Is feminism "radical"? Does this matter to you?
What range of meanings does "radical" have and for whom?
Why does this matter generally, or does it?
What is the history behind this collection of writings?
What are the histories of U.S. feminism and women of color that it includes? What other histories are missing?
How does the idea of "inclusion" matter in this collection? in women's studies? in the activisms assumed here?
How do you find this sort of thing out? Where are feminist histories and inclusions to be found?
How will you and your partner present this material on our presentation days?
WHAT ABOUT SUMMARIZING A WHOLE BOOK YOU HAVEN'T READ YET?
A student just asked:
I was confused on what we do our next summary on. It's not the whole book of Bridge right?
Then what section of we summarizing? and basing our Violated Assumptions on?
Number 1: did you talk to your class buddies about this? That's the first thing to do, even before emailing me.
Then: what does the syllabus say?
Note that we will take more than one class period to discuss a number of these books. You should be able to summarize the whole book on the first day, psyching it out, and reread sections for the other days. We will talk about how to do this more specifically in class.
Did we talk about this in class? Well, we did exercises psyching out a whole book with all the books. We did How to Read exercises in class. Everyone will be doing presentations over time. So you have some ideas about how to learn about a whole book even if you are specifically responsible for just one part.
Now: think it through. Be imaginative. Consider the *spirit* of the assignment. How do you do this?
Well, you need to read more than just the bit assigned for class discussion (hint: this is why this is an assignment). But first do that reading: all the introductions.
Then read the conclusion. Then read the Table of Contents carefully and come up with some ideas about the organization of the whole book. Use How to Read exercises. Find out the history of this book online. Look around online for some info about the editors, the press, the earlier book This Bridge Called My Back.
Back to the book. Sample a range of essays -- yes, just like a music "sample" -- read bits from lots of essays.
Then, summarize everything you've learned from doing this. Use that as the MAP for reading in this book as we go on with it.
Being able to do this will make all your reading for the rest of your life, in virtually every situation, clearer, more focused, broader, able to be put into context, and so on.
Think about what you learn doing this.
See you on Wednesday! Katie
23 comments:
The second section of this bridge we call home edited by Gloria E. Anzaldua and Analouise Keating discuss themes such as race and sexual identity. The section is broken in to thirteen parts numbered thirteen to twenty-five. The parts consist of short stories, poems, and art created by women and men of color. The underlying connection between all works is a desire to find a place in the world where you are not questioned for what you look like, you fit in, and are allowed to be you. In the thirteenth work a woman describes her struggle with continually being asked, “Where do you come from” due to her dark skin. She is of Arab and Cuban decent and finds answering questions tricky because she is never able to satisfy the listener to “what” she is. The fourteenth work again discusses the frustration of being racially labeled. The author finds that labeling “invites assumptions and conclusions” and feels self doubt due to her constant stress of how her race fits and she became ill unable to escape her feelings of powerlessness. The sixteenth work is written by a woman who wishes to be authentic. She is from German and Indian decent and wants to fit in and to be accepted where she was born, Germany. The nineteenth work deals with sexual identity and discusses the trauma that “queer” individuals face leading to high rates of suicide in queer teens. The author suggests we build a community and not to place people in categories of boy, girl, or other. The twentieth work also deals with sexuality but is from the perspective of a transgender individual. The author comments on how while gay is now more represented in the media, transgender does not exist in mass media. We are challenged to seek activism and social justice and to allow people to be who they are. The twenty-first work is a poem written by a woman who is telling you she will do whatever she needs to to survive and protect her children and will not feel guilty for it. The author has a take no prisoner attitude which is very empowering. The twenty-fourth work is a letter written between mother and daughter. The daughter is Vietnamese and grew up in America without her mother. She is searching for answers, clinging to her Vietnamese history and her American identity hoping for her mother’s approval. This section of the book is written by individuals seeking change and equality for all.
This section of the book is very interesting. While reading I felt as if I was having a dialogue with the authors. I found myself asking questions to then later be answered within the same short story or poem. I found that the bigger picture within this section was not what the authors were individually saying but how one was able to link the different subjects that each spoke about to each other. I found the themes of race and sexual identity to be found throughout and an overall desire to be accepted. I found the mood of the work to be very passionate because they were written by individuals expressing change that needs to occur along with frustrations within their daily lives.
Topics to discuss:
1.Why do minorities cling to their cultural identity? Many of the authors stated it was hard growing up being “Mexican, Arab, ect” why don’t they identify themselves as American?
2.Can labeling of race or sexual orientation be used in a positive way or is it only detrimental?
3.What are your thoughts on a 3-yr-old deciding to be transgender? Do you believe a 3-yr-old make this decision?
4.Do you think having a white individual represented in this book would be beneficial?
5.Do you believe that there can be a “disease of powerlessness”?
General Summary of the book:
This book is in the form of an anthology where a variety of feminist writers have come together to share their experiences and thoughts. This Bridge We Call Home offers a new vision of women-of-color consciousness for the 21st century. Identity is a big focus of this book, how people identify and how we use our identities to better ourselves. This book covers issues of many different types of differences and oppressions such as lesbianism, interracial issues, homosexism, maternity, generational issues, racism, etc. This book emphasizes the importance of both collected and collective experiences. “Risking great openness, Bridge authors expose the stereotypes, split open the labels, and challenge the false assumptions of sameness.”
History of the book:
This anthology of writings is almost an addition to a previously groundbreaking anthology This Bridge Called My Back , except this one is put together by Gloria E. Anzaldua and Analouise Keating.
Summary of the preface:
(Un)natural bridges, (Un) safe spaces
This section starts with a description of Natural Bridges and what Bridges represent. Bridges are thresholds to other realities, archetypal, primary symbols of shifting consciousness. The world Nepantla is introduced which means tierra entre medio (earth between means). “ Transformation occurs in this in-between space, an unstable, unpredictable, precarious, always-in-transition space lacking clear boundaries.” With this explanation of how the Bridge is connected with the issues around the everchanging society, the preface continues to explain the goals and purpose for the The Bridge We Call Home. This books invites people to move beyond separate and easy identifications, creating bridges that cross race and other classifications among different groups. The purpose is to point out the differences that separate us from each other so people can understand and embrace each other. It is pointed out that the editors were afraid to include white writers because it may offend the writers of color, but they wanted to include white writers within this anthology to refuse from continuing to walk the colored line. Gloria Anzuldua says that in order for positive change to occur, we must imagine a reality that differs from what already exists and to treat the wounds and mend the rifts we must sometimes reject the injunctions of culture, group, family, and ego.
