressing a nonbinary-gender

identification.

Another example of the how Anzalda voice the struggles of identifying within

binaries is through the literary styles that she uses for her poem. All throughout this poem

Anzalda is constantly switching back and forth from English to Spanish. She uses many

Spanish words, phrases, and figurative language in her native tongue. She repeatedly

uses the world Raza, also always italicized, which means race many times throughout

her poem. However, something I noticed was that Anzalda would place a large space

between the word Raza and the rest of the sentence after every time the word Raza

was used. For example, in lines twenty-seven through twenty-eight, Raza I dont

need to flail against you. Raza india mexicana norteamericana (27-28) From a formalist

lens, I believe that the space between the word Raza and the rest of the line is an

indication of the narrators inability to identify themselves with their own Raza/race.

This is only one of many uses of spaces throughout this poem. Although Anzalda

expresses a detachment from the narrator from their Chicanx roots with the spacing of the

words, the implantation of Spanish words shows an identification made back to their

community. By intertwining words from the English and Spanish language itself,

breaking the cultural binary, and identification with both cultures. In line twenty-eight

when Anzalda describes the person in this poem being of Raza india mexicana
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norteamericana (28) Meaning that this person identifies as all three, Native American,

Mexican, and North American, and challenges these cultural binaries.

When applying a new historic lens, one can argue that the social circumstances,

such as heterosexism from Catholic Church, and Chicanx community back in 1987 when

Anzalda wrote Cihuatlyotl, Woman Alone are heavily expressed throughout this

poem. Heterosexism as defined in Textbook of homosexuality and mental health is an

internalized homophobia/hostility of gay men or lesbians toward their own

homosexualitywhich suggests parallels between antigay sentiment and other forms of

prejudice, such as racism, anti-Semitism, and sexism (pp. 101-113). In this poem

Anzalda voices the influence heterosexism faced by the LGBTQ+ community from

Catholic Church, and Chicanx community. In lines two and three Anzalda mentions

The churchs rage (2-3). This could be explained by the religious homophobia or

heterosexism within the Chicanx community. In her book Borderlands: La Frontera,

Anzaldua writes: there is an intolerance for ambiguity and seeming contradiction.

Related to these two notions is the expectation that families and the Church will be

homophobic and thus shun their LGBT members. In lines six and seven, it reads And

as I grew you hacked away at the pieces of me that were different. (6-7) One

could also argue that of the two lines six and seven were written to voice the shunning

that Anzalda speaks about in her book, from the Catholic Church onto the members of

the LGBT community.

When applying both a Formalist and New Historicist lens, the true meaning of

Anzaldas Cihuatlyotl, Woman Alone are poetically expressed through the use of

figurative, non-binary language. Anzalda does an impeccable job at voicing the suffrage
 Morales 5

that was being had in the Chicanx community in the 1960-1980s, and that still occurs

today. Though the Chicanxs community has evolved both socially and politically since

the time this poem was wrote, there is still much more deconstructing of binaries to be

done. After analyzing Anzaldas Cihuatlyotl, Woman Alone from both a Formalist

and New Historicist lens, I believe that the significance of tis poem was to expose issues

of non binary gender-identification, cultural identification, and heterosexism that

Chicanxs face being part of the LGBTQ+ community. Although this poem was written

over thirty years ago, the same use of fluidity in literature, and non-binary theory can be

used to challenge gender binaries, cultural binaries and heterosexism that still effects the

LGBTQ+ community today.

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Works Cited

Arriaga, Mara Isabel. "Construcciones Discursivas en Los Mrgenes: Resistencia

Chicana en Borderlands/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza De Gloria Anzalda."
["Discursive constructions on the margins: Chicano resistance in Borderlands/La
Frontera: the new mestiza by Gloria Anzalda"]. Anuario De La Facultad De
Ciencias Humanas, vol. 10, no. 2, Dec. 2013, pp. 1-15. EBSCOhost,
[Link]/login?url=[Link]
=a9h&AN=110225623&site=eds-live.

Barnard, Ian. "Gloria Anzaldua's queer mestisaje." MELUS, vol. 22, no. 1, 1997, p. 35+.
Biography in Context,
[Link]
db. Accessed 11 Dec. 2017.

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16

July 2017, [Link]/wiki/Borderlands/La_Frontera:_The_New_Mestiza.
Accessed 22 Sept. 2017.

Herek, Gregory M.
Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, Vol 4(2), Jun 2017, 143-
151

World Heritage Encyclopedia. GLORIA E. ANZALDA. GLORIA E. ANZALDA,

[Link]/articles/gloria_e._anzalda.