Reading Response 2

Gloria Anzaldúa has powerful writing techniques. The way she meshed together personal experience, history and poetry create strong emotions and an intriguing work. It was especially cool how she used both Spanish and English throughout her work. As a Spanish minor, I was able to understand most of it, and it deepened her argument. In talking about the border, she was able to display the immense separation by using the two languages. It demonstrates the lack of understanding between the sides of the border, although in reality it is much more than languages separating the two. The use of two languages helps the reader to identify with the merging of the two countries. She describes, “Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them.” Her writing style contributed to helping the reader grasp the separation imposed due to a border line, without any inherent significance. Not only did she use bilingualism as a literary device, but she also combined appeals to emotion and historical facts. By talking about the little boy being carried away, but also giving the details of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, she gives a comprehensive understanding to the reader. Her technique gives the reader a powerful image of the place she is describing.