Summary of intro:
Charting Pathways, Marking Thresholds…A warning, An Introduction
This section is divided into different times, starting from the Summer of 1998 to Summer 2000, describing the process of the putting together of this book. AnaLouise Keating first describes how The Bridge Called My Back has had a very important impact on her life. She was intrigued by this book when she first read it and it made her want to take action in transforming the thoughts of people. She also includes how she came about starting this project. There are many questions she asked herself. She felt like she should make another collection in collaboration with Gloria Anzuldua because so much time has passed and she wanted to re-energize the dialogue. She wanted to take action. Receiving abstracts from writers confirmed her fear that not much change has occurred in the past twenty years. She says part of the Bridge’s power stems from the authors’ ability to transform walls into bridges, into spiraling paths from self to other, from other to self, and she wants the anthology to do more than that. As the process continues her excitement and fears continue. At first it was hard to make a connection of this anthology to the original Bridge. But working with Gloria they both made interconnections of the different pieces submitted.
“ May this book be a threshold, a marker of change, a marker of change, a place of and invitation to transformation.”
Summary of the 77: Forging El Mundo Zurdo: Changing Ourselves, Changing the World
AnaLouise what she learned from reading The Bridge over ten years ago. Commonalities indicate complex points of connection that negotiate among sameness, similarity, and difference. People hide their differences beneath a façade of sameness and erect rigid boundaries between self and other. Rejection doesn’t make these differences go away, instead they grow stronger. There are so many oppressions covered but the biggest oppression is the collective fact that people do not fit, and because of this we are a threat. She refers to Gloria Anzuldua’s concept of El Mundo Zurdo, a visionary place where people from diverse backgrounds with diverse needs and concerns co-exist and work together to bring about revolutionary change. AnaLouise strives to live by Anzuldua’s two-way movement to make a difference, that by changing ourselves, we/I can change the world. She has come up with her own premises that she tries to embody throughout her life. In this essay she has shared her belief that a recognition of our radical interconnectedness offers one way to negotiate the divisions between “us” and “them,” between “self” and “other.”
How to Read:
Biographies:
Gloria Anzuldua- She was Chicana lesbian feminist writer, poet, scholar and activist. She succeeded in getting education despite experiencing many different forms of oppression. She has made big contributions to the actual definition of “feminism” and had contributed to the field of cultural theory/chicana and queer theory. She has helped make visible the literature of women of color in the USA.
AnaLouise Keating- She is a Ph.D Associate Professor, Women’s Studies. (all I could find on her)
Form of text:
The form of this text is an anthology, a collection of writings from different writers.
Things to discuss:
1) how does spirituality connect with this?
2) What do you think about the concept of El Mundo Zurdo? Do you really think that difference functions not to exclude but as a catalyst for community building and change?
Violated Assumptions:
1) I didn’t know how much work it was to put together and anthology
2) I didn’t know difference could be used to our advantage.
3) Experiences of other women have a greater impact on telling a story.
4) Gender and race remain contested issues, but sex is the most charged of all.
Summary: This Bridge We Call Home
Anzaldúa and Keating’s This Bridge We Call Home is a more in depth expansion to their earlier piece This Bridge Called My Back that aimed to take the practice one step further by adopting an International feminist view point of how feminism has affected the lives of women and men around the world. Moreover it attempts to express how the experiences of these men and women are shaping feminist theory today. Keating and Anzaldúa use the idea “the bridge” as something that can both separate us and connect us to one another. It incorporates building upon what we already have and drawing connections to others we may have believed we could not relate. The “bridge is viewed as Keating and Anzaldúa call it a “threshold” or “opening” to spaces both uncomfortable and unfamiliar to us. It draws upon these stories, experiences, and theories to create a universal story that transcends social structure that connects us collectively to one another.
Previous to This Bridge We Call Home, This Bridge Called My Back focused more specifically on feminist theory and experiences of women of color. It primarily excluded men and was able to appeal to an audience outside of academia. A Bridge we call home received a lot more criticism primarily because it steered away from the experiences of women of color and aimed to capture the stories of trans-gendered males and women of other countries.
Insights from the Book
• Insight: Many women of color viewed the previous book as a safe space with in the realms of feminism that they could call home. Anzaldúa and Keating explained “There are no safe spaces. Home can be an unsafe and dangerous because it bears the likelihood of intimacy and thus thinner boundaries” When seeing this statement I thought that it was ironic how something that you view as your space or home can at anytime become uncomfortable and dangerous. The whole idea of the book was to further draw upon experiences that could further shape the ideas of feminism.
•Moreover by drawing upon the experience of for example trans-gendered males could in fact bring a different perspective to how feminism is both viewed and shaped through the experiences of these people.
•Purpose: The book aimed to attract a wider audience that may have felt (fearful ) or reluctant to relate to feminism because they may have felt it was something that excluded them.
Topics to be discussed
•Universal Feminism(s)
•Black, Hispanic, Feminisms
•Trans-gendered perception of feminism
•Five Technologies
oReading power as in radical semiotics
oDeconstruction or coatlicue
oMeta-ideologizing
Summary #2: This bridge we call home by Anzaldue and Keating
This book “This Bridge we call home” is an anthology written by many woman who talk about their identity, sexuality, racism, and experience. IT is the second part of the book “This Bridge called my back”. Anzaldue and Keating were apprehensive as to how this book would reach the expectations of their first book, however the second book was just as successful as to reach those in need. “This Bridge called my back” talked about how feminism has changed lives in different places for men and woman. It also focused more on feminist theory and reached out to woman of color. It excluded experiences of men. However this anthology, “This Bridge we call home” brings out the character and struggles that woman in different countries and includes transgender men. From Arab-Americans, to Jewish woman, to African American woman, these women all identify with their struggles that have made them who they are today. These women and men talk about the experiences they have face within the American culture. Poetic writings are published where they talk about their bodies, parenting, social class, etc. Powerful words fill each page as each race and gender are brought to light in the darkness that they go through.
