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Taina Morales
Professor Batty
English 102
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
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
Morales 2
found that her work in Queer-Theory is very much reflected in her writing. In the
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
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
about the invisible "borders" that exist between Latinos and non-Latinos men and
(Anzaldua, 1987)
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
Morales 3
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
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,
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
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
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
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
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
Works Cited
Barnard, Ian. "Gloria Anzaldua's queer mestisaje." MELUS, vol. 22, no. 1, 1997, p. 35+.
Biography in Context,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A19654386/BIC1?u=lavc_main&xid=ede5e1
db. Accessed 11 Dec. 2017.
Herek, Gregory M.
Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, Vol 4(2), Jun 2017, 143-
151