On postmodern multicultural America

The subject, previously experienced as having a unified and table identity, is becoming
fragmented: composed not of a single, but several, sometimes contradictory or unresolved,
identities. (Stuart Hall, “The Question of Cultural Identity”, 2005)

The pluralistic America within the US can be found, among other places, in the Indian
reservations and the Chicano barrios of the South-West, the Africa-American areas of
Washington, Chicago or Detroit. This sui generis America is no longer part of the First World.

The culture in which I was born and raised is indeed chaotic, hybrid and exhilarating. For us,
there is no either/or, for us there is both/and, with many levels happening at the same time
(Jessica Hagedorn, interview to The New York Times, 1986)

These new models of identity, which I call hybrids, are what truly interest me; they speak for
the future of this country and the entire continent. Contemporary Chicano, African-American
or Asian-American cultures are dynamic, open systems in constant transformation (Abigail
Solomon-Godeau, Mistaken Identities, 1992)

Border culture is a process of negotiation towards utopia, but in this case utopia means
peaceful coexistence and fruitful co-operation. The border is all we share. (Gómez-Peña, The
Multicultural Paradigm, 1996)

A “border consciousness” implies the knowledge of two sets of reference codes operating
simultaneously. The challenge is to fully assume this biculturality, develop and promote it.
(Gómez-Peña, Made in Aztlán)

A Chicano lives in the space between the hyphen in Mexican-American (Bruce Novoa, 1990)

The new mestiza copes by developing a tolerance for contradictions, a tolerance for ambiguity.
She learns to be Indian in Mexican culture, to be Mexican from an Anglo point of view. She
learns to juggle cultures. Not only does she sustain contradictions, she turns the ambivalence
into something else. (Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera, 1987)

Instead of negatively coded terms such as “assimilation”, we propose terms such as

“mestizaje”, “hybridity” and “border consciousness” as more appropriate for describing the
mutual and reciprocal contact of cultures, one that implies active intervention rather than
passive victimization.(Ibidem)

Deslenguadas. Somos los del español deficiente. We are your linguistic nightmare, your
linguistic aberration, your linguistic mestizaje, the subject of your burla. Because we speak
with tongues of fire we are culturally crucified. Racially, culturally and liguistically somos
huérfanos -we speak an orphan tonge. (Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera)

When they ask me for my nationality or ethnic identity, I cant’ respond with one word, since
my “identity” now possesses multiple repertories: I am Mexican but also Chicano and Latin
American. At the border they call me chilango ; in Mexico City its pocho or norteño ; and in
Europe its sudaca. The anglos call me “Hispanic” or “Latino”, and the Germans have, on more
than one occasion, confused me with Turks or Italians. My wife Emilia is Aglo-Italian, but
speaks Spanish with an Argentine accent, and together we walk amid the Tower of Babel of
our American postmodernity. (Guillermo Gómez-Peña, interview)

In the Borderlands...
You are at home, a stranger
(Gloria Anzaldúa)

So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. I am my language. Until I can
take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself. Until I can accept as legitimate
Chicano Texas Spanish, Tex-Mex and all the other languages I speak, I cannot accept the
legitimacy of myself (Alzaldúa)

Legal Alien, by Pat Mora

1 Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural,
able to slip from “How’s life?
to “Me’stan volviendo loca”
able to sit in a paneled office
5 drafting memos in smooth English,
able to order in fluent Spanish
at a Mexican restaurant,
American but hyphenated,
viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,
10 perhaps inferior, definitely different
viewed by Mexicans as alien,
(their eyes say, “You may speak
Spanish but you are not like me”)
An American to Mexicans
15 A handy token
sliding back and forth
between the fringes of both worlds
by smiling
by masking the discomfort
20 of being pre-judged
Bi-laterally.