There’s the Chicano son who wants to be accepted by his mother because of his homosexuality, and a struggle of a German and Indian woman who wants to fit in, and be part of the culture, and many more stories of trials and tribulations that both men and woman go through.
The book is divided into many sections to breakdown different issues such as sexual identity, feminism, lesbianism, social class, gender, etc. Each section reaches out to everyone who has faced oppression. Many of these women share these experiences to identify one another and seek equality. The title includes the word bridge. A bridge is a connection from one place to the other and this book focuses on connecting to one another. A voice is only heard when it is spoken and each of these men and women identify with one another once they hear a voice of another who has been in the same boat.
Anzaldue and Keating did a good job in making connections and building this “bridge” or as they called it an “opening” in this book. It was interesting to see so many diverse experiences all emerge together to identify with one another. This book definitely was able to take experiences that were so far apart, to building a bridge step by step to filling in that gap. Many woman of color, transgender males, lesbians, and those who were oppressed due to their identity confide in this novel and “bridge” their experiences together.
How to Read
About the Authors:
Gloria Anzuldua is a Chicana lesbian feminist. One of her most famous works was Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, in 1987. In her work she talked about her childhood stories growing up as a child of Tejano sharecroppers. She was born in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas on September 26, 1942. She received her B.A. from Pan American University and her M.A. from University of Texas at Austin. She completed her course work for comparative literature at the University of Texas. She has made contributions to the definition of “feminism” and the cultural theory and chicana and queer theory. Being a lesbian, she writes in many of her books the experiences she had to face.
AnaLouise Keating is an associate professor at Texas Womans University teaching womens studies where she teaches introductory undergraduate and graduate courses.
Form of Text:
The book is a collection of many anecdotes, poems, from different writers. The text is written as conversational. Many anecdotes were told in a way as if it was being told to you in person.
Violated Assumptions
• Sexual identity and race are two oppressions that are hard to be accepted in ones culture
• It is only through telling of stories and experiences that a bridge is made.
• Many woman of color confide in each other just by telling their experiences.
• A connection is only made if a voice is heard.
Christine Cunniff
WMST 300
Summary Paper #2
The Chapters from “This Bridge We Call Home” served as a thorough, organized, and well-thought out introduction to the book as a whole. Obviously, the Introduction, Preface, and Forward, written by the main contributors to this follow up on “This Bridge Called My Back”, state the intentions, hopes, and ideology behind their choices as far as format, content, contributors, et cetera. This anthology as a whole works to display lines drawn in feminism that may not be visible to the average person, and celebrates differences while stressing the idea that difference is important and necessary to the global community of women and feminists.
The reader is able to connect to the authors and hear their concerns and experience through all of the readings that had been assigned. This idea of a shared experience and understanding the experience of others is essential to the topics and formatting of the anthology, and serve to promote global ideas in a radical way. In each section of our readings this was addressed by Keating and Anzaldua. In passages 77 and 80, our introduction to the writers continues, as each of their perspectives are deconstructed and addressed. The idea of a spiritual and global network, or bridges, of experience and communication is echoed throughout each author/editor’s passages. Descriptions, explanations, and examples all assist the reader in understanding the basis of the project and its intentions.
“How to Read” Handout
1. Voice: The voices in the passages that we have read are specifically from the editors of the anthology who are also authors of #77 and #80. These voices are especially important to understand the context and meaning of the anthology, as well as to introduce the reader to the authors. Also, each of these women are women of color with established positions within the academic, Women’s Studies related world. This also helps to set up context and intention, as “This Bridge Called My Back” was specifically by and for women of color, though this anthology has opened up the floor.
2. Form: The passages are written as anecdotes based on personal and observed experience, meaning that the reader is relating on a personal level to the writer. It creates a sort of safe space for the reader and writer alike, as the intimacy offered by this form allows for an openness that would not be as present in any given textbook or academic collection.
Topics of Interest
1. the idea of “radical” feminism and how it is practiced
2. how the ignoring of race has marginalized and fractured feminists
3. the use of spirituality and what types of things activism allows
Violated Assumptions
I would assume that this anthology would be in the form of the first edition, meaning women of color only.
I was surprised that male feminist writers were accepted.
Part I
This book is an anthology that serves as a reference point for measuring feminist progress since This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. The two editors who compiled the book included voices from people who identify in many different ways, an extension of the original This Bridge which contained of writings only by women of color. Building upon the original The Bridge’s invitation for women of color to develop “a transformative, coalitional consciousness, this book expands to create a place for many more voices: those of any sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, etc.
This Bridge We Call Home works to insist on the “radical interconnectedness” of being human. It promotes spiritual activism (spirituality that recognizes the many differences among us yet insists on our commonalities and uses these as catalysts for transformation). It urges readers to create bridges, cross borders, and connect with others. In the preface, Gloria Anzaldua asserts that “most of us dwell in nepantla so much of the time it’s become a sort of ‘home’” (pg 1). The editors urge us to create spaces where no one is dwelling in nepantla.
Part II - How to Read
I think the most important thing to note before reading this book is the history behind the original This Bridge book. While I have never read it, I have gathered from other websites and from the preface of this book that it was a strong tool for understanding feminism as it relates differently to women of color than women who are white; it put forward voices of women of color that often went unheard (and still often are unheard) within the feminist community. One of the editors of This Bridge We Call Home mentions that the previous book made her feel like she “was coming home” (pg 7). This is an important feeling to keep in mind as the authors try to expand on the original book to “promote more expansive configurations of identities” (pg 4).
Part III –Topics to Discuss
1. When do we need labels? What are they good for? Can we reconcile identity politics with spiritual activism (pg 18)?
2. If dwelling in a liminal space becomes a sort of home, is that space really liminal (pg 1)? In other words, liminal spaces are areas in which we are between worlds, but when these spaces become our homes, what are we between? Are we between two worlds if we don’t know what lies ahead of us?
3. Is the theoretical writing in this book approachable? Should activism be intertwined so heavily with theory? Should we focus more on personal stories that are approachable to audiences without a background in feminist/queer/identity theories?
4. The authors suggest that we should focus on our radical interconnectedness and frequently refer to “race” (in quotation marks). How do we acknowledge the issue of race while maintaining a view that race is an invented difference? If feminism often avoids the issue of race, how can we acknowledge that race creates a boundary but still hold that race is not a distinct category of humanness?
