A Reading of Gloria Anzaldúa's The Borlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza

December 12, 2020 Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

On the occasion of the exhibition To Tame a Wild Tongue: Art after Chicanismo, the Museum’s first digital exhibition, MCASD is pleased to present a reading of cultural theorist Gloria Anzaldúa’s seminal text Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987). Organized by exhibition curator Alana Hernandez, this reading of Anzaldúa’s text, features artists, academics, curators, and students from around the country to read the text aloud. Timed on the feast day of the Virgin de Guadalupe on December 12, this special one day only reading will be available to watch on MCASD’s YouTube Channel.

In her groundbreaking text Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza Anzaldúa established the US/Mexico borderlands as a site where a myriad of languages and cultures coexist—boldly giving birth to an identity that Anzaldúa coined as the “new mestiza.” Her pivotal text continues to be revolutionary in underscoring a livelihood and vernacular specific to those who navigate the borderlands. Throughout the text, Anzaldúa points to language as a source of both identity and cultural hybridity, switching between English, Spanish, and Indigenous dialects. In doing so, she highlights and celebrates the identity of the new mestiza.

Participants include: Gabriel Almedia Baroja, Mely Barragán, Ondine Chavoya, Marissa Del Toro, Clarissa Dominguez, Mariana Fernandez, Marco Antonio Flores, Alberto Garcia Rodriguez, Anthony Graham, Raúl Guerrero, Alana Hernandez, Philomena Lopez Rivas, Luisa Martínez, Alessandra Moctezuma, Maurico Muñoz, Omar Pimenta, Christal Pérez, Armando Pulido, Armando Rascon, Katie Ruiz, Cris Scorza, and Itza Vilaboys.