Problem
A. What is the main idea of Anzaldua's essay?
B. To what extent are language and identity connected in her text?
C. Choose a quote to explain that relates to question 2 about language and identity.
D. Anzaldúa's fifth chapter of Borderlands begins with the narrator's visit to the dentist. What does this anecdote convey?
E. The narrator relates a childhood altercation with her Anglo teacher who admonished her for speaking Spanish at recess. Then, the narrator quotes her mother's desire for her children to speak English without an accent, a desire which coincided with the goals of the local schooling systems. How does Anzaldua use language in these passages to prove a point? Why is she mixing Spanish and English in her mother's dialogue and her own prose?
F. Anzaldua's text makes an argument, but it is unconventional. What is her claim?
G. What happens to readers as they encounter her text, which is comprised of shorter sections that include a mix of poems, stories, and multiple languages and dialects. What does she require readers to do in order to discover her argument?
H. How might a reader who does not know Spanish read this text? How might a reader who does not know Spanish respond to this text? How might a reader who is fluent in Spanish read this text? How might a reader who is fluent in Spanish and other borderland vernaculars respond to this text?