Violated Assumptions:
1. Gloria Anzaldua suggests that “the politics of exclusion based on traditional categories diminishes our humanness” (pg 2). While I agree with her in principle, I also feel that there is a value in creating safe spaces – an assumption that the authors handle carefully because they know many of their readers are attached to safe spaces based on an identity.
2. I had assumed that activism consisted of protesting, volunteering, and hands-on non-profit work. The authors discuss writing as a form of activism because it rewrites culture.
3. I had assumed that the writings contained in this anthology would be mostly personal, but there is a heavy amount of theoretical material involved. I’m interested to see how approachable the works are.
4. I assumed that writing an anthology was not as difficult as another book format. It hadn’t occurred to me how much work must go into editing pieces and creating an inclusive anthology while trying to keep the book under a certain length of pages.
This Bridge We Call Home
Violated Assumptions
• I am shocked at how ideal the authors are. While interconnectedness and breaking down boundaries is nice and wonderful, how practical is it really? Although the ability to disregard labels and categories would probably virtually eradicate issues like racism, it would involve such a dramatic and radical change of all of society that it is rendered impractical,
• The strong presence of spirituality struck me. It violated an assumption that in today’s women’s studies programs an attempt to be inclusivist that automatically disregard religion. Both Keating and Anazaldua have spiritualist beliefs that they link to helped them understand the interconnectedness between all of us.
• After reading in a review that Anazaldua said that she wanted to keep the stories practical and personal to reach more readers, I was surprised at the hefty theoretical material I encountered. I guess I just have a different perception of theoretical.
• I am shocked at how ideal I am. I want to believe that there aren’t large cultural differences between my piers and I and that overcoming them isn’t a huge obstacle. However, after reading an article like the one by Chandra Ford, I’m reminded how it’s an experience that I just have no knowledge and understanding of – just like what the authors have been saying.
Summary
This Bridge We Call Home is the long awaited sequel to This Bridge Called My Back. Both anthologies serve to give rise to a multiplicity of voices to help the reader get a better understanding of real life radical feminisms. This Bridge We Call Home shifts the focus from the voices of colored women to include women and men, “black” and “white”, and many other categories. “Radical Visions for Transformation” is the subtitle of this work and is particularly poignant because it sets up the entire agenda of the anthology. Anazaldua and Keating are once again trying to revolutionize how we conceptualize relations with each other.
How To Read Handout Insights
• Historicize: We are at a unique moment in history. Many voices have emerged from a vast range of experiences but we have yet to rectify how we can unite all of them. This anthology serves to take us part of the way their. By pushing the agenda of interconnectedness, we can see
• Reading Reviews: This Bridge is most conversationalist and less adademic than its predecessor. In her "Letter to 3rd World Women Writers," Anzaldúa urged her readers: "There is no need for words to fester in our mouths… They wither in ivory towers and in college classrooms. Throw away abstraction and the academic learning, the rules, the map and compass. Feel your way without blinders. To touch more people, the personal realities and the social must be evoked--not through rhetoric but through blood and pus and sweat." However, this anthology still speaks to a very educated and academic crowd.
Discussion Questions
• How are such well-respected and involved social justice activists be so idealistic?
• Relate to “Unpacking the Invisible Backpack” – what sorts of unacknowledged benefits do we have in the lives we live? How does this affect our interaction with This Bridge We Call Home?
This Bridge We Call Home
Violated Assumptions
• I am shocked at how ideal the authors are. While interconnectedness and breaking down boundaries is nice and wonderful, how practical is it really? Although the ability to disregard labels and categories would probably virtually eradicate issues like racism, it would involve such a dramatic and radical change of all of society that it is rendered impractical,
• The strong presence of spirituality struck me. It violated an assumption that in today’s women’s studies programs an attempt to be inclusivist that automatically disregard religion. Both Keating and Anazaldua have spiritualist beliefs that they link to helped them understand the interconnectedness between all of us.
• After reading in a review that Anazaldua said that she wanted to keep the stories practical and personal to reach more readers, I was surprised at the hefty theoretical material I encountered. I guess I just have a different perception of theoretical.
• I am shocked at how ideal I am. I want to believe that there aren’t large cultural differences between my piers and I and that overcoming them isn’t a huge obstacle. However, after reading an article like the one by Chandra Ford, I’m reminded how it’s an experience that I just have no knowledge and understanding of – just like what the authors have been saying.
Summary
This Bridge We Call Home is the long awaited sequel to This Bridge Called My Back. Both anthologies serve to give rise to a multiplicity of voices to help the reader get a better understanding of real life radical feminisms. This Bridge We Call Home shifts the focus from the voices of colored women to include women and men, “black” and “white”, and many other categories. “Radical Visions for Transformation” is the subtitle of this work and is particularly poignant because it sets up the entire agenda of the anthology. Anazaldua and Keating are once again trying to revolutionize how we conceptualize relations with each other.
How To Read Handout Insights
• Historicize: We are at a unique moment in history. Many voices have emerged from a vast range of experiences but we have yet to rectify how we can unite all of them. This anthology serves to take us part of the way their. By pushing the agenda of interconnectedness, we can see
• Reading Reviews: This Bridge is most conversationalist and less adademic than its predecessor. In her "Letter to 3rd World Women Writers," Anzaldúa urged her readers: "There is no need for words to fester in our mouths… They wither in ivory towers and in college classrooms. Throw away abstraction and the academic learning, the rules, the map and compass. Feel your way without blinders. To touch more people, the personal realities and the social must be evoked--not through rhetoric but through blood and pus and sweat." However, this anthology still speaks to a very educated and academic crowd.
Discussion Questions
• How are such well-respected and involved social justice activists be so idealistic?
• Relate to “Unpacking the Invisible Backpack” – what sorts of unacknowledged benefits do we have in the lives we live? How does this affect our interaction with This Bridge We Call Home?
