Imagery In Anzaldua's Dia De Los Muertos Ear

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Food is a recurring motif in Anzaldua’s writing, used to provide a collective sense of identity among Chicanas from different races and cultures. Anzaldua also uses food imagery to provide political commentary on the Mexican border. My contribution to our Dia de los Muertos altar attempts to capture these themes by bringing together foods like rice, corn, and yams, that represent Latino, East Asian, and African cultures, and enveloping them in a tortilla of Chicana feminism. This essay also comments on Anzaldua’s use of food imagery in regards to border theory, and discusses how this is captured by our altar. Anzaldua primarily uses food as a symbol of unity among women, because food preparation and the kitchen tend to be a woman’s domain in several cultures. The kitchen is a venue for women to talk and cooperate on issues in their community, even as they are serving men. In the Chicano movement, women weren’t given prominent roles, and their issues were not represented by the movement. Nevertheless, the women …show more content…
Like the Iron Curtain, Anzaldua’s Tortilla curtain draws an artificial border through an otherwise continuous landmass. This flimsy tortilla supposedly marks a clear separation between American and Mexican culture, but in reality, it is the site for the development of a border culture, which combines both cultures, and blurs political boundaries. Anzaldua comments on how nature has no regard for political boundaries, and implies that culture, like nature, cannot be separated by artificial borders. We capture this idea in our altar by surrounding it with paper flowers, which represent nature, and give the altar an indefinite boundary as they are not held down, and can be freely moved, hence turning the “Borderlands” of our altar into a constantly changing entity that interacts with its