I. Summary
Why would anyone call a bridge their home: it’s insecure! Regardless of the initial discomfort, I wanted to be a part of the “we”; therefore, I pushed myself to learn about this bridge and to evaluate this bridge to consider it “my” home. The title of this book is thought-provoking: This Bridge We Call Home. Gloria E. Anzaldua and Analouise Keating created an anthology to continue and to expand the intense dialogue of current issues of feminism that This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color ignited in the 80s. The previous This Bridge has transformed feminism and changed the lives of the contributors of this book. It spoke to different ethnicities, race, religions, class, gender, and “national classification” (3). The preface and introduction’s appraisal of the previous book makes it inevitable to want to read “the original piece”.
In order to claim this bridge as home, one has to live in a “constant state of displacement” because “no bridge last forever” (1). This ever changing bridge enables new connections and alliances to better self and world. This book highlights usuage of differences for coalition and the change of feminist ideas and movements from the “1970s -1980s movement” to post U.S. third world feminists (23). Though I am a feminist of the twenty-first century, I felt behind on the current issues of feminism: globalization, planetary politics, prophetic democracy and its five technologies, and the methodology of love. It feels good to be intimidated; this book motivates me to be active and conscious of this bridge.
The seven sections guide one to settle on the bridge. One can work on their definition of feminism through different lenses. It starts with the inner-self and struggles, then stereotypes and labels enforced on individuals, new identities, shaping the new culture, seeking allies, creating united activism, and visions for the future. Not only did I learn visions of the global feminists, I was able to relate to the contributors. As a Korean-American, immediately, I wanted to know what Jid Lee had to say in “The Cry-Smile Mask: A Korean-American Woman’s System of Resistance”. Lee eloquently relates the Korean traditional Cry-Smile mask to her daily lives of consciousness. She shares her commitment to study people like herself; however, her interests are not limited to people who share her ethnicity. She is emotionally attached to African-American writers (400). She writes about her daily struggles, teacher-student relationships and discussions of love and racism. She says she smiles like the Cry-Smile mask, not because she’s portraying the submissive, “soft Asian female“; she smiles to encourage change in “educated ignorance” of the majority (402). After reading several stories and theories from This Bridge We Call Home, as Analouise Keating recommends, I stopped the chatter inside my head and felt the responsibility to write about feminism and what most links me with life (21).
II. Insights gathered about the book from doing specific “How to Read” exercises
1. Biographize: googled the two main editors
I was sad to learn that Gloria Anzaldua passed away, not long ago, in 2004. It’s also interesting that the University of Texas established The Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa. Analouise Keating is currently an Associate Professor of Women’s Studies; however, I was able to find her most current website. Yet, I found an interesting site of discourse of women issues via emails at http://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/wmsttoc.html
2. Use of pronouns
“For while now, I’ve been rather troubled by how scholars use Christian’s essay to assert that people of color theorize, but in nonacademic ways… I’ve read highly astute theoretical pieces by other self-identified women of color. They know the lingo, they use the terms and theories with grace… but they don’t theorize simply to put themselves forward” (14). I thought Analouise is of African ancestry; therefore, she is not “white”. So, why does she write “they”?
3. Key Terms
+ Bridge: “Bridges are thresholds to other realities, archetypal, primal symbols of shifting consciousness. They are passageways, conduits, and connectors that connote transitioning, crossing borders, and changing perspectives” (1).
+ Nepantla: “Nahuatl word meaning tierra entre medio” (1). http://www.chicanoart.org/nepantla.html the process of developing political, cultural or psychological consciousness as a means of survival.
+ Radical & Multicultural: “Are ‘we’ multicultural - truly, radically-mixed multicultural?” (7).
III. List of topics you would like the class to discuss.
Nepantla
This Bridge Called My Back
Methodology of love
Identity politics
Spiritual activism
Third Worlds Feminists
Planetary politics
Violated Assumptions
1. I assumed that all American feminist writers would translate foreign language they choose to use in their work for their English readers (5).
2. I thought Jewish people are also oppressed. Why does Analouise group them with the men and the “white women” (9)?
3. I assumed that feminists whether they were “white” or colored wrote theoretical work. Why do they have to apologize or justify for using high theory? (12)
4. I thought globalization was a positive concept to integrate world issues with all countries. When did activist fight against globalization? (23)
Summary
In the anthology, “this bridge we call home”, we see the passionate, explicit, and life-changing stories of women and men of all races, sexual orientations, religions, and ethnicities. This book along with its “mother text” of “This Bridge Called My Back” has been very successful in allowing “absent” groups in the feminist movement to have a voice and an opinion when they were overlooked, or simply ignored before. In the preface of this book, one of the editors, Gloria Anzaldua, discusses the meaning of a bridge in these books. The metaphor of a bridge is used to describe the efforts of people involved with social change to reach out, accept, and embrace people who are different from them. It is only when we build bridges with others and thus, connect with other people that we can truly see a radical transformation in society. Anzaldua’s main purpose of this book is for all people to be able to “imagine a reality that differs from what already exists.”
In the introduction by AnaLouise Keating, the reader is given a timeline of events in creating this second anthology. Keating discusses the trials and tribulations that the editors had to go through in creating this book. She also discusses the editors’ idea of having people from many different groups contribute to this book as opposed to the first book that only women of color contributed to. Keating also discusses the meaning of nepantla, which is a point where we’re exiting from the old worldview, but have not yet entered or created a new one to replace it. A common theme throughout the book is whether or not people are able to exit from the patriarchal society in which they have always lived and enter a new society where everyone is seen as equals and treated fairly. Keating calls this the whole challenge of the book as she writes, “may this book challenge you to choose, challenge us to cross over.” In the foreword, Chela Sandoval discusses the meaning of emancipation in terms of social change. She focuses on “emancipating citizen-subjects from institutionalized hatred, domination, subordination: it is a methodology of love.” Whether male or female, black or white, homosexual or heterosexual, rich or poor, I think that all people can truly benefit from this book and the message that it offers to all of us in working towards the “progression of political, social, and spiritual movements for justice, peace, and love.”
One of the main suggestions in the “How to Read” article allowed me to understand this book and it’s background much more fully. This suggestion was the idea that we should always look at the author’s life and how their particular life led to them writing this book. Doing research on Gloria Anzaldua, I realized that by the many identities in which she classified herself, she was oppressed and discriminated against in every aspect of her life. She described herself as a Chicana lesbian feminist writer and poet. Not only did Anzaldua not meet the standards of the white, middle to upper class, heterosexual woman that was the main staple of the feminist movement, she also did not meet the standards of all of society in not being a white, young, middle to upper class, heterosexual male. Her oppression due to her race, sexuality, class, and gender led her to write this book in giving women and men who did not fit the preferred standard to tell their stories and voice their opinions so that others like them could relate. After researching the background of this particular editor, the idea for both the books made complete sense to me as Anzaldua realized that these oppressed groups of the feminist movement needed much more of a voice.
There are several issues raised in this book that I would like to discuss in class. First of all, I want to discuss when women of color, lesbians, or even men started speaking out about being absent or ignored in the feminist movement. How could the feminist movement so blatantly ignore these groups in society when their goal was to fight the oppression of all people? Secondly, the editors both write that they decided to do the second book because they felt that there really had not been enough progress in the struggle for women’s rights over the last 20 years. Do you think that some improvements have been made or do you think we are still fighting the exact same battles as before? Finally, I was unsure of the whole idea of spiritual activism. How exactly does this play into the feminist cause? Do these women prefer this over other denominations and religions? Do they feel that other denominations oppress women? In reading the foreword, introduction, preface, and two of the passages, I am looking forward to reading more of the stories of these incredible women and men who have recognized their oppression and truly tried to act on it. Many of the contributors continually comment that not to sound cliché, but that this book undoubtedly changed their lives in so many ways. I hope that as a white, middle to upper class, heterosexual feminist, after reading through many more of the passages, I can feel that this book has profoundly impacted and changed my life as well.
Violated Assumptions
1. Assumption: I thought that more men were feminist-oriented and would be more open to contributing to this book.
The editors of this anthology had a very hard time getting submissions from men for this book. It is mentioned several times that not only did they not have men contributing, but they also had to worry about how women would handle men’s opinions and stories being included in this book when it’s mother book had only included stories from women of color. I realize that the majority of men would be embarrassed or afraid of scrutiny if they voiced their opinions in favor of feminist issues. However, I was still surprised that more men did not contribute to this book, which has a goal of radically transforming society as a whole.
2. Assumption: I thought that academic writing of theory was practiced by all feminist theories, not just white feminist theorists.
Keating has a theory that women of color do not write academic theory as they are simply not trying to achieve status within the academic system as white women are. Both of our assumptions were violated in Keating finally concluding that we simply altogether cannot make assumptions about who does theory and who does not do theory. She calls it another “false division” to assume that one group does or does not do academic feminist theory.
3. Assumption: I have always assumed that feminists were in favor of using labels or titles in order to identify ourselves and in order to be proud of the identities that make each of us unique.
Keating feels that using labels causes us to “build walls and isolate ourselves from those we’ve labeled different.” She feels that using labels causes us to have the mentality of labeling “them” and “us.” Using labels can prevent us from seeing that we are all interconnected and embracing the ideal that we are all interconnected. Therefore, we should refrain from using labels to define and thus, divide ourselves.
4. Assumption: Thinking that feminists were inclusive of all groups in society, I never realized how many groups feminists left out or simply ignored in their struggle for women’s rights.
This book seems to be rooted in the experiences of feminists who have basically been ignored in the white, middle class women’s feminist movement. Audre Lorde recognized this when she wrote about the “absence of significant input from poor women, black and third-world women, and lesbians.” This is a major reason these books have been so successful in these “absent women” being able to relate to the stories of other women who have been absent in the feminist movement as well. The feminist movement is based on helping people who face all types of oppression. It is good that it has been pointed out in this book that the feminist movement itself was actually ignoring and oppressing some of the biggest components in the movement.
This Bridge We Call Home
By: Gloria E. Anzaldua and Analouise Keating
This Bridge We Call Home is a compilation of stories that are central to feminist learning. Analouise Keating with the help of Gloria Anzaldua have intended to continue the legacy of the well known feminist book called, This Bridge Called my Back written in 1980 in which it became a pivotal key in unleashing many themes of concern to women of color that had not been explored from various perspectives and of profound concerns through not only a gender lens but race, class and sexuality.
The authors have drawn together even more tales of experiences felt by many women of color and now even men.
These stories are supposed to bridge the differences between people through empirical knowledge, feminist curiosity and solidarity but the Goal of Anzaldua and Keating is to “examine the current status of multicultural feminist theorizing and to reinvigorate Bridge’s call for new forms of community, identity and activism.”
The existence of This Bridge We call Home, exists from “the complete dissatisfaction of the state of feminist movement,” according to Keating. What must be learned from this book is how to recapture the spirit of sisterhood through acknowledging and accepting our commonalities. This Bridge will fuse and create new alliances among us and bridge us back together into a community of solidarity.
VIOLATED ASSUMTIONS
1)The concerns of women of color are all the same.Latino, African Americans, Asian Americans they have the same issues of concern.
2)Sisterhood is impossible because of all our differences.
3)Discrimination is not as prominent for white ehtnic women as thnic colored women.
4)Everyone that considers themselves different whether it be ethnicity, race, class sex es "Zurdo."
Summary
The table of contents is divided into several sections beginning with, Giving Thanks, Preface, Charting Pathways Marketing Threshold…A Warning, an Introduction, and the Forward, followed by the chapter divisions. There are six chapters and each chapter is broken down further into article. The titles of several articles are in both Spanish and English, and many of the authors have non-European names. Each divided section is introduced by an artwork and quote from women of color. The various summaries online describe the book as including very noteworthy professors, activist, and artist. It seems to be a multicultural feminist voice on issues that have frequently been ignored or unreported. The fact that this book is classified in so many different categories in book stores such as lesbians’ writings, minority women, literary criticism and autobiography, demonstrates how it’s composed of diverse subject matter. Also, at 608 pages the length seems appropriate for the amount of information that is included.
Part 2&3
About the Editors:
• Gloria E. Anzaldua was one of the first to publish an entire anthology of writings by U.S. women of color in 1981. After her death the National Women Studies Association, created a scholarship in her honor, which demonstrates how significant of an impact her works had in the field. Every article I found during my research was positive response to her work, which seems a little to harmonized for women studies.
• Analouise Keating was a contributing editor the updated version of the 1981 anthology. It was very difficult to find any information about her unrelated to this novel or Gloria Anzaldua.
About the Publisher:
• Routeledge Publishing is actually based out of London and is a global power house. I assumed that a book on this subject matter and articles written by mostly American women would have a smaller publishing company that was based out of America.
Violated Assumptions:
• I assumed from the titles of the article that this was going to be similar to a self help book prior to actually researching.
• I also assumed that I would not read anything I haven’t before, but several of the passages on Google scholar, actually seemed to be from an innovative perspective.
Topic to Discuss:
• What other people who actually were able to read the introduction and conclusion have to say about the book.
SUMMARY ASSIGNMENT FOR
“THIS BRIDGE WE CALL HOME”
SUMMARY:
“This Bridge We Call Home” is not a sequel to “This Bridge Called My Back,” but rather part of an anthology. The editors encourage us to view the book as a “sister book” to the original. While “This Bridge Called My Back” is a compilation of writings solely contributed by women of color, “This Bridge Called My Back” incorporates other underrepresented voices as well. Both books attempt to break down the barriers created by labels and simple identifications, but “This Bridge We Call Home” expands the dialogue. In this book, men, white women, Arabs, LGBT and others are included in the dialogue.
The book focuses on four major areas, though is ultimately divided into seven sections. The four areas consist of the first book’s influence, the current state of issues presented in the first book, new issues that have arisen since, and ideas for change. Ultimately, eighty-seven contributions were chosen and categorized into one of seven sections, namely “exploring the impact,” “resisting the labels,” “omissions, revisions, new issues,” “surviving the battles,” “shaping our worlds,” “seeking allies in academia,” “forging common ground,” and “enacting the visions.” The book is not just a collection of organized personal essays, but also includes relevant poetry and artwork.
The second section “resisting the labels” is a collection of writings, which specifically address the boxes many minorities feel forced into, and their struggles to create multifaceted identities for themselves. The first contribution in the section, “Los Intersticios: Recasting Moving Selves” recounts the numerous occasions on which the author, born of a Cuban mother and Iraqi father, faced people’s various attempts to pigeon-hole her as a Muslim, Arab, or Latina. A subsequent contribution, “Living Fearlessly With and Within Differences,” describes a woman’s struggle to reconcile her Indian identity with western feminist ideas that a woman can either be strong and independent or part of a family, but not both. The section concludes with a contribution entitled “In the End We Are All Chicanas,” which is a collage of stories about exile based on identity. Ultimately, the section works to convey the many different forms that identity issues take on, from LGBT stereotypes to assumptions about Muslim traditions, and even the restrictions created by Western Feminism.
The title of the book does well in capturing its own essence. “This Bridge We Call Home” is a title meant to reference our current state of progress, specifically one of transition. The book looks back at where we have come from, looks forward to where we have to go, and in the meantime recognizes that we have made this middle-ground our “home.” In other words, the book does not try to deny progress or claim completion in the quest to break barriers and create transient identities. Rather, the book is comfortable with depicting the current state of things, as voiced by many diverse people.
HOW TO READ EXERSICES:
Biography- Gloria Anzaldua was born on September 26, 1942 in South Texas. She was raised in a traditional Chicano home. She describes the gender roles she was taught growing up as confining, but responsible for her quest to find a “different way of being.” Anzaldua identifies herself as a woman, Chicana, mestiza, and a lesbian. Her work has been primarily concerned with the ideas of hybridity, flexibility, and plurality in identity. She has written fiction, poetry, memoirs, and culture criticisms. She has won many awards for her work, but above all she is most famous for her co-editing of the revolutionary book “This Bridge Called My Back.”
Form- The book is a collection of various works, including poetry, art, personal essays, and critiques relevant to minority identity issues. The works have ultimately been categorized into seven sections according to theme, genre, length, and metaphor. Thus, while the book does not present a formal linear story, collaboratively the stories present very clear messages about the past, present, and future state of these identity issues.
Voice- The issue of voice in this book is a complicated one. While the book includes eighty-seven diverse voices, it was ultimately edited by two distinct voices. In her preface, editor Analousie Keating discusses this issue, expressing concern that she and Gloria were imposing on the contributors their “visions and standards as readers and writers.” Thus, the best way to define the book’s voice is as an interdependent relationship between the editor’s and the contributors’ voices. While the editors use the contributions to express a larger, overarching voice, their decisions are guided by the numerous and diverse voices of the contributors.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION:
• What do you think about the fact that
the book excludes all forms of
dominant voices?
• Is there racism in the decision to only
include voices of colored women in “This Bridge We Call Our Backs?”
• Do progressive movements enforce
their own restrictive ideas of identity?
• While we might resent others
stereotyping us, do we find some
comfort in these simple
identifications?
• What are some ways we can actively
fight labels?
TOPICS OF DISCUSSION FOR THIS BRIDGE:
1) I’m interested in discussing various issues that are common and not common to women and men of color.
2) There are so many misconceptions about people of color that I would like to discuss all of them in detail.
3) Multiculturalism is great but does it mean that discrimination lessens because there is more of it?
4) Get to know more feminist of colors and their theories?
Summary: This Bridge We Call Home
This Bridge We Call Home is an anthology put together by Gloria E. Anzaldua and Analouise Keating and it is made up of original writings of people of all ages, races, and genders. The book is a response, or more of an “updated” version of This Bridge Called my Back, which was comprised of stories by feminist women of color. Anzaldu and Keating divided the book into seven different sections, grouping similar stories together. The stories address issues that range from classism, racism, heterosexuality, feminism, homophobia, etc. By doing this, the meaning of each story is made clearer.
In the preface, Anzaldua begins by vividly describing different bridges and how they are made and constructed. At fist she describes the cliffs of the Natural Bridges and how they were formed from water beating against stone and wearing it away. One of the three bridges collapsed under pressure, and another was destroyed by a rumbling earthquake. The middle bridge stands alone strong and arching over the waters. These bridges symbolize the people represented throughout the anthology. People’s stories discuss racking under pressure, becoming something beautiful after being beaten and withered away and standing on their own, or outside pressures that force them to crumble before picking their lives up and solidifying their views.
The book includes stories from men and women of all different backgrounds, which is interesting. A main focus off Analouise Keating is the fact that This Bridge Called My Back used differences as a way to bring people together. Many people found This Bridge Called My Back a safe place for women of color to read about each other and express their similarities and lives. This Bridge We Call Home branches out and expresses a point made by Anzaldua that there are no safe places and that we must all learn to accept differences.
How to Read
Gloria E Anzaldua grew up and gained an education in Texas. She has taught as a university professor at a few different colleges and has also written and co-edited some best-seller books. Anazaldua writes in a fashion where she includes English and Spanish together, as to break down individual borders,
Analouise Keating is an associate professor of Women’s Studies and is a self proclaimed nepantlera and spiritual activist.
The editor’s backgrounds play a role in the book in that Anzaldua was an editor of This Bridge Called My Back and Keating related to the book, both being women of color. They both have a focus on taking away boundaries and using difference to bring people together.
Class Discussion
1) What is El Mundo Zurdo?
2) How do differences between people actually bring them together and make them more similar?
3) Does allowing men’s stories and ideas make it irrelevant as a book about women’s sufferings or is it beneficial to have a different point of view?
4) Nepantlera
Violated Assumptions
1) It was difficult to understand some of the writing by Anzaldua. I understand that she is trying to break down boundaries, but her points are overshadowed by the fact that I cannot grasp what she is saying if I cannot read it.
2) I did not realize that there was such a division inside the feminist community to the degree that some feminists do not focus as much on women’s rights as a whole but mainly in the white-middle class society.
3) It is interesting that Anzaldua and Keating discuss the attempt to get rid of labels and how they should not be needed in society, and yet in This Bridge Called My Back the focus is on feminists of color and their stories. Isn’t that labeling by saying that other people cannot be included because they are not of color? It just seems to be hypocritical.
I recently saw the movie "Gods of fathers" at Hornbake and it is about the origins of patriarchy. It is very interesting and I suggest if anyone is curious to how a lot of the systems today came about you go check it out. Its 52min long and on dial access through Sunday on Channel 47.
This Bridge Called Home is a sequel to the original piece entitled, This Bridge Called my Back. To fully understand and appreciate this later work it is important to think about the meaning of the original. This Bridge gave voice to the women whose lives fell outside the realm of traditional feminist politics. “Feminism” was conceived around the struggle and priorities of white, middle- class, American women and as the concept expanded there was a great void in addressing the issues of all women. Both of these books compiled the experiences women of color bring to the argument of feminism with regards to race, gender, class, sexuality, and transnational priorities. The gravity of this piece is generally seen in identity’s relationship with experience and treatment. The identity of each contributor not only allows for a better conceptualization of radical, transnational feminist priorities but also provides for a better analysis of our own identities, priorities and assumptions. Is our feminism radical and should it be? In further reading I believe this book will prove invaluable to a discussion about how our individual priorities intersect with those of various identities as well as sensitize us to the grave needs of all other women. And for the women who are not represented, the experiences of this compilation may provide a segway for us to start thinking about the possibility and conditions of even those women or men we are yet to hear from.
Violated assumptions
1. Labels are Bad. I have approached various topics from this perspective and when it comes to national/racial/cultural identity I believed that there was more merit and power in identifying as a human being versus a geographically confined entity. However I am Caucasian and have yet to experience circumstances in which that is detrimental to my treatment or agency. Possibly since my melanin levels provide for the experience of more visibility, more “validity, ” more “importance” I had yet to conceive that maybe this proclamation of a racial/cultural/national identity is a protest. It is the “I am” because traditional radical, feminist politics had originally alluded that women of color “are not.”
2. I had previously questioned the experience of men, trans-gendered or otherwise, as vital to an inclusive analysis of global feminism and global identity.
3. I had originally imagined the concept of bridging to be stagnant and from this piece it clearly appears to be active, continual and in every different direction.
This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation, compiled and edited by Ana Louise Keating and Gloria Anzaldua, is an anthology of memoirs, poems, and short stories that regard issues of race, gender, sexual identity, and one’s overall self-identification. This anthology strives to reconfigure stereotypes and force readers to re-conceptualize what they previously deemed to be true. Keating and Anzaldua compiled these stories with the purpose of “building bridges;” in other words, to alter what one believes to be true in his or her everyday life, to re-analyze what one thinks to be fact and rather, move from merely theorizing to putting these theories into action. This adaptation of one’s reality is termed “nepantla” by Keating and Anzaldua. This Bridge We Call Home serves as a sequel to This Bridge Called My Back, which originally explored notions of one’s identity. However, This Bridge We Call Home endeavors to further delve into the concept of identity, but more in context of race, sexual identity, and just in general, is taken more from the vantage point of minority women and men. Furthermore, it provided the reader with more stories and biographical anecdotes especially from minority women, all the while not excluding some anecdotes from men. The idea of this compilation is that just as a bridge can both separate or join two points together, so can different viewpoints. I think that in order for us to build a practical and strong future, the metaphor of the bridge is very potent when thinking about melding different opinions and notions together.
How to Read
Gloria Anzaldua was born on September 26th, 1942 in South Texas Rio Grande Valley .
She was a chicana lesbian feminist who dedicated her life to her studies and helping to reconceptualize feminism to relate more to minority women as well.
Was highly dedicated to learning and education; she had received her B.A. degree, M.A. degree, and was working towards her PhD degree at the time of her death.
Won numerous awards for her writings and work in the feminist movement
Her writing/edited works include: This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Women of Color, This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation, Borderlands/La Frontera: the New Mestiza, as well as many childrens books and poetic works
Died on May 15, 2004 from complications with her diabetes
(Information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Anzaldua and http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/anzaldua_gloria.html)
Has B.A., M.A., and PhD degrees
Professor of English and Women’s Studies
Recipient of numerous awards/honors regarding women’s issues/feminist movement
Her writings/edited works include: This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation, Women Reading Women Writing: Self-Invention in Paula Gunn Allen, Teaching Transformation: Transcultural Classroom Dialogues, and Interviews/Entrevistas
Topics to discuss/Violated Assumptions
I felt that in certain aspects, the women’s movement in the West had progressed, but I was surprised to see how little effect it actually had actually done in the everyday lives of minority women.
I thought that I had a pretty good idea of the different types of activism that one could partake in; however, I found that many of the writers in this anthology gave me different perspectives on how women’s issues could be handled in different arenas.
I was mildly surprised at how little I thought the authors/editors provided in terms of a concrete solution/approach to dealing with the issues that minorities (especially women) face and how to achieve gender/racial equality, etc.
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